Written by Sosefina Fuamoli
Ecca Vandal has come home.
Mere weeks ahead of the release of her sophomore album, LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW, the musician has found herself back in Australia – on tour with Deftones and embracing another creative peak in a year that has just felt full of them.
From her hotel room in her hometown of Melbourne, Ecca ponders the chaos that has become her life since she returned to releasing music in 2024; testing the waters with new sounds, released online throughout the second half of the year.
“It’s been a ride, especially this year,” she says. “We are tired, but we’re just so energised by everything. We’re just going from one thing to another. We’ll often look at each other and just say, “...What is our life now?” We’re having the best time ever, it’s the most insane experience.”
Building upon the explosive nature of the music with an undeniable live presence that has caught the attention of audiences around the world, the name “Ecca Vandal” is now one that music fans have seen co-signed by the likes of Limp Bizkit, IDLES, Travis Barker, Queens of the Stone Age, current tour-mates Deftones, and many more.
The above names are just scraping the building list of international artists who have found the spirit within Ecca’s genre-defying sounds, and have found connection within it themselves.
Says Ecca of her recent steps into the international spotlight, “We never thought it would happen to us. We feel very lucky and privileged to be not only travelling and seeing the world this way, through art, but just being able to create deep bonds with other creatives who we never thought we’d meet.”
While Ecca herself has been gaining notoriety for her performance edge, striking vocals and visual aesthetics, her live unit – comprising multi-instrumentalist and producer Kidnot and drummer Dan Maio – has been key in the evolution of sound in the live realm in Australia and beyond.
Her artistry has felt natural and at home on global stages at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Osheaga; as it does in theatre and club venues. The types of rooms where walls sweat with condensation, bodies gleefully thrashing along to the charged up performance happening on stage.
New album LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW captures this chemistry perfectly on record; offering the listener a chance to escape, to purge, to achieve that level of catharsis that sometimes, only a primal live show can bring.
For Ecca, taking the time to figure out what a new collection of material would look like - her first since her debut, self-titled album in 2017 - was crucial.
“I really wanted to say something that I really felt,” she admits. “It wasn’t something that I rushed through just because I needed to get something out to stay relevant. I really wanted to say something that was real, and that was going to take time to dig deep on it. I took as much time as I needed to do that.”
“I didn’t feel like anyone was desperate to hear something new from me, so I felt like I could take a moment to hone in on the skills,” she adds. “We worked really hard on it. We put our heads down and worked.”
Taking two years to develop the new work out of a studio created inside Kidnot’s childhood bedroom, Ecca reconnected with the sacred nature of making art again. From there, the ideas and the sounds began to flow.
“It wasn’t a slog, it was the most fun we’ve ever had,” she smiles. “We removed all the pressures that might exist with industry timelines, the online world…all of that extra stuff. We threw it away. I’m proud of that.
We put the blinders on and just worked our asses off. Here we are. That is something I will always be proud of. Some people will say to me that I’m an industry plant or that the label produced us but it’s like…this has all been DIY, through and through.”
Upon first meeting Ecca in 2015, this hustle mentality was evident early. Perhaps there was a kindred spirit found in both being women of colour who were trying to find their place in rooms and music scenes that they didn’t always see themselves represented in. The way she was committed to blazing her own path forward was admirable, especially in Australia; a music space notorious for being difficult to break, even for its own artists.
The success of ECCA VANDAL put her on radars in an impressive way; collaborations with artists including Refused’s Dennis Lyxzén and Letlive’s Jason Aalon Butler providing early hints of what was to come.
Ecca herself, growing up in a household that arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka via South Africa, found her relationship with music starting at home. Growing up in a musical household, she eventually found herself developing a career in music first as a jazz musician and then turning to the DIY and punk spaces that welcomed an air of individuality and improvisation that was fast becoming her signature.
Now, over a decade on from that first meeting, Ecca reflects on how music and a love for the art has kept this spirit alive - even when the pressures of the industry, the pandemic, and other challenges offered a road out that would have been easy to take.
“I was always searching for my community,” Ecca explains. “With my upbringing, finding my identity in Australia, looking for community in so many different scenes…scenes separate us, right? The different genres within those scenes in Australia [can separate]. I was always trying to find where I fit, and where my community was.
That’s why I wanted to try and do this [music] online, I wanted to find my people. People who were drawn to the music, just because they liked it and because they felt something in it. Not because a label had told them it was cool; not because some cool kid in the scene told them to listen to it. You are either with it or not. That’s what’s happened. I’m so grateful that we’ve now found like-minded creatives through that process of the art. It’s about the music.”
“You know what it’s like in Australia,” she wryly smiles. “It’s a place where sometimes it’s really hard to get someone to answer your phone call. To have this happening on the other side of [the world], it’s crazy.”
A believer in divine timing, Ecca Vandal’s next chapter seems to be breaking open exactly when it needs to, for the artist and her team. The “pinch me” moments are becoming the norm for her, but it hasn’t influenced the vision for the music moving forward.
LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW is an album that redefines the above and for newcomers, it’s an opportunity to learn more about one of Australia’s most underrated songwriters and performers, finally getting the flowers she’s always deserved.
“There were definitely times where I was thinking about dropping songs early, dropping the album early,” she says. “[But] I believe everything happens for a reason and this is the time it’s meant to be. I think we’ve been given signs along the way that this is the time. I hope this is the time that people are ready to receive something that is this broad.”
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LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW, the new album from Ecca Vandal arrives May 22nd via Loma Vista Recordings. Order the album - HERE
Ecca Vandal will host an album release party in Los Angeles on May 22nd. Fans can RSVP to receive the location - HERE
Additionally, Ecca Vandal has confirmed headlining dates on her LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW EU/UK Tour set for this September. Tickets are set to go on sale May 22nd. See a list of dates and cities below. Get tickets - HERE
