Jun 15 2026, 9.34am / Features
Dear Joey and Brooke, What a wild ride! I just wanted to write to express …
It’s been a few years between drinks, but Sydney punks Ebolagoldfish have returned with the first taste of their new album.
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Since first forming close to two decades ago, the New South Wales outfit have released three albums, with their most recent being 2014’s Prophet & Loss. Four years later, they unleashed standalone single ABC’s, before again going silent until the release of Powers this week.
A slick piece of work that sees the group continuing their musical journey, Powers will appear on the forthcoming album Bad Choices, Good Times when it arrives early next year. While the record presents itself as a non-stop party album, its lead single weighs a little heavier as it speaks of revolution while admitting to elements of false conviction.
As bassist and vocalist Gavan McDougall explains, their 2018 single ABC’s had initially been planned as the first single from their fourth album, but after time spent on the down-low, the release of Powers is a “hugely cathartic” return for the band.
“This is music that we’ve had sort of in the cannon, ready to fire, for up to five years in some cases,” McDougall admits. “We’ve kind of just been stuck in a holding pattern, not wanting to over-perform stuff, but knowing that we wanted to really put the time aside to actually do it properly this time.”
Chalking up Ebolagoldfish’s absence to “clear procrastination and laziness”, McDougall notes that the time away gave the band a chance to reflect on their music, and to further refine it. The resulting body of work will be released as Bad Choices, Good Times early next year, and while the group claim it’s more of a “party” record, the somewhat more self-reflective Powers gives the group a chance to finally take off the Hawaiian shirts and relax a little bit.
“When I say we’ve been in a five year holding pattern, we’ve absolutely been in a five-year party holding pattern,” an exhausted McDougall notes. “I always say there’s one thing I don’t want to be, and it’s hypocritical, so we’ve been trying to maintain that lifestyle for an extra five years.
“I know once we get that album out, it’s gonna be a big relief as well,” he adds. “I feel like I can kind of calm down and eventually grow up once it’s done and dusted.”
Musically, Powers sees Ebolagoldfish at the top of their game, delivering catchy punk with a melodic vibe. From a lyrical point of view, McDougall admits the song is somewhat of an odd fit for the party-like nature of their upcoming album, though it serves as something of an opportunity to do some soul-searching as both a punk musician and punk fan.
When I say we’ve been in a five year holding pattern, we’ve absolutely been in a five-year party holding pattern.
[ Gavan McDougall ]
“The idea behind it is almost encouraging people to follow us, but it’s suggesting that if you do follow us, we are going to take you to rock bottom,” he says. “If you want to come along for the journey, that’s where we’re gonna end up – we’re all gonna be destroyed by this activity.”
However, this line of thought resulted in a self-awakening where, for an admittedly older punk band like Ebolagoldfish, the age-old question of what they’re rebelling against comes under greater scrutiny. Coming from a background of privilege,
“I found myself asking, ‘Who do you fight when there’s no one left to fight?” McDougall asks. “And coming from privileged nature while trying to be a young punk, and it kind of dawned on me recently, ‘You fight for people that need it, you dickhead’.
“I felt that it was a good intro into the album, but it’s almost, it’s probably going to end up being a really enlightened end and outro from that party epic. It’s been an interesting experience for me and an enlightening one as well.”
Alongside the song, Ebolagoldfish have also unveiled the video for Powers, which sees the group delivering a CGI-heavy epic as they adopt the guise of Rainbow Chasers in an attempt to do what their name suggests. With elements of disaster movies like Twister in the mix, and sci-fi classics like Ghostbusters, it’s a tongue-in-cheek clip which fittingly accompanies the similarly-vibed track.
“I think it was following the same baseless journey as the song, where there is an adventure which really has no logical sense or meaning behind it,” he says. “Just chasing rainbows.”
“Then obviously there’s the comical effect,” he adds. “There was just the fun that we could have with terrible CGI.”
With new music arriving into the world, Ebolagoldfish have been able to give fans a preview recently, having toured as the main support for California punk veterans Guttermouth during their national tour of the country last month.
“The timing was absolutely perfect because we were energising up for a new single and to get back on the road as well, which is something that we haven’t done for a while,” McDougall says.
“I think we’ve always been one of Sydney’s laziest bands,” he laughs. “We get things handed to us. We haven’t always taken on the biggest opportunities, or at least sought out those opportunities. So it kind of makes it a ‘when it rains, it pours’ type of situation.”
Of course, with the group labelling themselves an older group, touring with a veteran outfit like Guttermouth was something of a blessing, giving them a chance to regain the youthful energy they still pour into their music and shows.
“A lot of the stuff we’ve done before has sort of been faster, punkier and definitely dirtier, which kind of just gels with Guttermouth’s audiences quite well, and we could joke about new stuff coming and how long we’ve been doing it,” he notes. “When you’re playing with a band like Guttermouth, we can’t complain about how old we are.
“Performing with people our age and generally younger generations, a lot of what we do is complain about how old we are, and we apologise about being so old” he adds, before turning his attention to Guttermouth’s leader, Mark Adkins. “But when we’re performing at 40, and when they’re performing with a 60-year-old who’s jumping around the stage like an idiot, we’ve got no excuses.”
Ebolagoldfish will also launch their Powers single with a special release show at The Duke of Enmore in Newtown on July 15th. The show will serve as something of a hometown celebration for the group before they turn their attention to fully promoting Bad Choices, Good Times ahead of its arrival early next year.
“We’re keeping it local, because we’ve just done that tour with Guttermouth, but we’ve got more singles and more tours in the works as well,” he notes. We’re just going to have a local show just to bring it home again, with some of our favourite local bands, and we’ll invite all the favourite fans.”
