tunesday – a quick chat with krystal maynard

Happy tunesday y’all! Krystal Maynard is the main lyricist, synth-player and vocalist of screensaver, who you can listen to on the band’s newest single, "Future Trash", down below.

We recently had a chinwag with Krystal about making this album, as well as how the Australian punk scene has changed over the years.

Where did your love for music come from? My Dad was a huge record collector and as a child, I used to rifle through his crates to find album covers of female artists. I discovered a lot of great music at an early age this way – Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, X-Ray Spex, Kim Wilde, Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield, to name a few. He passed away in 2018, but I connected to him a lot through our shared love of music since it was a huge part of our relationship and we bonded deeply over it.

screensaver's sound is mixed and varied. How would you describe it to a stranger? It’s a combination of 80s post-punk, new wave, electronica, krautrock and synth-punk with an underlying pop sensibility. It’s dark but it’s danceable.

What, or who inspired your music style over time? I have and continue to be inspired by other women and GNC musicians like Nico, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Siouxsie Sioux, Joan Jett and Blondie to contemporary artists like Molly Nilsson, Anika, Sneaks, Optic Sink and Sweeping Promises. Living in Melbourne, a big music city, I’m also surrounded by so many talented musician friends who are a constant source of inspiration.

You have been involved in the Australian music scene for many years, especially the Australian punk scene. What kind of challenges or observations have you faced in terms of gender or cultural heritage, and how have you seen the scene change for the better? I was recruited into a Riot Grrl band when I was a teenager and this was a really interesting experience. It was a bit of a rollercoaster but it taught me a lot about DIY and learning to play and write with other people. The scene in Perth in the mid-2000s was quite rough. It was a boys’ club; people were pretty keen to keep women in their place. There were a lot of misogynists and neo-Nazis. I recall being called too PC, but being Asian-Australian I hardly wanted to sit around listening to people try to defend their use of swastikas in local gig posters.

Playing music in Melbourne has been a much better experience for me. Music scenes have become more inclusive and safer in the past decade. Growing up in Australia as a mixed-race person has had a multitude of challenges over the years, and a big part of my personal growth for me has been to stop trying to minimise my cultural heritage and learn to be open and proud of it. It’s still a work in progress but I’ve come a long way.

Talk to us about screensaver's new album, Decent Shapes. How has it transitioned from your earlier releases? The songs on Decent Shapes feel like a natural transition from our first album. We’ve broadened our sonic palette to let in more influences, from Italian disco to the dance-y side of post-punk. We like the core sound of what we do, so we never wanted to throw that out, more so evolve and grow the foundations to open up what we do.

How would you describe the creative process of making this album? We like to try lots of different things when writing an album. We swapped instruments to refresh our approach to songwriting and we experimented with a range of synths. We like to bring songs to the table in a variety of ways like improvising in the jam room, individual members making demos at home, writing remotely sending tracks back and forth or building off a single riff or groove.

What song from Decent Shapes are you most excited to perform live? There are three songs on the album that we’ve never played live, “Signals”, “Cancellation Notice” and “No Vacation”. We’ll be playing them live for the first time at the launch (which is simultaneously exciting and a little bit nerve-wracking)!