Like a soundtrack to your own little movie. You’re a passenger in a beat-up Nissan Datsun being driven by a man that looks like a cross between Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing and the ‘Elephant Man’. Scared shitless and on the run from the cops, you’ve been caught up in a weird and wildly personable tale of family affairs and revenge, as the policemen who are hunting you down are pissed you uncovered their horrifying collection of gargantuan killer mosquitos, bred to bring down the owner of the local Chinese restaurant. Of course, you’re watching this all through a ‘car windscreen’ point-of-view which is obviously parked inside the garage studio of the financially over-leveraged producer. It is all a bit weird yet relatable and somehow comforting in its horror. Because it is all definitely fun, and here’s to it.


But I’m sure these are just my own imagined constructs of a wild cult-film soundtrack that strangely hits me in the feelies - one that seems like it’s got to be taking the piss, but convinces you there is certainly something deeper going on. Across Here’s To Fun, The Faculty do exactly that. There’s a weird sense that whatever is prodded or poked at in these songs are meant to be laughed at with your friends after you’ve cried.

For those searching for their dose of isolation punk ferocity to reminds themselves of the good old times in Melbourne, The Faculty’s performance is pure raucous - built with guitar lines that can have a sometimes dissonant and haunting edge to them, alongside a glorious pounding floor tom beat. But leading the charge here is frontwoman Maquarie Fletcher. She has a voice that’s constantly multilayered, communicating her overtones, undertones and all other tones through vocal quivers, shouts, screams. Listening to her voice is like reading someone’s body language during a conversation. You take away an accumulative reading of the conversation that is more than the sum of the words spoken.

In all, Here’s to Fun is certainly a greater mass than its sum of drums, guitar, bass and vocals. It’s an absolute bombardment in all its nervy, frenzied glory. You’ll be reminded of the time you had one too many beautiful pints at your favourite music venue and (I’m sure) woke up with the words ‘Alexis Texas' stamped on your forehead, wearing your new favourite band t-shirt courtesy of The Faculty.

Call it punk rock, proto-punk or just rock, it’s all applicable. Grizzly, sharp and attacking balls of energy. They’ve been called murder rock too which I had to google for a definition but even that applies I guess. Listen to this EP and have some fun. Do it.

To help us make a little more sense of the chaos, we managed to catch up with The Faculty and have a little chat to Maquarie about their release.

TJ: There is a fine line between taking the piss and being a cliché, but you guys nail it - the perfect blend of tongue-in-cheek and serious, clever undertones. How do you do it?

TF: We are the Watermelon Perrier of punk rock, the Vegemite Shapes of rock and roll.

What a time for The Faculty to be putting out some music, did you ever think about holding onto Here’s To Fun, or had it been a while coming anyway so better out than in?

Haha it’s the flipside for us because it basically took the pandemic for us to actually release it! We’ve been sitting on it for like a year or so and just hadn’t finished artwork and bits and pieces, so it was actually kind of a blessing for us - it only takes a global pandemic for the Fac to release stuff, Fac-praxis.

Clearly you are a film and TV fan, tell us about your love of film, any films or eras you’d love to give a shout out too? Do you see the EP as some sort of concept piece or just a collection of everything The Faculty has done to this point?

I love everything! I don’t really believe in the notion of high or low brow films, I think there is merit in pretty much everything if you are searching for it. As far as my own taste goes, the EP’s lyrics are littered with references to the daggy old stuff I love - the song ‘Blue Movie’ is kind of based on this really brilliant Australian film Shame that’s essentially set in rural Australia in the 80’s and also kind of climaxes lyrically with me talking about sitting and watching a movie after a breakup and it being my respite and solace.

My brother said to me recently that the time people have spent going to university or in relationships I just spent in my room watching movies or going on the internet, that’s probably true. I just watched this film Cinemania about cinephiles in New York that was like really confronting because I saw elements of myself in the subjects LOL. 

Tell us about the day you all met? And if it was made into a film, who would play each member?

Well we’re named after the film The Faculty, originally we were called Brainscan which is a sick 90’s Eddie Furlong movie. I am gonna get in trouble answering this but I think we’d be in a Little Rascals type flick, a real rag tag bunch. Lorrae and I would be played by Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, Tommy would be played by Dewy from Malcolm in the Middle, James would be played by young Matt Dillon and Alex would be played by Macauly Culkin. We had our first practice at Lorrae’s old house and her neighbours cracked the shits - very Little Rascals vibe.

Talk us through ‘Mr Sardonicus’. That’s a scary image for a song, is it directed at anyone or just an ode?

Haha! I’d like to  think “One day I hope Nick Cave and Glenn Danzig have a fight to the death” isn’t too ambiguous but it’s also about a movie Mr Sardonicus who is this dumbass dude who fucks his life up by becoming a ghoul, and me hoping we get nuked so I don’t have to clean my room so hopefully some of it is prophetic.

Tell us about recording on four-track with Al Montford, was recording this way a new or different experience for you all? Why a four-track?

I don’t know what a four-track is tbh, I just go in 2 the booth and drop thee truth HAHAHA. Honestly no idea - there’s a reel? The fellas played their guitars into their amps, something like that. Al was wearing headphones? Reel to reel? Does that sound about right?

’Cut and Colour’, surely a tale about experiences as a hairdresser. You all must have a love/hate relationship with people by this stage. Is this why your songs tend to focus on people as subjects?


Yeah, Alex (guitar) who sings that one and I are both hairdressers so we thought it’d be funny to write a song about mixing up toners and bleach for our coiffure fans, but it’s also a rly cute love song about how he loves his girlfriend. For me the personal is political maybe? Writing about the daily grind but make it fashion? 


Tell us about playing at Meredith. What’s better: playing at the Sup or watching from the hill? We know you’re all big rock stars these days but were you all a little bit nervous?

Oh my god we were absolutely shitting ourselves. I don’t drink or anything so I was stone cold steve sober which probably made it so much worse. But I chucked on a suit and that helped. We also had a nice little row of familiar faces up front which made it so much easier. We also got a sick rider which I could get used to. Meredith said yes to our request for a fidget spinner, magic 8 ball and box of Wonka raspberry twisters so to say it was a life peak would be an understatement.

What makes a ‘made man’?


I have taken the oath of omertà so I cannot answer that I’m sorry.


Do you like the idea that people will attribute your lyrics to your own experiences or is being a little bit vulnerable exciting? Honesty and insight is still cool isn’t it?

I think I don’t think before I act a lot (Scorpio) and I don’t know if it’s sunken in yet that what’s going on in my noggin’ can now be kind of heard by the world. Woopsie daisy. Radical honesty is the best policy though. Like are all these bands singing about working for a company or being on the dole, titillating people? What’s the point, may as well talk about some horny shit and how you cooked it in your last relationship I reckon.