Interviews (255)

• July 3, 2026
• Colleen Johnson
• 10
• 0

Last time I caught up with Melbourne, Australia’s Windwaker, the band was fresh off the release of HYPERVIOLENCE and on their first North American run. Fast-forward two years, and the band just finished up their fourth stint in North America, which served as their first headlining tour! The band was feted by Colorblind and If Not For Me on the run, a co-headliner between the three bands, and apparently fast friends, in talking to all three acts’ frontmen that night. The bands could be seen watching each other’s sets through the night, with no one being the big dog on the tour. The bands rotated every night, and from the beginning of the Boston show, the room was already honestly filled up by the time the first band took the stage that night.

Just a few hours before the set, I got the chance to speak with vocalist Liam Guinane about the run, the tour essentials he’s packing in his suitcase these days, and a little bit of chatter about an album to come later this year. The album should be hitting in time for their next visit to MA, where they will be part of a truly stacked line-up in support to Beartooth at MGM Fenway! For now, to hold you over,  you can find my chat with Liam below!

—

New England Sounds: I  chatted with you on that first North American run, and obviously, you’ve been back since.

Liam Guinane: This is our fourth time in North America, yeah.

NES: And it’s the last show of the tour tonight.  How has it been for you guys on this run? 

Liam:  It’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed this tour for a number of reasons. One, just the other two bands are the best. They’re real big sweethearts, and we’ve all been really good at supporting each other. The other reason is that I’ve been so impressed with the turnouts every night. We weren’t really sure, being this co-headliner, how many tickets we’d sell. And like, every night has felt really, really full. So yeah, no, I’ve really enjoyed this tour, and it’s kind of bittersweet that it’s come to a head. But it’s also been really hard and tiring as well. So we’re kind of excited to go home. 

NES: Patty  (of If Not For Me) told me that he’s trying to push the tour to Australia. 

Liam: We’ve already come up with a name for it as well, this one has obviously been Hounds of the Underground, I want to do an Australian version called Hounds of the Down Underground. 

NES: Then I know from looking at it, you’ll be back in Boston in November, so not too long from now. 

Liam: Yeah, yeah, with Beartooth. 

NES: It will be a bit of a bigger room, but it’s kind of old hat to you at this point. I know Australia is quite the country to tour, distance-wise, but maybe what are like the three things you’ve realized you must have with you, now that you’ve done North America multiple times? 

Liam: So, I always need to have a really good pillow, like to sleep on. I invested a little bit more in one this tour at Walmart. And it’s paying dividends. I always make sure that I have my Bluetooth earbuds in. I just wear them all the time, I wear them to sleep, I wear them when I’m setting up, during sound-checking, and I wear them on the plane. It’s a long flight and everything. So that’s probably like three main things. I could probably think of other things like, I have to bring my humidity mask for the plane. It’s not really like a touring thing; it’s a plane thing. 

NES: Then, when you did that first North American tour, Hyperviolence had just come out. You released the teaser of songs, so taking it back a few years. I know it’s been about two years, you probably can’t say much, but you released the single, you released the new track in April. How do you feel the songwriting process has been? Has it fallen into a pretty steady rhythm when it comes to it? 

Liam: With new music, you mean? I’ll tell you that we’ve finished our new album, and our new album, it should be coming out later this year. Probably a little bit before we come back out for Beartooth. And we worked out what singles we’re going to be putting out from it, which has been really challenging. Because I think all the songs could be singles, but we’ve sort of mapped out the timeline now. So now it’s just like full-speed ahead now, until we announce it. So yeah, I can’t say when we’re going to announce it, but we are going to announce it soon. So yeah, it’s exciting. 

 

NES: Then there’s a lot going on with Beartooth right now, Caleb coming out recently, and the positive reactions I’ve seen. Obviously, a band that has spent so much time touring, how was it to get that call? 

Liam: For Beartooth? Yeah, really great. So when I wasn’t the vocalist in the band, we did one tour in Australia with Beartooth, and Caleb and the band got on really well. So we’re really excited to be given this other call to come to America to do these shows. So yeah, really exciting. The biggest rooms that we’ll have ever played here in the States. And we’ve already started the planning of how we’re going to build that show, and how we’re going to at least try to make an impression on everybody. I know we really want to make the most of it. 

 

NES: I’ve been doing this for quite a while, but I’m pretty sure the first time I interviewed Attack Attack, before he even became Beartooth, he had skipped his prom to play that night’s show. 

Liam: He skipped prom? Wow. That’s a big deal right, isn’t prom? Oh my god. 

NES: I’m aging myself, but I remember he skipped prom to be there. 

Liam: That’s amazing. I can’t even imagine doing that. We don’t really get prom in Australia, but that sounds like a big deal. 

NES: He was probably like I think this is more important. 

Liam: Yeah, when you’re in a band, you make these sacrifices. That’s what it’s all about: you make these sacrifices.

NES: Then, on a bit of a sad note, I know the band Enter Shikari just had to cancel their tour here because of visa issues. And it’s becoming increasingly harder for bands to come over here and play internationally. You’ve been steadily coming here, but maybe some advice to bands that haven’t come here to the States yet? To keep at it, as cheesy as it may sound. 

Liam: Well, as far as the visa thing, we’re in our final year. We’re actually going to be in the process of renewing it soon. It’s come up quite quickly, but as far as bands making it over here that are from outside the US. I think like, really keep working hard on your own territory. Try to make relationships with people outside of the country. Like with people that you tour with. Say you’re from the UK, make relationships with American bands that are coming over to the UK, maybe do some tours together, and then they invite you to come over as well. It’s an easy way to break into a new market, but the thing that I’ve always like learned, especially being from Australia, an area where we’re so isolated, is we really have to conquer our own territory before we start introducing new markets. And it took us so many years to come over here for the first time; now that we’ve done it once, it’s been quite steady. And we’ve been quite strategic on how often we come, and how long we kind of leave it as well. But yeah, I guess for any other band, keep steadily making progress in your own country. Build relationships with people, and you’ll be over here in no time. 

NES: Then you talked about it a little bit before, what’s to come in the future, you’re going to be on tour with Beartooth, you have a new album coming. Maybe hopes or goals, as cheesy as it may sound, for Windwaker over these next few months? 

Liam: Um, yeah, one kind of funny goal that I have is that I want a song on this album to overtake the success of like “Sirens”. Whatever that song is, I want it to be the new top song over “Sirens”. I’m so proud of “Sirens” and how well it’s done for us over the years. But I would really love a new one to be loved as much as that song. I think we have a few contenders for that with the new music, but that would definitely be a goal of mine. Also, just getting to come back here more and more often. I’d love to do some more festivals over here, and do some festivals in the UK, that would be great. Possibly a really big pipe-dream kind of goal would be to break into Japan and other Asian markets as well. But we’ll see how we’ll go, with all the other stuff coming up. 

NES: You’re a busy band. 

Liam: Yeah, that’s right.

—

You can catch Windwaker back in town when they are here with Beartooth on November 11th! It’s a STACKED lineup that also features Don Broco and Magnolia Park! Pick up your tickets here!