Special Features talk about BIGSOUND, playing the Las Vegas Sphere and a PS5 label bonus
Updated: 2 days ago
Special Features are gearing up to play their first BIGSOUND and they mean business. The 90s grunge four-piece have been paving their way through Meanjin's (Brisbane) music scene since 2021, starting with their debut EP Same Things, where the band's early influences like Nirvana and Radiohead, could be clearly heard. Then in 2024 they released their sophomore EP Self Improvement, melding their sound into something distinctly their own. And now with new music on the way, they're gearing up to rock some of the biggest stages of their career to date. Behind the heavy guitars and fiery angst, Special Features are four soft hearts full of love, reflection and vulnerability.
I caught up with Zac, Jeremy, Karissa and Alex a week before BIGSOUND. Huddled together on an outside veranda before rehearsal, the four appeared excited and buzzed, finishing each other's sentences before I'd even asked a question.
BIGSOUND Prep & Origins
It’s one week from BIGSOUND, how are you guys going and how has prep been?
Zac: "It's been good! We went out to Swanpond Studio’s on the weekend to write songs, make the BIGSOUND set list and rehearse it. We arrived Friday night at 10 p.m. So we could start early on Saturday morning and then we left on Sunday. We rehearsed last night, we’re rehearsing after this. We’re rehearsing on Thursday and Friday and Sunday and then BIGSOUND. So we go to lock in this whole week."
How'd you all find each other, and what's kept you guys united as a band?
Jeremy: "Well, Alex, Zac and I knew each other at school. Alex and Zac went to primary school together and then me and Alex’s older sisters were friends. So we kind of got told to talk to each other in grade seven and in high school. So yeah, us three went to high school and then we met Karissa."
Karissa: "Yeah, we met at the start 2023, longer story. From mutual friends, let’s just say that."
Zac: "Yeah, we wanted a second guitarist to fill out our sound, and yeah, Karissa just brought the vibes. We also love development as well in the band and Karissa brings a lot of that."
Jeremy: "I feel she’s kept us together as a band as well. To be honest, with the balancing of auras."
Zac: "I feel like me and Jeremy can really geek out a lot and get really hyperactive. I think Chris and Alex definitely bring us down when we get too far."
The wonderful local writer, Joseph Marantra from Ballpoint Press once described you as 'rugged as a cricket ball, delicate as a first breakup.' If you could pick one quote that's ever been written about you, would that be it, or is there another one that's stuck with you more?
Jeremy: "I got a good answer. This is a bit self-centered of me, but someone described my vocals as rough as an outback bare knuckle fight. I was just procrastinating for a uni assignment and I was just looking up interviews we've done and then I saw a gig review and I saw that and I was like."
Zac: "Who said that?"
Jeremy: "I don't know. I forgot their name. But yeah, I'm gonna take that one with me and run with it."
I saw you guys for the first time at Cool Sun Fest 2025 and it floored me. Is that rawness on stage something that you can tap into easily when you perform live?
Zac: "I think we've always kind of been a raw sounding band. It's not like we put on an act or anything. We always try to stay true to ourselves. Ever since we were jamming in high school we used to play heaps of Nirvana songs and heaps of Melvins songs and 90s grunge music. That's just really raw and intense music and that's where we get all our inspiration from. So I think just by playing all that music and being influenced by that 90s grunge stuff it's definitely shaped our raw and intense live sound I guess. When I go on stage I just let everything out. I know everyone says that but I just generally do. I go on and play as hard as I can and I'm always so sweaty by the end of the gig. I just feel like go hard or go home you know what I mean."
You're all definitely tapped into something. Watching you play the guitar Zac is like seeing someone who's fully in it. It's very inspiring.
Zac: "Yeah I love watching people like that as well. My favorite guitarist right now is Gareth Liddiard. He plays in The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm and he's probably my inspiration for just letting loose and being an animal on stage. Also the singer from Pond, Nick Allbrook, as well. Nick just fully lets loose and becomes possessed and that's what I want to be you know. I think it's interesting to watch and that's my favorite thing to watch."
On Vulnerability and "Poles"
Congratulations on Poles! Jeremy, you wrote the song about reckoning with your past actions and dealing with your own mental health struggles. What was the writing process like and how does it feel to have something so raw and honest out in the world? The reception's been awesome.
Jeremy: "Yeah thank you, that's really nice. Writing those lyrics came to me pretty naturally to be honest. I actually didn't even intend for it to be a Special Features song, I didn't imagine it in that world but it kind of just developed into that I guess. The way I write is very honest to myself and reflective at times and I think that's just another example of it. What was the second part of the question sorry."
Tessa: "What's it like having it out in the world?"
Jeremy: "Oh yeah. Honestly, terrifying. I feel like I'm quite avoidant in that kind of way, talking about that stuff on that level anyway and this is almost like an exercise in me wanting to not be like that. I think that's good. Being a bit nervous when that song was coming out was a sign that I'm still writing the way I want to write, which is good, because I feel that every time I'm releasing a song with my lyrics on it. I'm just pretty happy to have it out. It's a good exercise in just being, I don't know, it's just the way it is. It's good to talk about it, you know."
It's great hearing you guys be so open about mental health and showing your vulnerability through your music, particularly about the turbulent experiences of early adulthood. Why does that openness matter so much to you?
Zac: “I think it's just something that we all can relate to and write about. When I was younger writing songs I always found it hard to think of things to write about and as I got older I found myself writing about being a late teenager and finding yourself, which is kind of what I was going through at that time. Finishing school and being like, I don't know what to do but I really love music so I just wanted to fully do music. Being true to myself, I think that's definitely what inspired the reflective lyrics.”
“And yeah, we released an EP two years ago called Self Improvement and that whole EP is pretty much a personal reflection of me and Jeremy's lives at the time. It was written when we were first or second year out of school trying to figure out what we want to do in life and who we're meant to be. Sounds a bit cringe but yeah.”
Alex do you write some of the songs aswell?
Alex: "Not lyrics but with the recent song we all wrote it together, that's my only contribution. As four of us plus a guest feature artist. To answer the question about honesty and vulnerability, I think it's not that we find it easy to do but it's something that comes naturally to us. We don't want to put something out there that's like a fantasy, it's just what we're feeling at the moment, kind of living our truths I guess. We try to do that in everything we do and it's come out in a really explicit way, that's the main theme of the new song Poles I think."
Zac: "You also told me the other day you guys said never say this in an interview but I feel like I'm going to say it because I think it's true and I think it's fair enough and a really valid reason."
"Honestly a lot of times I just start off writing songs and I don't even have anything to write about, so I just write baloney lyrics. But somehow later on down the track when the song's kind of finished, the lyrics start to make sense and I'm like, oh maybe I was actually subconsciously writing about how I'm feeling without even doing it on purpose. Just spitting out stuff that doesn't really mean anything at the time, but then you look back and it's like, oh, maybe I was actually subconsciously doing that."
Karissa's Role
Karissa, as the newest member in the band, what do you bring to Special Features that maybe wouldn't be there without you?
Karissa: "I guess firstly just another fresh set of eyes and ears to everything that we do. I feel like we all listen to different music. At the moment I really love a lot of pop music and I feel like I've always listened to a lot more American emo bands and that always somehow translates back into the music that you write. I think I bring a bit more zen into the band. We touched on before that there was a bit of an imbalance being a three piece before I joined but I think Alex and I have joined forces and it's a bit more balanced now."
BIGSOUND & What's Next
With this one single already out and there’s another one coming in October. Is there anything you can tell me about these new releases and if it's heading towards a new body of work?
Zac: "We're definitely writing an album, that's pretty obvious, I've told everyone. We’re undecided if the singles we're releasing this year are actually going to be on the album or not. We like the fact that an album is stereotypically all new songs and I think sometimes when there's an old song on an album it's just, I don't know, we kind of want them all to be fresh songs on the one record."
October is huge for you guys, you've got Yours and Owls Festival and also touring with La Dispute. That's crazy and so cool and so well deserved. How are you guys feeling about it?
Jeremey “Super excited. I think we're super keen to just, and normally whenever we go on tour it's like two or three shows a weekend, but this will be full on like a rock star lifestyle, you know, just on the road and playing for two weeks straight. So I think for myself there's excitement, and then curiosity at how we're all gonna go, and then also a bit of nervousness about how intense that might be by the end. But yeah we're super keen and super excited to play on some hectic stages as well.”
Congratulations on BIGSOUND, what does this experience mean to you guys and what are you hoping to get from it?
Zac: “It's such a rite of passage festival for Brisbane artists. I think it means a lot to a Brisbane artist, especially because it's not as common for Brisbane to get a big nationally recognised festival in our city. BIGSOUND is essentially the one time every year where everyone in Australia actually wants to come to Brisbane and see the music here, which is so sick to be a part of. Keen to see some artists too. Milly Strange is one I really love, she makes alternative grungy country music, kind of like Wednesday but a bit softer. I'm keen to just immerse myself in the middle of the room and cry watching her, it's gonna be a bit sick. We've got the album coming out next year, so we're looking for a booking agent to help us with touring overseas next year for the album and also touring domestically as well. We're looking for an Australian and international booking agent and also a label to put the album out through and a publicist to help market the album."
Karrissa: "And Jeremy wants a PS5, so we're going to try for that."
Jeremy: "I want a PS5 and the record deal as well, that's part of the signing bonus."
The Brisbane Scene
What's it like being part of the Brisbane music scene right now? Any bands or artists we should be paying attention to?
Zac: "Yeah it's great, it's awesome to be part of the Brisbane music scene. We were talking before about bands moving to Melbourne and stuff. I understand why a band would move to Melbourne because there's obviously more going on there, allegedly and that's where a lot of the music industry people work from, in Melbourne or Sydney. So I 100% understand, you got to do what you got to do. But I feel like if everyone stayed in Brisbane and chose to build a really good scene here, there already is a really good scene to be honest. I think we don't even need to expand."
Jermey: "I think what's cool as well is everyone knows someone in Brisbane, you'll go to a show and be like, oh there's three of your mates from the music scene there and you're like, what the heck, what are you doing here. You can go to a gig by yourself and you'll run into at least three people you know and you're like, oh hell yeah let's hang out, which is really cool."
Zac: "The bands we love coming up from Brisbane are Dirty Harry and Charlotte Meade."
Karissa: "We also love the Red Hill band. They posted a demo of something on the story the other day and I screen recorded it. It was so good."
Jeremy: "Yeah I think a past Brisbane band that has heavily influenced us, and we've mentioned in almost every interview, is Good Boy. They influenced us so much, it's actually crazy. We saw them at Against The Grain, we were watching them and it was so cool. We were just like, yeah, these guys are unreal, every song. I remember listening to that being like, ah dang, I want to make a song like that. They're such an unreal band, they had such a major impact on us for sure."
Zac: "And they were just really good people as well, at Against The Grain we were talking to them all and they're all super nice. Tom the guitarist in Good Boy is one of my biggest influences guitar wise, I used to and still do look up to him. I've met him a few times now so it's on a friendly basis and we'll just talk. He plays in another band called Super Naive and they're playing Yours and Owls Festival, which we're also playing, so we'll be hanging out at those festivals too. It's just crazy."
Dream Stages
Five years from now, what's the one venue or festival you'd love to be playing?
Zac: "I'd probably say, what's that venue in America, Red Rocks? I'd love to play there. Either there or a reopened Bearded Lady. That's what I'd say. I want to play the Las Vegas Sphere. Don’t know how we’d get there. We'd put some trippy stuff on that screen, I reckon that'd be funny, that'd be good.
Karissa: This is like the one Brisbane venue that everyone has to play at somehow. I've always avoided it, but I really want to play at Greaser. I want to do the thing where you're standing in the line and you can't jump because the ceiling's right there, like a rite of passage. I feel like we've always had the idea of doing a gig there, but not advertising it and just playing."
Alex: "I reckon it'd be cool to play in some crazy natural venue, like a cave or something. A massive cave with a big opening and crazy acoustics off the rocks. Or on water, I think it'd be sick to play on a pontoon, like a floating stage in the ocean or at a beach or something. Or on a CityCat. Somewhere away from a building, just using natural elements, would be cool."
Thank you guys so much, look forward to catching you at BIGSOUND!
I really loved doing this interview with Special Features as a written Q&A. Video interviews are great but there's something about written content being more accessible, you can sit with it, reread a line and take your time. One thing that can't get captured in a written Q&A is all the laughing and bickering that happened throughout this interview. Special Features have a lot to say and somehow manage to find the funny side of almost everything.
Since this interview took place before BIGSOUND, it's worth mentioning just how incredible their final showcase was at the iconic Crowbar (formerly The Zoo), witnessing what felt like the entire Brisbane music scene packed toward the front with industry professionals watching in awe from the back amid the exciting chaos. Between Zac's guitar work, Jeremy jumping into the crowd, Karissa’s calm energy and a room that felt more like a rite of passage than a showcase, Special Features proved exactly why they've been one of the most talked about bands at this year's BIGSOUND.
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