‘We Just Want To Be Ourselves’: Newcastle Teenagers PIT Are Keeping The Grunge Dream Alive
“It’s good that we’re out of school now cause we can really focus on the band and exactly what we want to achieve.”
PIT (Credit: Supplied)
When it comes to certain genres and sounds within the Australian music scene, it’s not hard to start placing them on the map.
Groups like The Saints turned Brisbane into a punk powerhouse, and pub rock greats like The Angels and Cold Chisel saw Adelaide as a hub for pub rock. While The Scientists might have seen Perth slated as the origin of grunge, it was Newcastle that took over that crown thanks to groups Silverchair in the ‘90s.
Three decades on, and grunge is still going strong within the historic Steel City, thanks in part to the youthful resurgence of the genre by rising trio PIT.
Comprising Bailey Parker, Korby Essex, and Hamish Sanders, PIT have been doing the rounds since 2023, releasing a handful of singles since, but as Parker explains, they wasted no time in hitting the ground running.
“Me and Korby have been jamming since we were about 11 or 12, just playing [Nirvana’s] Smells Like Teen Spirit on repeat since it’s all we knew,” he explains. “When we were 14-15 we started playing at school and stuff and then we entered a local battle of the bands and went pretty good so we decided to start taking it somewhat seriously.
“But we never really decided to be a band. We kind of just started jamming and it just happened. Then it wasn’t till last year around when we went on tour that we linked up with Ian Sandercoe from Studio Crowdy, who produced our new tracks, later becoming our manager as well. That’s when we got the record deal with MGM, and that brings us to today.”
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As Parker alluded to, PIT’s rising status has seen them receive attention from MGM, leading to their recently-announced signing.
“Well, each one's got their instrument,” CEO Sebastian Chase told The Music recently. “And they want to put it together in a way that makes sense to them, as a means of expressing who they are, where they live, and what they believe. It's incredibly powerful.
“The music they engage with, either through input or output becomes their soundtrack. There’s no longer ambiguity about ‘Who am I?’ or, ‘Is this a bit my parents? Is it a bit my older brother, my older sister?’ It becomes the fact that ‘This is mine.’
“This is a necessary part of cultural evolution and it’s great to see that these boys are taking pride in how they express that.”
PIT’s origins – fittingly – started out on a steady diet of grunge luminaries such as Nirvana and hometown heroes Silverchair, though Parker admits that “our music taste has gotten a little bit heavier since then,” with the likes of Grinspoon and Tool peppering their playlists.
Though their music tastes might read like the back of one of triple j’s mid-to-late-’90s Three Hours Of Power compilation CDs, PIT are forging their own path in their own unique way – heavily informed by the city around them.
While Essex describes Newcastle as a “fucking awesome place for music,” Parker explains that part of the city’s charm is its reputation as a “very honest place,” with myriad venues offering all ages shows frequently, and gigs taking place on a very regular basis.
“People just do their own thing here and I think that’s kind of what we try to do,” he explains. “Bands like Silverchair came out of here doing their own thing and we kind of feel that same way.
“We just want to be ourselves and not try to replicate or be a certain way. That’s why, when you see us, we don’t talk a certain way, act a certain way, or even dress in fancy shit. We just wear our baggy cargo shorts and band shirts how we normally would if we were hanging out at home.
“Essex is the only one that actually brushes his hair,” he adds with a laugh.
While PIT have undoubtedly made a name for themselves as a Newcastle band relishing in the grunge sound, it would be unfair to only refer to them in terms that indicate they’re solely a product of their influences.
In fact, much of what is impressive about the group is the way they’ve managed to carve out their own, mature songwriting style at such a young age. Sanders explains that they consider their earliest releases to be “so old to us now,” largely owing to the fact that Parker penned them at age 13 – before they’d even formed the group.
“Use Me is about domestic violence,” Parker says of their debut single – released exactly two years ago today. “I was just sleeping over at my nan and grandad's house and I saw something on the telly.
“It didn’t even start as a song, it just started out as me writing some poetry in one of my English books about what I’d been watching and then I ended up writing a guitar riff later. The lyrics just so happened to fit in with what I’d written on the guitar so that’s how it became a track.“
PIT’s next single, Don’t Come Running Back, arrived just four months later, with Parker offering an inspiration for the song which he admits is a little hard to reflect on.
“It’s about needing people when you’re at your lowest and they’re not there for you,” he says. “And it’s kind of saying ‘Fuck you, don’t bother trying to be my mate again down the track if you weren’t here for me now.’
“I don’t remember exactly who that’s about or anything, but I remember I’d had a fight with one of my mates or something and I wrote it. It’s just a cliché rock song that you can tell was written by a kid.
“I still like the songs and I know there’s history there but I do cringe a lot now when I look back on the lyrics and how subtle I was attempting to be,” he admits.
Their latest song, Needed You, officially arrives today, and wraps up these past two years for the group – serving as a nice way to view their evolution as musicians and people over just 24 months.
As Parker explains, its origins are similar to their other tracks, citing a history of needing people and not finding them there for you.
“I went through a fair bit of shit last year so my natural expression was to just write lots of poetry and lyrics and that’s how Needed You came about,” he says. “We like this track heaps, it’s a better representation of how we sound as a band now compared to a couple years ago since it was written more recently.
“It’s a lot different of a sound compared to our first two so it’ll be interesting to see if people like it. We’re keen to get feedback and stuff.“
Though he admits there’s a little bit of apprehension to release a song like Needed You given their 18 months between singles and the fact it’s notably different to what had come before, the new track helps to indicate what fans can expect from the band going forward.
“Our first two were kind of polished to perfection,” he notes. “We didn't know what sound we wanted since we were so young, so we just essentially tried to recreate what we were listening to.
“With this track and all the others we recorded, we had a clear vision of the exact sound we wanted to produce. We wanted the music to sound really raw and honest exactly how we do live. Working with Ian, he had us record it live with Sean Cook at Novotone Newcastle rather than tracking every instrument separately like we did our first two songs.
“We’re stoked with the final result but we’re aware it’s a bit different to our first tracks so we’re on edge to see what people reckon,” he admits.
While Needed You arrives today, fans have had a chance to experience the single on the live circuit, with PIT having given it a run during their recent shows. As Parker explains, the live experience is something the group care about a lot, given the opportunity to appear before so many familiar faces and potential new fans at every opportunity.
“The shows are dope – it’s why you do it, y’know?” Parker says. “There’s nothing more fun than playing a gig. We went on tour to Brisbane and stuff last year and I think we gained a lot of experience from that about being on the road and playing and stuff. I think if there’s one thing we want people to get out of seeing us, it’s just to discover new music.“
“The feeling you get when a new song you haven't heard before comes on and then you discover more from that band is awesome, or when you go to watch a band and you catch the support act first which you haven't heard of and you love them. It’s just dope. So it’s cool for us to think that people see us and go home to listen to us or follow us.
“We get a lot of people at shows who grew up in the ‘90s that come up to us after we play and tell us how our set brought them back to their teenage years or something and that’s fuckin’ cool,” he continues. “We just think, if you like us, that’s awesome, and if we’re not your thing then that’s cool too – find another band who is because there’s plenty out there.”
With PIT having achieved so much in just these past two years, with so much traction in recent months, and with so much on the way, what is the future looking like for the trio?
“I think the plan is just lots of constant releasing,” Parker explains. “We’ve had a lot of big talks with our manager Ian and MGM and stuff and I think we’ve got a pretty solid plan for the future.
“After Needed You we’ve got another single dropping followed by our debut EP, Repeat, which we’re really keen to get out. On top of that there’s going to be new music videos, lots of gigs and we’re teeing up some tours.
“We’ve got big plans so we’re gonna be pretty busy planning everything we wanna do,” he adds. “It’s good that we’re out of school now cause we can really focus on the band and exactly what we want to achieve.”
PIT's Needed You is out now. The group will celebrate its release with a free show at the Islington Barracks Hotel in Newcastle this evening.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
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