Ahead of their shared appearance at ZED51 on October 24 at Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane bands Still Full From Lunch and Mitch, Please sat down to interview each other—swapping questions instead of answering the same old ones.
The conversation covered how each band came together (including a founding member who, by his own admission, "tricked everyone" into joining), the toll COVID took on early momentum, and the role Brisbane radio station 4ZZZ has played in building their audiences. Mitch, Please topped the station's Hot 100 last year, while Still Full From Lunch's debut single landed on the station’s top 20 countdown just after the pandemic hit.
Both bands pointed to friendship, not ambition, as the real reason they're still playing: regular trips together, shared meals, and, as one member put it, treating longevity as less about the music and more about "just liking each other."
At ZED51, Still Full From Lunch are teasing a possible nine-piece lineup with new material, while Mitch, Please are keeping their plans under wraps beyond a promise that vocalist Polly will be "running around and pointing at everyone." Both acts named Custard among the artists they're most looking forward to sharing a stage with, alongside Mudhoney and Shonen Knife.
To celebrate their appearances at ZED51, Still Full From Lunch and Mitch, Please have interviewed each other for The Music.
Still Full From Lunch: “Hi, we’re Still Full From Lunch.”
Mitch, Please: “We are Mitch, Please.
“We’re both playing ZED51 on October 24th, at Roma Street Parklands. We’re here to interview each other and we’ll just see how this goes. [Laughter] Cute. Alright, we’ve got questions — our drummer, Kayla, isn’t here; she lives on the Sunshine Coast, but she wrote us the questions. [Laughter] She sorted us out.
Still Full From Lunch Introduce Themselves
Jess: I’m Jess. I originally started in the band as the violinist, and that very quickly was not the best for everyone. And then our old bassist left — he used to be the bassist, so I kind of took his place. I met, mostly met, everyone through the band. I’ve known Heath from high school, grade 10 or 11.
Heath: I’m Heath. I sort of pulled the band together at the start, ’cause I was writing songs and basically asked everyone I knew that played an instrument — which is how we ended up with a weird line-up of instruments. It was like, I have songs, I want to play music, who do I know that plays music and is good at music.
Dan: Well, I’m Dan, I play keyboard. I’ve been in the band since — Heath, I don’t remember how he asked me; it was probably on Instagram or something.
Heath: I remember I went to Dan’s brother, Caleb, and I was like, “Hey, so, you wanna play some music? I’ve got some songs.” And I was just standing in his bedroom playing songs with him, and Dan came in and was sort of floating around.
And Caleb ended up being like, “Oh, it’s sort of not for me.” But then Dan stuck around. That very first one at ours, I played bass, because I was playing bass at the time, in a punk band. So that’s how I kind of joined, I guess — I inserted myself into the band.
Kai: I’m Kai, I’m the bassist of the band. I don’t think I’m the only one that wasn’t part of the original lineup.
Heath: When did you guys start?
Kai: 2022.
Heath: Yeah, that’s four years ago.
Kai: Yeah, four years ago — so I started playing around 2024. I met Dan through the conservatory; we both studied music together, and I guess he was on the lookout for a bassist at the time, and we just kind of filled that spot.
Heath: It’s now been your band. That was it.
Jess/Heath (group): So, who are we, and who are we missing? We’re missing three members: Matthew, who plays drums; Matilda, who plays flute and does some backup vocals; and Mitch, who plays trumpet.
Mitch, Please Introduce Themselves
Mitch, Please: We’ve known each other for a long time. I guess I sort of tricked everyone. [Laughter] You went around — I specifically remember, I was doing a trivia night at Sabotage, and there were lots of gigs on that night, and you went to my event and to the other events, and you were asking everyone, “Oh, I’ve got — I’ve started a band with these, like, four people [three people] — do you want to be in it?”
And he hadn’t actually asked all the people; by the last person, I guess he had. But he tricked everyone into thinking everyone else was already in the band, so I actually had no idea. [Laughter] But that was pretty cute — Steve wasn’t in the band yet; I’d known Steve for a long time.
And what about the original line-up? Well, originally, we had a guitarist named Mitch. He was in the band for one practice, and then Ben said he was going to start a family, and we were like, “Yeah, that’s fair” — and we named the band after him. But then when we lost our other guitarist, we got Steve and Matt at the same time.
I saw these guys playing and thought, “That looks like fun, I want part of that.” I think we found Matt on band Tinder — where you go, “I’m looking for a guitarist,” and someone else is, “I’m looking for a band,” and you look at each other’s photos and swipe [Laughter].
Brad found this guy on band Tinder and said he seemed nice, and then Matt was like, “Can I be in your band?” and we said, “We’re actually about to audition this other guy — but why not both?” So, we made him meet the other guy first, learn the guitar parts, and come to us as a unit. [Laughter] It was very cute.
So, we went from five to four, to five again — it’s cute. Kayla and Matt aren’t here today either; Matt’s at a Father’s Day event, and Kayla, our drummer, lives on the Sunshine Coast.
We’d all sort of known each other apart from Matt, through shows — we’ve all known each other through the punk scene since the early 2000s, playing in different bands and seeing each other play.
COVID’s Impact on Mitch, Please
Still Full From Lunch: I was curious — from social media, it seemed like right when you were picking up as a band was right when COVID happened, which I find especially interesting, given the most-streamed song about live music and a pit came out around September 2020.
Was it strange having a trajectory going, feeling like you were hitting your stride and ready to release stuff, and then everything changed? Do you think that’s changed anything about the band, or made it different than it would have been?
Mitch, Please: I think it definitely dampened our initial drive. It made things tricky — we’d played four or five shows, then had a bunch cancelled. Even once things opened up and we could play seated shows, which was fine, it wasn’t the same vibe we were going for — though everyone was just happy to be out, so the energy at those shows was really nice.
But I think that momentum we were starting to build just went, “Oh, okay,” and it took us a while to get it back. It took more energy to keep the momentum. We could potentially have been touring sooner, going to other states, but we weren’t able to do that during that formative time, so it made things quite tricky.
We spent a few years just playing shows here when we should’ve been getting out while we had that fresh energy. It probably didn’t impact how people felt about us, especially in Brisbane, but it impacted how we felt about being able to do things — the energy was just hard to keep up. I know I wish I could do more than I am. I feel like I used a lot of energy when it wasn’t really useful.
Still Full From Lunch: Do you feel like you appreciated it more once you were able to do those things again, after not being able to for so long?
Mitch, Please: It was yes and no. It was good to just be able to do something — I definitely felt the love and appreciation from people when we were getting out and playing shows again once things had opened up. But in terms of my personal energy level, I think I burned myself out a bit too quickly trying to do things when there wasn’t really anything to do, when I probably should have taken that time to rest and come in strong later.
Coming out of COVID, was that when Ryan left the band?
Yeah, I think so — it was a little hiccup, not for too long, only a couple of months. It was a very short window, but then we found our feet again with new guitarists. I also felt guilty about it, because we’d just recorded songs we hadn’t released yet, and they were going to have to learn someone else’s songs — I felt a bit of guilt about that. I feel like that was a bit of a downer, an interesting time.
Still Full From Lunch: I was just curious, because our band didn’t start until after that — we were all in high school and didn’t really know the pre-COVID scene. It’s interesting — a lot of bands didn’t survive it, so there’s this mystical barrier between the pre- and post-COVID scenes, and not many hung on through it, so I was super interested in how you were one of the bands that did.
Mitch, Please: I think the energy we put in during it, and having that fresh energy, probably helped — maybe we wouldn’t have made it if we’d started a little earlier. Before COVID there was a lot of, “Hey, I’ve got a leaf in my drink” — [Laughter] — “Look, it’s fine, there’s a bug in there too, and he’s sitting on the leaf, it’s fine.” [Laughter] Pre-COVID we also had a really good relationship with a lot of bands in Sydney and Melbourne, which we still have — if we’d started a little earlier, we probably would have gotten out and toured very quickly.
There are bands I saw, for instance, last night that I hadn’t seen since 2019 — they hadn’t been to Brisbane. It’s a little sad that it hit the interconnected culture between cities quite hard, especially in the punk scene — I’ve definitely felt, over the last few months, seeing a lot more people from those cities at shows again. It’s still nice, but it was a lot more connected pre-COVID.
Support from 4ZZZ
Mitch, Please: How has 4ZZZ shaped, influenced, or supported your music?
Still Full From Lunch: They’ve supported us 100%. He was speaking to someone who’s almost sick of hearing us being played [Laughter] — that’s been said to me a few times. They’re awesome; we love them so much for playing our stuff. We liked playing it and had recorded it, and maybe all of us were a little nervous, but from the very first single they’ve just been so lovely — they’ve had us on for interviews, put us out there. Nothing but good things to say; they’re awesome.
It felt nice not feeling like you’re releasing music into a void. With streaming, you just throw music out on social media and hope people engage with it, and usually you only really see that engagement in a personal way at shows. But 4ZZZ giving us airplay, people saying nice things, seeing our EP stay in the top 20 for so long, showed that people were receptive to it and enjoying it — it was really, really nice.
And getting that feedback from 4ZZZ led me personally to engage with 4ZZZ myself, back the other way, and then engage in the community — that’s also been great; meeting musicians through that has fed back into the music again, like a cycle. They’re great people. Same with you — I barely listened to 4ZZZ before we released, then there was a period where I’d put it on just to hear one of our songs, but now I put it on all the time; it’s really awesome stuff.
If we can go back to you guys — I know last year you were number one on the Hot 100, congratulations, that’s awesome, well done. That sort of indicates some level of connection to the 4ZZZ scene. Do you feel like that’s been valuable for you, either personally or for the band?
Mitch, Please: 100%. That sort of sense of community is really important, and that’s what you see at shows — people representing, going to shows, turning up, and they’re generally the people who listen to the tunes as well.
That platform of bringing people together is the most important thing. It’s awesome that 4ZZZ has spaces for each genre and community — there are shows you can tune in to at a certain time and go, “This is the kind of music I like, I’m going to hear my friends’ bands and the music I like,” and it platforms a certain scene that maybe wouldn’t get platformed otherwise. I think once you’re in, you’re part of the family too — it’s a big extended family, the community aspect is really strong.
I really like how it platforms smaller bands — we wouldn’t have been able to achieve a lot without being able to be played. Our first single came out on the Hot 100 right before COVID, I think — I can’t quite remember, but we released a thing, played a couple of shows, it went really well, and hearing people’s reception to that was really nice and definitely helped our momentum and energy at the start.
Getting that positive feedback was really good. What you’re saying about the platforming of bands when you’re starting off — you just don’t get that anywhere else. Nobody else is going to play us. Without the radio station really trying to get something back from the band — they’re just giving it to the band: here’s a platform, play — they’re not asking for anything in return, not trying to make money out of you. That’s cute. [Laughter]
Longevity and Friendship
Still Full From Lunch: A lot of my questions relate to things I’m genuinely interested in, and one thing I found really interesting is that you guys have been around for quite a while — even in our four years as a band, we’ve seen the scene change a lot, and people ask us about that, so I think it’s really interesting that you’ve lasted this long.
It doesn’t feel like that long, but — a lot can happen in eight years, or whatever it’s been. [Laughter] Six, seven — six years? Was it 2016, or 2018? 2018, our first practice. 2019 was our first show. So a lot can happen in that period — that’s a good chunk of a life.
Do you think the reasons you make music, or come and play in the band, have changed over that time?
Mitch, Please: Not really, for me. I just really like hanging out with my friends. I never really wanted to be in a band — I was band-adjacent for a long time, then briefly in a shitty acoustic punk band just for funsies, with no particular interest in being in a band, until Bragg roped me into this — “You want me to sing?” I was like, what do you mean?
So, the band, for me, has always been about hanging out with the people I care about, having fun with them — I just really enjoy hanging out with you guys. The exciting thing about going places is getting to go on a plane with my friends — someone asked who’s excited to play Melbourne, and I was just excited to go on a plane with my friends, go on a little trip.
For me it’s pretty well the same — the making of music is fun, the creative part and the songwriting is fun, and the playing of shows and the crowd, I love all of that, but the main thing for me has always been hanging out with my mates.
I think being friends first and foremost is probably the most important thing. I’ve been in other bands before that have had huge egos and personality clashes, and it just makes the whole experience quite awful — so I think we’re pretty fortunate that we’re actual friends, genuinely.
We go on trips together, we see bands together, we do band dates, we have an AGM which is just us all eating sushi at roughly the same time — you’ve got to have some band corporate governance. Potentially that feeds into the longevity too — probably what helps is that we just like each other, it’s nice to hang out, it’s just what we do, the way other people get into sports or have other things going on in their lives; for us it’s just playing shows, hanging out, doing music.
Highlights and Favourite Memories
Still Full From Lunch: Maybe going off what you said about just liking it, having fun — what would be the most fun show, experience, or interesting thing you think you’ve done as a band?
Mitch, Please: Hmm — for me, recently we played Melbourne, and we hadn’t played there before, but we had people in the audience singing our songs back to us, and I think that was the highlight, the special thing — unexpected, because we were like, “We don’t even go here; how do you know this?” I feel like it’s all the times in between, not necessarily — we’ve done some really fun shows; we played Eaton’s Hill, which is a giant stage, and I really like making good use of that stage, rolling around, using up all the space I can.
I really enjoy a big stage, not because it’s cool, but because I can run more — things like that are really cool, but I feel like it’s just the silly times in between. The trip to Woy Woy was fun — Central Coast town — finding Matt asleep everywhere; wherever we go, he’s asleep somewhere weird. I don’t know, it’s great.
What about you guys, what’s your highlight?
Still Full From Lunch: We went to Coochiemudlo Island — three days, two nights — that was so much fun, also the first time we hung out as a collective outside of the band, had parties and stuff. That was fun, at least in a long time.
Mitch, Please: Did you play a show there?
Still Full From Lunch: No, Mitch’s partner owns a house there and let us all stay — I’d never been before; some people were outside, a few beds inside. I don’t usually go outside that often, but I feel like I spent every day swimming; it was just so much fun.
I’d definitely like to do something like that again, because we didn’t really talk about music stuff much either — it was a good opportunity to talk about other stuff and remind ourselves that we get along as people. In a bigger band, it’s easy to get caught up in certain contentious things or become overly focused on the band — I feel like I only really see these guys at practice or gigs, so it was really nice to do something together; we were all friends to start with, then lives change, and it was nice to have a reset after a period of time.
In terms of actual band outcomes, the most special thing for me was our EP release show earlier this year — our friend Ben, who plays in some local bands, supported the EP with us on guitar as well, and we got to play with a real piano; we hired a Rhodes, that was fun.
We recorded the whole thing, put all this effort in, rehearsed so hard, and I think we were all so proud of it. 100%. I was just stoked I got a real piano at a show — and because the space was there, we hired a Rhodes, this massive thing, and we only played about three songs, but it was a lot of fun. Yeah, that’s awesome.
Songwriting Process
Mitch, Please: I wanted to ask — seven of you in the band, that’s quite a few — how do you guys write songs, what’s the process?
Still Full From Lunch: I guess it’s kind of evolving; for the most part it’s an individual bringing forward a predetermined idea, and we jam on it, or maybe the parts get rewritten, and we go from there.
More recently it’s maybe slightly more collaborative — depends on the song a lot. Some songs, like one recently, I did the whole thing, came up with almost all the parts and brought that to the band, and it was just the edges that changed as we fiddled to find what worked. Other times it’s a chord progression and one line of melody, and we jam it out until we hit something.
It depends on every single song, which I like — sometimes someone has a really strong, almost fully-formed idea, and other times it’s, “I have no idea, so I’m going to these people because I trust them,” and we find a way to do it together. I think it’s mostly built off guitar or keys, so it’s a bit easier to start from an instrument that’s quite full, a pre-realised idea, and then we add things to fit, or change the root idea to fit a specific instrumental part.
It’s hard with seven of us to just completely make up the whole thing from a chord progression — you really need restraint, to think about the dynamics of the song, not do everything all at once too quickly, think about how it builds and what clashes, and be quite considered at times. It means there’s a bit of sitting in rehearsal with half of us waiting for this part or that part — just the nature of the beast, I think.
Like what Jess was saying, it’s evolved more recently because we know each other as musicians a lot more now — I know what Heath’s good at, I know what Kai’s good at, so I let them do it. I’m confident writing lyrics, I really like writing and arranging the parts and making some cool chord changes, but I leave lyrics up to Heath, or Jess even.
Favourite Venues
Still Full From Lunch: I had a question — I know for us there are certain venues we feel more attached to; for us it’s definitely the Junk Bar, even through the early stages when it was in Ashgrove and now it’s moved to Newmarket, but Junk Bar’s a very special venue for us. Do you have any venues like that around Brisbane?
Mitch, Please: For me it would mostly be the Zoo — now Crowbar, still a nice place to go, but the Zoo had a very special place in my heart. I told this story on stage once, and Steve said he cried, so I’ll tell it again. [Laughter] We played the Zoo’s 30th birthday shows a couple of years ago, shortly after Steve had joined the band.
When I first moved to Brisbane — I grew up in New South Wales — freshly 18, I went to a show at the Zoo, and one of Steve’s old bands, Black Market, was supporting; that was the first local band I ever saw. I remember getting a bunch of gummy bears and making friends with a little skinhead — we bonded over gummy bears. [Laughter] It was really special to be on that stage playing that show, and now Steve’s in my band — kind of come full circle.
The Zoo doesn’t exist in the same way now, but Crowbar’s still a nice space, so that venue still has that feeling — I thought it would lose it, but it’s kind of carried over, and I still feel very much at home there. We’ve probably played the most shows out of all the venues at the Zoo, which is wild, because it’s quite a big venue.
I guess for me personally, the Zoo used to be all-ages back in the day, so I was able to go to a lot of shows there when I was in high school, which you wouldn’t be able to do today — that’s quite special, forming my appreciation of Brisbane music. It really has that quality — you see big bands play there and little bands play there, it’s very inclusive of everyone. It’s a nice spot.
I went there Thursday night to see Special Features, and — oh my god, I don’t think I’d felt that kind of energy in a room in a very long time, especially at Crowbar, since it was the Zoo — I haven’t been there that many times since it became Crowbar, but when that room is full, and there’s a band playing, it’s that good, unlike any other venue. It feels like you’re part of Brisbane history in there — you see those pictures of big-name acts playing on that stage in the ’90s.
Wrapping Up
Still Full From Lunch: Who are you guys most anticipating sharing the stage with at ZED51?
Mitch, Please: For me it’s Custard — I reckon. When my parents played on a lineup with Custard, there was a notable sense of admiration I’d never felt — “Oh, you’re a real band” — Custard, wow, they’re musicians. My mum was like, “Custard? That’s still a thing?” I think that was the first band I ever saw live. And also the voice of Louis’ dad — yeah, Louis’ dad, I love Louis. Custard’s going to be so cool. What about you guys?
Still Full From Lunch: I think playing at the same gig as Mudhoney is just insane — I was a grunge kid back in the day, that’s something I never thought would happen. For me it’s Shonen Knife — I just love them so much, from Japan, I’ve been to as many of their shows as I can when they come to Brisbane. I love them a lot; the energy and happiness I feel watching them — so when I found out they were playing, I got very excited.
Do you guys have any other different ones, or is it Custard for everyone?
Mitch, Please: Custard across the board, I think. We played with Custard at Eaton’s Hill — I remember the first time we played with them, I was so excited to see them, but they were on right after us on the outside stage, so we were on the inside.
I remember Kayla and I just threw our stuff off stage, didn’t even pack up, threw it in the green room, and sprinted out, and we were in the pit right in the middle at the front by halfway through their first song. We had so many people around us doing double-takes — “We just saw you, how did you — but if you’re here, then who’s that?” That was a really special experience.
I had a similar feeling at that time about Custard — I read the Big City book last year, and there’s quite a lot of Custard talk in it, so it feels very connected in my head to 4ZZZ, because everything in that book is very connected to 4ZZZ. It’s a great sign.
ZED51
Still Full From Lunch: We might be the youngest people playing on our stage, so maybe some youthful energy. (That feels like a diss — but fair, it’s a point of difference.) I think the plan — I don’t know if I should be saying this — is maybe to play a nine-piece; we might have a couple of extra members joining, some friends.
Go big or go home; it’s a secret, I’ll tell you later. Also new stuff — we’ll be playing some awesome new stuff we’ve been writing. That’s a great reason to catch us — lots of new songs with extra instruments. And how about you guys — are you doing anything special?
Mitch, Please: We may or may not do something special, and the suspense is why you should come see us. I’ll be there — I’m contractually obligated to be there. I think you’ll be guaranteed to be entertained watching Polly running around and pointing at everyone she wants to fight, and then later going and fighting them.
Which stage are you guys on, do we know? The small stage. You’ll make use of all of it. I’ll make use of all of it, probably not as much as the big stage — I worry about what my fitness tracker will think of me if we get the bigger stage.
But it’s going to be good — I need to remember not to hurt myself, which is always a possibility. I think we try to bring high energy, and on big stages like that, I think it comes across as a safety thing — safety first. I do have a helmet, specifically for the concussions I get in mosh pits — a mosh-pit helmet. It’s more likely to cause other people concussions.
ZED51 takes place October 24 at Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane, featuring Still Full From Lunch, Mitch, Please, Custard, Mudhoney, Shonen Knife, and more. Tickets are now available.
