"We've Always Swung Until The Last Bell": Banks Arcade Are Underdogs With Bite On 'Second Place Superstar'

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Published September 28, 2026 by David James Young

“I’m definitely an overthinker,” admits Josh O’Donnell – the softly-spoken but loudly-screamed vocalist of Melbourne-via-Auckland metalcore futurists Banks Arcade.

Nursing a coffee while overlooking the merch warehouse where the band often rehearses, he’s considering how much the process of making their 2022 debut Future Lovers coloured the creation of its freshly-released follow-up, Second Place Superstar.

After all, it’s been said one has a lifetime to make their debut album and six months to make their second. It’s something that has weighed on O’Donnell’s mind, but the frontman has also approached curing Second Album Syndrome with a sense of practicality.

“I think that I try to answer these questions by not reverse engineering what actually happened,” he says. “Often, as creative people, we can ideate about all of these things and we can have all of these grand plans for how something works. But really, the best creative work happens when we get out of our own way and just let shit happen.

“It really just comes down to thinking, where are you at the time? Where’s the world at large at the time? How do these things coalesce with whatever skills you have and equipment you have access to?”

Second Place Superstar, as such, is a product of its environment. A collision course between surging metallic guitars, digital flourishes and smash-cut genre switch-ups, the accomplished 12-track effort takes all of the ambition that has revolved around the band’s defiantly-eclectic sonic palette and fully realises it.

When queried as to which song O’Donnell felt best reflected the progression made from Future Lovers on the album, the frontman puts forward the slamming, big-swinging ‘Know Me’ as effectively the lynchpin of Second Place Superstar. “It all kind of happened in a whirlwind,” he says.

“I think that we’ve always been very eclectic, and we’ve always pulled from lots of different influences, but we’ve lacked the ability to have cohesion – to have everything fit together and sound like its own thing. On that song, I felt a lot of the same things that we’d explored previously – those blends of electronica, hip-hop and metalcore – but I felt it come together in its own a lot more.”

O’Donnell co-produced Second Place Superstar alongside mixing and mastering engineer Sam Bassal (also of Ocean Grove), but crucially also did so with drummer James Feekes.

Having first joined the band during lockdown in 2020, shortly after the release of their second EP Fever Dream, Feekes has become one of O’Donnell’s most trusted collaborators.

Having handled most of Banks Arcade’s songwriting and production duties by himself, O’Donnell describes Feekes’ growing involvement in both camps as revelatory – and, most important, vital to the operation of Second Place Superstar as an album.

“What happened in the past is I would write something, and then we’d essentially set out on this mission to make that thing sound better,” he says.

“If you’ve ever written music, of course, you’d know that what you did initially – while you were in the moment – was usually the best thing. Even though we would make it more polished, we would lose that essence. Having James more involved stages meant a lot of that polish was already there, so we could capture more of that lightning in a bottle in the vocal takes and guitar takes. I think that made a big difference.”

The album’s title stems from a lyric on the track ‘Rockstar’, in which O’Donnell espouses the benefits of carrying yourself with confidence even if it seems as though you’re up against it.

“We’re all the same/Burned out and broke hearts/We’re just second place superstars,” he sings. So, what does being a second place superstar entail, exactly?

“We’re all from really small towns, and just it’s really hard to break out of that underdog mindset,” O’Donnell explains.

“We haven’t really felt like we’ve ever won in life, or even in music. We haven’t ever been the been the hot new band everyone’s hyped on, but we’ve always swung until the last fucking bell and given it everything we’ve got.

“I think there’s something in not being a winner, and being a little bit of an outsider; having heart, and never letting that go. That’s our essence, and there’s so many examples of that from from Australia and New Zealand, whether it be athletes or musicians – people that have like gone out and and really punched above their weight.”

Really, the notion of the second class superstar can even be tied further to the fact that the band was formed in New Zealand – a country far more known for coming-of-age popstars like Lorde or twinkly indie-rock like The Beths than for its heavy scene, despite having its own history of grassroots metal and hardcore.

Although they now reside in Melbourne, and feature Wagga Wagga-born guitarist Benny Canham in their ranks, the Aotearoan roots of Banks Arcade still hold strong. “Even though we’ve been in Australia for a long time, we always say we’re a band from New Zealand, and that does mean something to me,” says O’Donnell.

By that same token, however, he acknowledges the complicated feelings that come with this identity stamp. “The tall-poppy thing is very real over there,” he says. “There’s a lot of people that just want to cut down bands and talk shit on them, so coming to Australia we kind of expected everyone to hate us – but then, everyone was really nice and helped uplift us. In America, it’s somehow even more like that.”

“Everyone’s building these communities, and if someone’s doing well they elevate them. I want that for New Zealand. We we’ve been talking about ways we can try and give back, and help some younger bands over there, and it’s definitely something that we care about. That’s something that we’re going to be putting work into through this cycle.”

With the album out and a run of national tour dates locked in with From Ashes to New next month, Banks Arcade are ready to dedicate the foreseeable future to getting Second Place Superstar in as many ears and on as many eyes as possible.

The ambitions for it even reach beyond merely getting new fans out of it, too: As far as O’Donnell is concerned, he wants the album to especially have an impact back home.

“Inspiration and motivation are the things that I really hope to impart,” he says – a sense of clarity overtaking his voice. “I’ve actually never spoken about this, but I’m I’m I’ve just kind of come to this realisation recently.”

“I want this music to help people go on their own path and be true to both themselves and what their desires are. Maybe some kids from New Zealand will hear it and be like, ‘wow, these guys have played in Europe and played in America and they’re from here. If they can do it, we can do it’. And then, they start a band. If we can have that kind of impact, that’s ideal for me.”

Second Place Superstar is out now via Arising Empire. It can be purchased via BanksArcade.com. Catch the band on tour with From Ashes to New across Australia next month, with all dates listed below.