New Music

New For '19

New Music: A Swayze & The Ghosts

We're shining a spotlight on the best new Australian artists set to dominate 2019. Our handpicked BREAK OUT stars are the best, buzzworthy up and comers we're certain you need to meet. Welcome Hobart's raucous punk/garage outfit A Swayze & The Ghosts.

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Ticketmaster New Music is your one-stop destination to discover the best emerging live acts before they explode. These are the artists we’re expecting to make waves in the live music scene, and we want you to know about them first.


If introductions are anything to go by, the way Hobart punks A Swayze and The Ghosts burst onto the scene in 2015 set them up for an explosive journey. Taking a page out of the prog-rock textbook, their debut single Reciprocation was a ten-minute long belter – it was an energetic, sweaty meeting to say the least.

The live stage is where A Swayze truly shine, and in the years since, they’ve made a name for themselves around the country through their fierce, choatic, and relentless performances, taking their sound from pubs and bandrooms to festivals including Falls, MONA Faux Mo, and Bigsound, as well as sharing the stage with the likes of Jet, The Vines, and Shame.

Following the release of their 2017 self-titled EP, 2018’s single Suddenly welcomed a more refined A Swayze and The Ghosts. Capturing the urgency and energy of their live show but with an ’80s-tinge, A Swayze and The Ghosts have set themselves up for a huge 2019. Without further ado, here they are.

a swayze and the ghosts

The Story

From the beginning

Guitarist Hendrik Wipprecht: “At around five years old, I became obsessed with Australian rock bands like Silverchair and Grinspoon. I taped a Recovery special on Silverchair and I reckon I watched it most days for about a year. I tried to replicate what they were doing on an old nylon string guitar and never stopped playing.”

What you’ll hear

“It’s the sound of the varying influences of four best mates. We’ve all played in other bands that were all quite different, so naturally when AS&TG was formed the four of us developed a new sound. We’ve always tried to squeeze out as much energy into the sound of our music as we can. I think it’s quite hard to pinpoint our sound from our perspective – it’s much easier as an observer.”

Influences & inspiration

“While there’s a lot of crossover, we do have a lot of separate influences. We’ve all come from different musical places when we were younger. A chunk of my influence lies in what my parents listened to when I was a kid. Also, I’m sitting in the scorching hot sun right now, but Tasmanian winter is COLD and the music we write together during those months is noticeably different. It’s a lot harsher perhaps. The isolation of the state can be a great artistic influencer as well.”

For the love of music

“For me, it’s the development of writing a song. From where the song kicks off in the writing process I find it can change so dramatically upon our agreement of the final arrangement and sound. It’s something that we experience a lot and can be challenging and painful, but if you push through it can be truly satisfying.”

Kicking goals

“When we supported Jet we played some pretty iconic Australian venues including the Forum, Enmore and the Tivoli. That was pretty insane – a lot of the venues were sold out as well, so we were playing to massive crowds who didn’t really know who we were. There were, however, quite a few people in the crowd expecting a band that sounded like JET, which they didn’t get. Honestly though, for m,e it’s been tracking album number one. We’re extremely proud of how it’s sounding so far and are working with some talented people and incredible equipment. We’re really pushing ourselves.”

The hard yards

“To be honest, we’re pretty lucky in the way things seem to flow for us. We absolutely love what we do so we try and leap over the obstacles in our way. It’s always hard trying to juggle a job while touring, but our bosses have generally been pretty cool and understanding of what we’re trying to achieve. The fact that we’re such great mates seems to make challenges really pretty fun.”

The year ahead

“We have some big plans for 2019, one of the main ones being the release of our debut album. We’ll be touring off the back of that through Australia which we’re very excited about. We have a few more plans under wraps but that will have to wait.”

Essential Listening

A Swayze and the Ghosts – Smooth Sailing

“We were filming the clip for Smooth Sailingin a beautiful, old warehouse that had skylights in the roof. Aidan McDonald, our friend who was filming, managed to get this pretty stunning one clip, one take film. We were then told by the owner of the building that we were filming without authorization and that we had to delete the footage – luckily Aidan decided not to press delete. We then managed to organise a deal with the owner to keep the footage and gain the rights.”

A Swayze and the Ghosts – Suddenly

“This track was one of the first we wrote that started taking a slightly stronger direction towards the sound we’ve been pushing for. It has a sharper edge to it, and is a bit of a nod to our late ‘70s / early ‘80s influences. It was suggested that we make a radio edit. We said no.”

A. Swayze & The Ghosts - Suddenly (Official Video)

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