THE GREAT EMU WAR CASUALTIES TALK ‘DONUT’, DEBUT ALBUM AND THE AI CEOs WE SHOULD ‘LEAVE BEHIND IN THE MUD’
INTERVIEW | THE GREAT EMU WAR CASUALTIES by Martha Munro
Any fans of Bloc Party or Two Door Cinema Club about? Allow me to introduce you to The Great Emu War Casualties, the arts-rockers ready to take over your spring listening with their emotive, moody debut album Public Sweetheart No.1, coming 27th March. We got the chance to ask them all about their music, dream night-out buddies, and 2026 ins-and-outs. And if, like me, you’re thinking ‘where on earth did they think of that band name?’, don’t worry, I’m one step ahead of you…
Before we get to the important stuff, I have to ask, how did you pick the band name ‘The Great Emu War Casualties’? Were any other lesser-known animal conflict references put forward in the brainstorming stage?
Saskia: It was a cold night in the wilds of Northern UK… we were huddled together on a roof talking shit for reasons which I can no longer remember… I (the Australian) made some throwaway joke about how we used to ride emus to school or something, and the others (the Poms) looked at me quizzically and asked ‘what’s an emu?’ I was flabbergasted that these no-nothing nincompoops didn’t even know what our national bird was. I said ‘so then you have no idea about our Great Emu War?’ Nay, said they. Then we got interrupted by a security guard yelling at us to get off the bloody roof. I can’t remember what happened after that but suddenly we had a band called The Great Emu War Casualties and there you go. I almost started another band with someone else called ‘Baboon Wars’, which is a whole thing in South Africa… anyway, I’ll leave you to look that up yourself.
Now that’s out of the way, tell us about this exciting debut album ‘Public Sweetheart No.1’: Who and what are the big inspirations behind the record? How did you know this was what you wanted to make together?
Joe: The album just sort of happened, in the sense that, like, you go through something and so then you try to write about it to process your experience, I guess, or just vent and moan and complain and cope, and so there aren’t really any main inspirations artistically behind the whole thing. It’s more just a sense of a collective, of these small windows into an experience. I don’t like to get too specific about these things because obviously there is my experience that I’m writing about, but also I want people who hear something in the music to have the freedom to have their own take-on things. I don’t want someone to hear something and be, like, “this is what that means to me” only to have me be like “ah yeah, cool, but it’s not about that at all” ‘cos actually that’s sort of in the act of writing, the sense that you end up trying to write about one thing and find out ages later that you wrote about something else. Who’s to say I even know what I’ve done here? I didn’t know what I was doing when I was doing it and I’m stupider now than then.
If you could describe the album in 3 words, what would they be?
Joe: Videogame Sandwich Diamonds.
Why did ‘Donut’ stand out to you as a lead single? Were any other tracks in the running?
Joe: The whole album was in the running at one stage. We’ve dropped little bits here and there and road tested a few songs live and, actually, throughout all of that, donut was overlooked. Then, when it came to actually asking what we were going to release and giving a bit of a flavour of the record as a whole, ‘Donut’ felt more like a summary of the everything of it.
It’s no secret that days in the studio can be long and tedious at times – what were some studio must-haves for those long recording sessions?
Saskia: My phone. I have so much stuff on my phone: music, apps, games, obviously a medieval game, obviously obviously a jousting game. I have no problem being on my phone. Also, my work laptop coz I didn’t have enough annual leave to actually take the day off. HOPE NOBODY FROM WORK IS READING THIS RN LOL.
Since 2026 is just getting started, what are you hoping to bring into this new year, as a band or as individuals?…
Joe: I am the only individual in the band. The rest of them exist merely to support my unstoppable ambition. If I only knew what it was that I wanted or why.
…And what are you definitely leaving behind from last year?
Joe: Probably that sarcastic attitude I used to answer the previous question. I’m probably not leaving anything behind. You sort of don’t, do you? Even if you think you do, everything that you do and the things that happen to you, they all shape you and leave an imprint on your actions. If I’m leaving anything behind then I’m doing it accidentally, and if I think about that too much it’ll end up coming with me by accident too. The past? The future? It’s all just stuff, man. All we have is the present and this moment or something like that, I don’t know. I keep seeing all these mad AI CEOs who seem to have suddenly discovered fascism and cocaine and do weird interviews online about the singularity and the point of existence, and if the world isn’t content to leave them behind in the mud where they belong then I’m paying for extra baggage and I’m bringing absolutely everything forward with me. Sorry, what was the question?
You’re on a night out and can each bring one person along, dead or alive, friend or stranger – who’s your pick?
Saskia: Off the top of my head, I would love to hang out with Hamed Sinno. They seem like an extremely well-read, super intellectually curious person, would love to get their take on the current world disorder (and yeah obvs Ibn El Leil is one of my fave albums of all time, so devastated to hear what happened to that band).
Joe: I’ll bring Bibek or Cat. Whoever picks up the phone
DEBUT ALBUM ‘PUBLIC SWEETHEART NO.1’ TO BE RELEASED ON MARCH 27TH
