You wouldn't pick Jack and Patrick Pierce as superstars just by looking at them – and that's by their own admission, too.

They've no bells and whistles, no airs about them, no tickets on themselves. If you spotted them backstage at a festival, you might think they were there to set up rather than perform. When the Pierce Brothers are in full flight, however, they're undeniable – making fans out of everyone from Tash Sultana to Kate Ceberano.

They're fresh from a gig with the latter when Patrick gets on the blower with The Music, having both been on the bill for the Mundi Mundi Bash all the way out in the Simpson Desert of Queensland.

“It was our fourth time playing, and it just gets bigger and better every time we're out there,” he says – his grin bursting through the phone line. “The crowds are just fantastic. For whatever reason, Jack and I really fit in out that way.

“We popped into the merch booth to say hi to people after our set, and we must have been there for two-and-a-half hours trying to talk to everyone. Backstage, it was all these great mates and people we've played with over the years, like Kate and The Cat Empire. We were singing and dancing to everyone!”

Although their shows throughout 2025 have seen the duo largely pulling from their now-extensive back catalogue – including a run of headlining shows belatedly celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their EP, The Night Tree – they've been keeping a keen eye on what's to come next.

This includes the recent release of a tender new single, Losing Friends When You're Older, which has been part of the live show right up to its official release late last month. “Of the new material we've been working on, this one was the easiest for us to play live,” says Patrick.

“We can get... lazy? Lazy's not the right word. Complacent makes more sense. We don't rehearse enough – if we're going on tour, we'll just say we'll have it figured out by show five. That means it can be hard to add new songs into the mix. With Losing Friends, it just fit right in amongst all the songs everyone knows and enjoys. It got the best reaction the quickest out of every new song we've tried out. That was a good sign.”

Patrick confirms to The Music that work on the band's fourth studio album – on which Losing Friends will feature – is nearing completion. “Every song is there, and the recording side of things is done,” he says. “We're doing all the final tweaks, and then it's off to be mixed and mastered. I'm really happy with it.”

It's an impressive turnaround, given that album number three, Everything is Bigger Than Me, was released just 18 months ago, and the Brothers have normally taken several years between full-length projects. That's set to change, Patrick theorises, due to brother Jack now having his own recording studio in the East Melbourne hills.

“Up until then, we had been going out to the studios of different producers to make our albums,” says Patrick. “With Jack now living in Cockatoo, we were like, 'Why don't we take the budget we normally would have put towards that and bring an engineer to us?'

“That's how Phil Threlfall came to work on Everything – and by the time he came out to the hills, we were just ploughing through all these new songs. I think we've finally found a system that works perfectly for us. Now that we're in it, we want to keep cranking things out as much as possible.”

The Pierce Brothers are set to bring even more new material – as well as their myriad crowd favourites – to Queenscliff Music Festival in late November.

“It's just a phenomenal festival – especially this year,” Patrick enthuses. “The Cat Empire, Thelma Plum, The Waifs, King Stingray... how much more fun could you have?” The beloved Bellarine Peninsula festivities have long been a favourite of the siblings, not least of all because their first time performing there was so memorable.

“This story is so name-droppy, but it needs to be for the context to make sense,” begins Patrick – again, that grin just beaming through the phone. “So, it's 2016. We've just played the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, opening for Ben Harper – as you do, right? Someone was supposed to pick up all of our merch, because we were driving down to Queenscliff the next day – but due to some miscommunication, they left without it!

“We're panicking at the festival, and then suddenly we get a call from Tash Sultana out of the blue. They were really starting to take off with Jungle, and we'd played a bunch of shows with them around that time.

“They were like, 'Hey, do you guys have a spare Queenscliff ticket?' They wanted to come down! We struck a deal: We'd add Tash to our crew list if they drove to the Music Bowl and picked up our merch for us. Later that afternoon, we're on stage playing our set, and we're about halfway through. We look over while we're playing, and there's Tash – dancing along while holding this giant box full of t-shirts. Unbelievable!”

Pierce Brothers will perform at this year’s Queenscliff Music Festival from 28-30 November. You can find tickets here.