Stella Mozgawa is an Australian drummer and record producer, best known as a member of the indie rock band Warpaint, with whom she has recorded four studio albums. Alongside her work with Warpaint, Mozgawa is one half of the electronica duo Belief, and is a former member the hard rock collective Desert Sessions.
Growing up in Sydney, Mozgawa was raised by her Polish parents, who had moved from Poland to Australia to perform music together as a musical duo.[2][3]
At age 13, Mozgawa began playing the drums[2] and was initially influenced by the drummer Zac Hanson from the pop band Hanson. She explained, "For a lot of people who are a half-generation older than me it was Tommy Lee, but for me it was Zac Hanson from Hanson. I'm probably in a smaller group of people who were really turned on to the profession by that particular man."[4] At age 14, Mozgawa pretended to be a "20-year-old Polish immigrant with no ID" to perform at Sydney music venues.[2]
With Warpaint
Mozgawa (left) performing with Warpaint
In Los Angeles, Mozgawa befriended Warpaint vocalist and guitarist Theresa Wayman in late 2009. She was subsequently invited to join the band and replaced Shannyn Sossamon.[5] Mozgawa featured in the recording of the band's first album, The Fool (2010). In 2014, the band released its second studio album, Warpaint, with Mozgawa contributing fully to the songwriting process, followed by Heads Up in 2016.
Production
Stella's production credits include Courtney Barnett ("Things Take Time, Take Time" 2021), End of the Day (2023), Cryogeyser ("Love Is Land" 2021), and Hot Wax ("Hot Shock" 2025). She produced the original soundtrack for two seasons of the Apple TV+ show The Buccaneers (2023 TV series) working with various artists including Sharon Van Etten, Gracie Abrams, Madi Diaz, Empress Of, Danielle Ponder, Emily Kokal, Warpaint and Alison Mosshart. .[6]
Belief
In 2022 Stella and producer Bryan Hollon (Boom Bip) released their first album Belief (2022) on Lex Records. The album came from many years of improvised electronic music performances.
Hollon told Talkhouse that the recording process was unusual for both of them, "really what we were inspired by was that kind of early '90s acid house scene, which a lot of times that was one or two people with a bunch of machines hooked into each other playing live, because there really wasn’t a good way to track things in that era separately"
On album track "Dreams" Mozgawa played live hi-hat, snare and percussion, over the programmed drum machines, On "Wot" Mozgawa played the main atonal synthline on an Oberheim synthesiser, then Hollon added further instrumentation.
Speaking to The Line of Best Fit, Hollon described the recording of album track "Ulu", "The pad loop was the foundation and the addition of the 303 bass line brought me back to an era of music we both love. Once the improvised tracks were laid down live, we went back and added a drum break played by Stella and I added a bass guitar."
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
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