Y STREET

‘Euphoria’ hits with that raw, distorted garage energy but still feels tightly locked in rhythmically. How did the song come together in the rehearsal room, and what were the early versions like?

“Euphoria” came together organically through our rehearsals. We’ll usually start by jamming as a band and letting ideas develop naturally, with everyone adding their own parts. If something feels like it has potential, we’ll record the jam and revisit it later. Over a few rehearsals the song gradually took shape, becoming tighter each time we played it. During that process we experimented with different guitar lines and vocal melodies, refining the arrangement until the right parts clicked and the song locked in rhythmically the way it does now.

The track captures that moment where excitement and obsession start to blur together. What inspired the themes behind the song, and what does ‘euphoria’ mean to you in this context?

The song explores that intense rush of euphoria and the surge of adrenaline that comes with it. We wanted to capture that feeling in a raw, energetic way.

“Euphoria” can come from different places for different people, whether that’s moments, memories, obsessions, or fleeting highs. Keeping it open-ended felt important, so listeners can bring their own experiences to it and find their own meaning within the song.

There’s a sense of controlled chaos in the guitars and rhythm section. When you’re building a track like this, how do you balance the messy, explosive garage rock feel with something that still grooves?

The constant rolling rhythm really anchors the track and keeps everything moving forward. Having that steady groove in place gives us the freedom to let other elements like the guitars feel a bit more chaotic and explosive in places.

That groove becomes the framework that the rest of the song is built around, so even when things get noisy or messy, there’s always something underneath holding it together and keeping it locked in.

Annie Coles and Raoul Spielren have recently joined the band. How has the new line-up changed the chemistry of Y STREET, both creatively and in the rehearsal room?

The addition of Annie and Raoul to the Y STREET family has been hugely positive. Not only are they both incredibly talented musicians, but they’ve also been good friends of ours for a long time, so the chemistry in the rehearsal room felt natural from the start.

Raoul’s explosive drumming has really pushed the rhythmic side of the band forward. His playing is powerful but also really detailed, which adds a new level of energy to the songs. Annie brings a strong musical instinct and presence that complements the sound in a natural way, and together they’ve helped open new creative possibilities for the band. It’s made the whole process feel fresh and exciting again.

The final section of ‘Euphoria’ spirals into a kind of cyclical crescendo. Was that ending always part of the song, or did it evolve naturally as you played it together?

From memory, that section really evolved naturally during the writing process. As we kept jamming the song in rehearsals, the ending gradually grew into that cyclical crescendo. It felt like the most natural way for the track to build and release its energy.

We often joke about Matty’s lyrics in that section because they lean into some of the classic pillars of rock ’n’ roll: driving fast, sex, and summertime. It adds a bit of irony to the ending while the music just keeps spiralling and building around it.

‘Euphoria’ is the first taste of your debut album arriving in May 2026. How does the single reflect the broader sound and themes of the record?

The album is quite a varied listen in terms of genre. Across the record we move through a range of styles, from more folk-leaning songs with rich instrumental arrangements featuring strings, pedal steel, and saxophone, through to tracks with post-punk energy and others that lean into more psychedelic and progressive rock influences.

Without divulging too much about the album, the record really unfolds like a journey. It moves through different moods and emotional shifts, with moments of intensity sitting alongside more reflective passages. In that sense, “Euphoria” represents one of the more explosive sides of the album, but it’s just one piece of a broader sonic patchwork.

That shifting, unpredictable character is part of the reason we called the album ‘The Bizarre Marsupial’ — a slightly tongue-in-cheek way of describing something distinctly Australian that changes temperament around every corner.