Being one of the fastest rising bands of a genre doesn't come without hard work, and Stand Atlantic are proof of that – having been near constantly touring for the entirety of 2018. Tonight in London, they're getting ready to warm-up the crowd for State Champs' headlining show at The Roundhouse. "Tonight is..." Bonnie Fraser, vocalist and guitarist of the band pauses to pull a face, "we're scared!" she laughs. "It's cool though, it's nice seeing people know who we are and are singing back. We've toured with State Champs before, so it's nice just being back with some mates" - and this tour is definitely a big mates-fest, with Woes and Seaway also on the bill. It's been a packed-out year for the Sydney natives, with the majority of it spent touring their EP 'Sidewinder', released towards the end of 2017. As the band themselves say on their Facebook page – "13 countries for a 16min EP ain't a bad ratio tbh." Having proved themselves as ones to watch with their debut release, and receiving a Best Breakthrough Artist of 2018 nomination from the Hevy Music Awards along the way, the trio are ready to take things to the next level with their debut full-length 'Skinny Dipping'.

Yesterday was the big day, as the record made its way into the world. “It’s weird because you hold onto [the album] for so long, and then once you finally release it and everyone else gets to hear it, you can kind of sit back and…” she lets out a big sigh, “it’s kind of like a relief in a good way, and people seem to be responding pretty well to it. It’s just exciting.” The album is everything a fan of pure pop-rock would love. Coming in at just over half an hour, it’s got the highs and the lows, the sugary melodies and the gang vocals, and is an unbelievably solid debut. “The EP was helpful because it showed us what people liked and connected with, so we took what we liked from there and put it on the album. We also just expanded on stuff that we didn’t get to do on the EP as well,” she continues, nodding especially to slow-burner ‘Cigarette Kiss’ and acoustic ballad ‘Toothpick’.

Going with their whirlwind theme, lead single ‘Lavender Bones’ was released just under two months before the album. The writing and recording process was pretty high stakes for the band, who used their down-time in between tours to write the album. “We booked a couple of weeks with our producer to flesh out our ideas and shape the album, basically. Then we went away and played Slam Dunk, came back and wrote one more song – which was actually Lavender Bones – and then recorded the album in four weeks. Next thing we know it’s ready to be announced and released. It was fucking insane,” Bonnie details the lead up to the release with a slight disbelief. “I feel like the whole album came together like, way too quickly,” she ruminates, drawing out the ‘way’. “Not too quickly,” she’s quick to add, “it was just a whirlwind. And I don’t think it was normal.” It’s arguable that this turnaround time was exactly right for Stand Atlantic, who are one of– if not the most– hyped bands in the current pop-punk scene. Striking whilst the iron is hot, and delivering a short and catchy record keeps the momentum going– who knows where this release will propel them over the next year and beyond.

They did find some time to lock in some collaborations on the release, notably Hannah Hermione Greenwood of Creeper on ‘Clay’. “It was super organic actually, we were thinking about having a feature on the album but we didn’t want to force it because that’s… just kinda lame,” Bonnie laughs. “She did a cover [of a Stand Atlantic track] on Instagram,” states touring bassist Miki Rich. “Yeah, so we knew she was a fan,” Bonnie continues, “and we are obviously fans of Creeper, because like, how could you not be?! We finally got to meet each other at Slam Dunk and we all got along heaps well, and our manager turned to us and said ‘yo, what do you think if we ask Hannah to feature on one of the songs?’ We said ‘yeah, that sounds like a fucking sick idea, why did we not think of that before?’ So we hit her up and she was like ‘yes’, and we were like ‘thank you’,” and, after a brief pause, she states “and she’s here tonight!” Hinting at a surprise guest performance from Hannah Hermione during their set.

Another highlight of the record is ‘Bullfrog’, which sounds ready-made for festival stages the world over. “It’s so weird because towards the end of the album we had a bunch of songs written which you have to cull down to about ten, and me and Jonno [Panichi, drums] were like ‘no, we don’t want Bullfrog on there’, and then Potter [David Potter, bass] was like ‘No! We’re keeping Bullfrog, it’s the best song!'” she laughs, before Miki explains “it was just something to do with the second verse… and the drums sounded a bit weird,” with Bonnie clarifying: “Yeah, we worked on it for so long that we lost any kind of outside opinion if that makes sense, it was like we couldn’t step away from it. And now everyone’s saying ‘Bullfrog’ is their favourite song! Potter’s sitting there like, ‘fuck you!'”

There are, however, some tracks that didn’t make the album, yet still hold a lot of potential. Writing again with their producer Stevie Knight, who they worked with on ‘Sidewinder’ – “we have sort of a weird chemistry that just seems to really work. He’s almost like an extra member at this point” – they also managed to get together with Jake Bundrick of Mayday Parade for a writing session. “I haven’t even told anyone this, but we wrote with Jake from Mayday Parade. The song didn’t end up on the record, but hopefully later on we can do something with it,” she explains, sounding hopeful that the track will see the light of day at some point.

Later that evening it’s evident that their album has already resonated with a lot of people, as the crowd know all the words to recent tracks ‘Lost My Cool’, ‘Skinny Dipping’ and even non-single track ‘Clay’, which sees Hannah Hermione running on stage singing her verse to a delighted crowd. This is only the beginning for Stand Atlantic, but the reception for them as an opening act is something you’d expect to see for a band a few years further into their career. The future only looks bright for this trio.

‘Skinny Dipping’ is available to listen to now via Hopeless Records.