Middle Kids don’t waste much time. The Australian trio dropped an EP in 2017 that played more like a mini-album than an appetizer, then returned a year later with their “debut” LP Lost Friends. Calling it a debut felt like a technicality. “The EP’s pretty condensed,” Hannah Joy said. “We just shoved all this stuff in there. But the LP feels like a nice fully rounded body of work. It definitely feels like a first big body of work.”
That body includes two holdovers from the EP—“Edge of Town” and “Never Start”—alongside ten new songs written in the white-hot aftermath of sudden momentum. “I was just so excited by what we were making that I was writing so much,” Joy admitted. The flood didn’t stop until there was a proper album, complete with a single that would end up soundtracking playlists and late-night drives in equal measure.
“‘Mistake’ is one of the best singles of 2018 so far,” I told her, and for once the artist didn’t argue. “It started with that grungy guitar sound,” Joy explained. “I wanted it to be nostalgic, like the songs I loved when I was 14. I was watching a lot of old ’90s TV when I wrote it, so I was trying to talk back to my teenage self. The chorus is really about letting go, a big release. The whole song is about moving on from the things that haunt us.”
That push-pull—between loss and the hope of getting somewhere better—runs all through Lost Friends. “When I look at it now, there are strong themes of loss but also growth and healing,” Joy said. “It’s the experience of life in all its pain and confusion, but also beauty.” Even the album’s title works like a Rorschach blot: mourning the friends who fade away, recognizing that some are simply “lost people,” and celebrating the ones who stay. “Everybody wants friends,” Joy said, with the kind of earnestness only a frontperson can get away with.
If “Mistake” is the cathartic pop hit, songs like “On My Knees” lean darker. “That one’s about when life brings you to your knees,” Joy said. “But you get an interesting perspective from that place. A re-acquaintance with reality.”
Perspective is something the band has been forced to get quickly. They’ve already won fans like Will Arnett and shared bills with some of their musical heroes. They’ve also found themselves lumped into the ongoing narrative of Australia’s indie takeover. “It does feel like an exciting time for Australian music,” Joy said. “Streaming and playlists have helped us be heard in different places. We’re influenced by American and European music, but we also have something different just because of where we are geographically.” Translation: yes, the kangaroos are in the songs, you just can’t hear them.
Lost friends, found fans, and one foot already out of the “new band” pigeonhole—Middle Kids are riding that rare moment where everything feels possible. “It feels like the beginning,” Joy said, “but also the continuation.” Which, for a debut album, sounds exactly right.
Listen to the interview above and then check out "Mistake" below!
