Party Dozen

Last updated

Party Dozen
Party Dozen op het Valkhof Festival 2025.jpg
Party Dozen in 2025
Background information
Origin Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Genres
Years active2015–present
Labels
Members
Mutations Festival, Brighton 2025 Party Dozen at Mutations Festival Brighton, 7 November 2025 01.jpg
Mutations Festival, Brighton 2025

Party Dozen are an Australian noise rock duo from Sydney, formed in the mid-2010s by saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and drummer Jonathan Boulet. The band have released four studio albums, The Living Man (2017), Pray for Party Dozen (2020), The Real Work (2022) and Crime in Australia (2024). [1] [2] The track "Macca the Mutt" on The Real Work features a guest vocal by Nick Cave. [1]

Contents

History

Formation and The Living Man (2015–2018)

Tickle and Boulet first met in 2009 when Boulet stopped in Brisbane while on tour with his band Parades and stayed with Tickle and her sister, who were then playing in indie pop group Little Scout. [1] The two kept in touch and later spent time in London, where they began jamming and experimenting with ideas. [3] [4]

After working on individual projects, Boulet relocated to Berlin around 2013 in search of a heavier, more aggressive musical direction, while Tickle was also moving away from indie pop toward more experimental work. During a period when both were living in Berlin, the pair began developing a two-piece project built around saxophone, drums and electronics, working under the name Top People on "sludgy, doomy" material that would eventually evolve into Party Dozen. [3] [5]

By 2015–2016 the pair were back in Australia and began performing together in Sydney. The duo recorded their debut album, The Living Man, in a small Marrickville studio. It was released through their own label Grupo in 2017. [5]

Pray for Party Dozen (2019–2021)

Party Dozen's second album, Pray for Party Dozen, was released on Grupo on 22 May 2020. [4] Written and recorded in a small rehearsal room in Marrickville, the record further explored the duo's improvisational approach, building songs from loops and live takes with minimal overdubs. [4] Tickle expanded her pedalboard and effects palette, while Boulet handled recording, mixing and mastering. [5]

The album helped the band move beyond Sydney's DIY circuit and led to festival appearances in Australia. [4]

The Real Work and Nick Cave collaboration (2022–2023)

The band's third album, The Real Work, was released in July 2022 through Grupo and the US label Temporary Residence Limited. [1] The record broadened their sound with more varied loops, organ and piano samples and moments of relative restraint alongside their usual noise-rock intensity. [6]

The Real Work attracted wider international attention in part due to the track "Macca the Mutt", which features a guest vocal from Nick Cave. According to the band, they sent Cave the nearly finished song via management, and he contributed an improvised coda vocal that they incorporated unchanged. [1] Cave later described Party Dozen as "a force of nature". [1] The album received positive reviews and appeared on year-end lists, including NME's list of the best Australian albums of 2022. [7]

Crime in Australia (2024–present)

In 2024 Party Dozen released their fourth album, Crime in Australia, again recorded in their Marrickville studio and released via Grupo and Temporary Residence on 6 September 2024. [8] The record was conceived as a kind of soundtrack to a fictional Australian crime film, drawing on the visual and thematic atmosphere of local crime movies and television such as Two Hands , Chopper , Wake in Fright , Mr Inbetween and other Australian noir works. [8]

Around the album's release the band toured the UK and Europe and continued to appear at Australian festivals. [2]

Band members

Discography

Studio albums

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cahill, Mikey (8 July 2022). "Party Dozen: "There's no way we were going to give Nick Cave notes"". NME. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  2. 1 2 Heywood, Benji (30 September 2024). "The Crimes of Party Dozen". Post-Trash. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  3. 1 2 Young, David James (3 September 2024). ""I was on my own, envisioning lots of people": The lost solo years of Party Dozen's Jonathan Boulet". The AU Review. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Pray For Party Dozen is on the way: "Party Dozen is a band that no one asked for, so I think it's funny, the idea of praying for us"". Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie Zine. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 Smethurst, Nick (12 January 2018). "Interview: The Sydney Duo Behind Exhibitionist's Immaculate Pop and Party Dozen's Noisy Jams". Reverb. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  6. ↑ Newton, Caleb R. (13 July 2022). "Interview: Party Dozen's Jonathan Boulet, Kirsty Tickle Talk Entrancing New LP, The Real Work". New Noise Magazine. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  7. ↑ "The 25 best Australian albums of 2022". NME. 16 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  8. 1 2 Moir, Tammy (3 July 2024). "Party Dozen talk new music: A dose of punky shoegaze & plenty of sax!". Happy Mag. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
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