The small crowd of likeminded individuals that form The Maggie Pills may have started their journeys on other sides of the Pacific Ocean, but as the Naarm band can attest to, when you’re concerned with making art that addresses such things as the destruction of land, the displacement of rightful owners, discrimination and sexism, there’s a universal urgency that pulls you together.
This month The Maggie Pills give us further insight into what such a union might result in, sharing the jaunty, hypnotic new single ‘Rip My Heart Out’. The track is jagged and unpredictable, like a broken bottle, but deliberate and loaded with intent, as though those same shattered pieces were formed into the most glorious punk rock mosaic you ever did see. Droney, hazy and cunning, ‘Rip My Heart Out’ invokes a spirit of 90s punk that is both informed and inspired – and for good reason, as vocalist Delfi Sorondo explains.
“‘Rip My Heart Out’ revolves around the love we received (or didn’t receive) from our parents, and how that intertwines with the way we live through romantic love when we become adults,” she shares. “It’s the people we love the most that hold our hearts and the most power to hurt us…The song is about that complex presence of both pain and sadness reigning over those needs that were never met, and how there is also a big love and desire to always have that person in our lives because they are a part of us.”
The Maggie Pills formed back in 2019, when members Delfi Sorondo and Mario Perez got right to it, building the band after just a month of arriving. As we now know, the following period was one of the worst, ever, for musicians, however the group stayed true to the cause, sharing their debut album the following year and backing it up with a follow-up single in 2021 before letting loose’ Rip My Heart Out’, which will be available officially as a double 7″ that features fellow Naarm comrades, The Miffs.
Quickly earning a soft spot nationally and pricking up many ears over the globe in the process, The Maggie Pills now return to the studio with the confidence that they know what they’re doing, and what they’re doing sounds good.
