MWAH

Writer: Em Tobin

Images: Eve Mathies

In late 2025, silver shivers slid from my spine as I watched genre-defining act Mwah grace the stage of the Junk Bar.

I was overcome by the band’s evident chemistry, complexity, and craftsmanship. A cocktail of heavy, gritty vocals, raw lyricism, and passionate sound, Mwah have solidified themselves since their debut as an act to watch. 

Beneath the tactile venue lighting, the trio elicits an adoration for sound, curating a dreamscape of guitar pedals and synthetic singing. Mwah is comprised of the ever-talented and Brisbane-born Alice Elizabeth, Peyo Papadopoulos, and Ellis Yunker. The trio blends tragedy, time, and temperance into a visceral, bodily performance. 

It’s unusual to see a largely experimental act perform at mainstream venues alongside conventional acts. Still, it is the trio’s authentic passion, dedication to lyricism, and genuine interest in improvisation that establishes their sound. Inspired by plain-speaking vocals, jazz, and post-punk style improvisation, Mwah utilise their charismatic stage presence and performance chemistry to convey their emotions through music. 

The trio’s presence speaks to surrealism and raw presentation, paying homage to each member’s independent identity, vision, and contribution. Thus, Mwah reaches a keystone summit of an almost spiritual bond, endlessly experimenting to form genuinely unique noise. If you catch Mwah twice, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to conclude that the group is constantly improvising, switching up lyrics, basslines, and rhythms, to conclude at an ever-evolving sound. 

EM: Mwah, I’m so excited to speak to you. As we enter the new year, how would you reflect on your 2025 band debut? 

ALICE: Really fun! This is my first time being in a band, and it’s a cool new experience. 

PEYO: I wanted to do my own music and experiment with noise. It was nice to set myself the task of writing songs and finding people to play with. I’ve felt great putting out music, especially our first single. 

EM: I attended your show at the Junk Bar end-of-year Christmas party, and your exciting interweaving of sound and lyricism blew me away. As an upcoming Brisbane band, how have you developed your unique musicality?

PEYO: We create brief structures for our tunes, but we like to improvise by feeding noise through guitars. We use loose outlines to write lyrics and feel them out musically. I get a lot more out of that than playing structured, rigid noise. 

ALICE: Ellis and I form a base for the song structure. I play very simple baselines, and Ellis contributes strong, intense drums; it’s different every time. What Peyo does over the top is almost completely different each time we play our songs; we experiment with sound. I think this makes playing so unique. 

PEYO: The relationship between band members has built over time to make our sound different each time we play. 

EM: Your debut single, ‘sputnik,’ is an excellent track. Can you walk me through the curation and narrative of that track?

PEYO: I usually write tunes on the piano, but around a year ago, the lyrics organically came to mind. I wrote the bassline listening to Confusion is Sex, the Sonic Youth record. We were in rehearsal when we figured it out, and I love the drum pattern we use. I’d had it in my head for so long, and I was just playing riffs rather than talking. It was very much on the spot. 

ALICE: It’s developed significantly to become our tightest song. I feel like we felt it out playing live shows. We like it play it differently during each performance. 

EM: Onstage, the band has a very refined and intimate chemistry. How is working together as a band like?

ALICE: I have so much fun, we’ve got along so well since the first rehearsal. 

ELLIS: We’d run into each other multiple times before forming the band and had mutual friends forever. It felt bizarre and meant to be. 

EM: Your sound features a very unorthodox and somewhat contradictory ethos. What direction do you see Mwah arriving at as you develop as an upcoming band?

ALICE: I have no idea. Peyo has multiple visions for different sounds we could reach. 

PEYO: I like the idea of Alice and Ellis holding it down while I’m experimenting with noise. I’ve listened to too much Birthday Party and Bar Italia. Otherwise, I love jazz and want to keep at the improvised side of things, which hasn’t gone stale yet. 

ALICE: Even when we do introductory set songs and all I know is that I have, say, four notes to play, I have no idea what these guys are going to do. Or the song Bitrumen that we do, where Peyo and Ellis are yelling, and I’m improvising. We sort of build together. 

PEYO: We have three songs where we just have a bassline, and Ellis lays it down, and speaks lyrics over and over. 

ELLIS: I don’t have a strong vision, but in terms of the Brisbane scene, I’d be keen to see more noisy, weird, improvised groups coming into the ‘mainstream,’ not just playing at Cave Inn experimental nights, but on lineups with bands of different genres. It’s been cool to see a more experimental act happening at more conventional venues. Let’s say if someone else starts doing that thing too, we’d get more into it in general. The sky’s the limit; it's a cool thing to see and be a part of. 

ALICE: It’s so much fun to play with punk or indie rock bands and get up and do something different. But it would be fun to play with bands that experiment more. 

ELLIS: Seeing it be more accepted would be really cool. 

EM: I believe that in the local Brisbane scene, Mwah is almost unique in your performance of plain-spoken lyricism. How do you draw inspiration for this process?

PEYO: I’d rather let the instrument do the talking, so when I had to sing, it felt like an automatic idea. When I listen to a lot of post-punk bands, they’re not singing, they’re speaking or yelling. That’s probably what prompted me. I find I can get more when I’m not talking fixed to a set pitch or rhythm, where I want to scream lyrics or not, it depends. 

ALICE: I’m really inspired by Kim Gordon. 

EM: I personally enjoy that Mwah features two distinct vocalists, Alice and Peyo. As artists, how do you work alongside each other to incorporate these separate sounds?

PEYO: Our sound is influenced by, as Alice said, the likes of Kim Gordon, or if I want to do an Alan Vega vibe. 

ALICE: We openly communicate about inspiration, so we come into it knowing what we want to draw from. It usually falls to one of us in terms of vocals. 

EM: It’s evident that Mwah is an incredibly passionate band. How does this reflect in your live performances?

ALICE: I feel like we get so in the zone on stage, it's hard to remember what I’m thinking when I’m up there. 

PEYO: It’s such a high to be onstage, I find it to be a performance facade. 

ELLIS: I feel an almost flow state. I get into a collective state of group focus. Especially with improvisation, it feels like you’re sort of reading each other’s minds. 

PEYO: There is an almost spiritual connection you get sometimes, when you’re all playing together but pushing for something. 

ALICE: It’s hard to explain, you can just feel it. 

EM: What current Australian acts are you personally inspired by?

PEYO: The Necks. They’re a great trio. Or Tooth. 

ALICE: Yeah, you put me onto The Necks. I can see how that translates to Mwah. 

ELLIS: Kitchen’s Floor. They’re different, but I like their attitude and simple groove-based noise. I don’t want to do too much; I like the rhythms and feeling through the music. 

MWAH LINKS -> | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP |