Sonic Reducer
Okay. Who are they? Sonic Reducer. Punk band. From Canberra. All 21-years-old. Not quadruplets — I checked. Describe their music as ‘2007-style sleaze punk with a dash of Iggy and a sprinkle of David Byrne’.
Members: Cormac (vocals, he/him, Leo), Lachlan (drums, he/him, Sagittarius), Ryleigh (guitar, he/him, Gemini), and Louie (bass, they/them, Taurus).
Accomplishments: Their debut EP SKEWBALL (2024) received tonnes of critical praise and airplay on Triple J, and their wild live shows have earned them a loyal, rapidly growing fan base from here to Timbuktu, which is to say they have a lot of fans in lots of places. The band recently won both “Best Live Act” and “Artist of the Year” at the 2024 MAMAs awards in Canberra. Frontman Cormac McKahey also won “Best Live Voice” at the 2023 NLMAs, and the band were nominated for “Independent Debut of the Year” at the 2023 MAMAs. Cormac has a Bull Arab named Ziggy. Louie has a cocker-spaniel named Oakey. Lachlan’s kelpie Phillip has one weirdly dilated pupil, but his bearded dragon Steve doesn’t.
Ryleigh’s cats are Archie and Jerry. Sonic Reducer finished off a huge year in 2024 by going on a sold out, 20-date tour with Royel Otis across Europe. So, why have they amassed fans from Dublin to Sydney and also off in some other directions too? One answer is that they are musical geniuses, who stand out based on the strength of their music alone, and their concerts are curated to be more accessible to people.
According to Louie, “I like to think we try to produce music that contains some kind of vulnerability and honesty and doesn’t try to put a machismo shield around itself.
There are six songs on their highly anticipated new EP, SQUEEZE (2025), and in case you haven’t heard, that’s the devil’s number. So, why six? They say it’s because they only wrote that many songs, but one does wonder.