The band dives into adolescence, addiction, and the magic of sloppy guitar.
Melbourne/Sydney alt-rockers Awaiting Connection have carved out a chaotic yet melodic sound, blending emo, shoegaze, and off-kilter ‘90s rock into something entirely their own.
Formed on the Central Coast with childhood bonds at its core, vocalist Clam, guitarist Cosmo, and bassist Amy, the band has since expanded with powerhouse drummer Nic, refining their dynamic on their EP, first time living.
The record captures the turbulence of adolescence and early adulthood, fusing raw lyricism with explosive percussion, warm basslines, and jagged guitar work.
From their scrappy debut Flatlined to the defining Insane Aquarium, their evolution is as unpredictable as their Call of Duty-inspired name.
In this interview, the band discusses hometown nostalgia, collaborative songwriting, and their love for sloppy-but-inspired guitar heroes.
With plans for live shows and new music brewing, Awaiting Connection is just getting started—and they’re doing it on their own terms.
Happy: First of all, what’d you get up to today?
Cosmo: We all practiced today, Amy was still in Sydney though,
Amy: I spent the day looking into pedals for my bass.
Nic: We also took an impromptu visit to the music shop after Clam’s cheap cash converters vocal monitor blew up.
Happy: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
Amy: Our hometown is pretty sick, highly rate the Reptile Park. If you get a chance, go hang about with the kangaroos that they let walk around the park.
But yeah growing up in a small community was great, it was nice being able to walk down the road and visit friends, ride bikes and do shit because everyone lived so close to each other and knew each other.
Happy: How did Awaiting Connection form, and what’s the story behind the name?
Clam: Awaiting Connection started when I left my old metal band, and I heard that Cosmo was looking to form a band. I’ve known Cosmo for like, my whole life because he was mates with my older brother.
The first rough idea we put down was trying to emulate a similar sound to Ween, with Cosmo sharing a lot of his old instrumentals that we started fleshing out. He sent me a rough instrumental, which turned into Flatlined.
As we were working on Flatlined, we showed a rough version to my older sister Amy who then joined us as our bassist, and we finished up the track with a session drummer.
Flatlined came out a lot different from our original idea, which led us to create the double single, Insane Aquarium, which kinda defined our sound going forward.
As for the name, back when we were younger we’d all play Call Of Duty Black Ops Zombies online, and back then we would always have network problems, and see the message ‘Awaiting connection… ‘ while it loaded.
So it became a bit of an inside joke and we just thought it was a funny name for a band.
Happy: You started as a trio on the Central Coast. How has moving between Melbourne and Sydney influenced your sound and dynamic as a band?
Cosmo: Well, the main thing was that we found Nic, which heavily influenced our sound a lot. But otherwise we’ve always worked online for the most part, so nothing changed too much when we moved states because we’ve been so used to recording and sending each other stuff online.
Hopefully though soon Amy will be joining us in Melbourne where we can all be in the same place and write together more often in person.
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Happy: ‘first time living’ explores themes of adolescence and adulthood. Are there any personal experiences that inspired these songs?
Clam: A lot of what I wrote about on the EP come from real experiences.
Like, Snake Charmer is about a fear of addiction and how that’s perceived socially, or Keyframe, which was inspired initially by a Better Call Saul plotline, before pivoting to the experience of moving out from home, falling into mundanity and the regularity of life.
Maybe one day though we will release the Better Call Saul version of Keyframe too..
Happy: Can you walk us through the writing and recording process for ‘first time living’? Was it collaborative, or did certain members take the lead on different tracks?
Amy: Either Cosmo or myself would write a section of a track, whether the intro or chorus, and hand it to the other to build off of. All the while, Clam would be listening to each new version, writing lyrics and coming up with melodies as the song progressed.
We’d basically never have a fully finished and mapped out track until all of us had played a part. We’re excited to see how Nic’s addition will play into our process!
Nic: I’m just in it for the money
Happy: Your guitar work has a ’90s off-kilter vibe, who are some of your biggest guitar inspirations?
Cosmo: I’d say I’m inspired by the whole, like, 90’s alternative rock era. I like the intentional sloppiness of guitarists like Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan. I think their style and way of playing really inspired me when I first started learning guitar especially and as someone who is quite a sloppy player myself.
But also I love the songwriting of artists like Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, Rivers Cuomo and Jonny Greenwood who I think as songwriters do a lot of interesting things in the way they write their guitar parts and especially chord progressions.
Right now though more recently I’ve been listening to a lot of more modern artists like Black Country New Road (Isaac Wood, Luke Mark), julie (Keyan Pourzand), Whirr (Nick Bassett) and Big Thief (Adrianne Lenker) all of whose respective guitarists I have a tonne of admiration for and all of which are doing some really cool stuff in their genres.
Happy: What do you hope listeners take away from ‘first time living’?
Nic: I just hope they enjoy it and want to come back for more, see what’s next.
Cosmo: Yeah I hope people connect with it, that they like the sound we are trying to create across our songs.
Clam: I’m just glad Cosmo and Nic’s dads have really liked Insane Aquarium.
Happy: What’s next for Awaiting Connection? Any plans for touring, more new music, or experimenting with different styles?
Cosmo: We are excited to get started playing live, also to work on new songs and experiment with a bunch of genres for our next release.
Clam: I love the stuff we are working on currently, I’m really excited to show people the songs we are experimenting with.
Cosmo: Hopefully for a full album next.
Happy: Lastly, what makes you happy?
Nic: My two cats
Cosmo: Well now I can’t say my two cats. So I’ll say making music with my friends makes me pretty happy
Amy: I like being able to make music and be in a band with my little brother. That’s something that makes me happy
Clam: yeah Amy is cool, I guess
Amy: yep brilliant..
