‘You Had It Coming’ opens with a dark, droning guitar that meanders around before it’s partnered with some subtle bass and drums. From the very start it’s easy to hear how good Cracker La Touf are as a band - somehow managing to sound loose and raw while exercising an almost calculated restraint. Despite the impressive musicianship, when frontwoman Syd Mackay steps in, her unique vocals are so commanding that it’s almost impossible to look anywhere else. As the chorus arrives, the track opens up and Cracker La Touf hit full ferocity; all pounding drums, razor-sharp guitars and Syd’s powerful howl. With a strong emphasis on soft-loud dynamics, a nod to their post-punk influences, ‘You Had It Coming’ rolls on, and when the track finishes and slinks away, you can almost hear Cracker La Touf sneering, as if challenging us to want more. Ahead of their launch shows in Melbourne and Sydney this weekend, we chatted with the band to find out about the new single.

TJ: Your brand new single ‘You Had It Coming’ just came out - want to tell us a bit about it?

CLT: Hey yeah sure, it's a track we've been playing for a while and it holds a bit of significance with us musically and personally. We wanted to spend more time on this one and are pretty happy with the outcome.

Even by your standards, it’s a pretty dark and brooding tune. What was the vibe like writing and recording this one?

Originally this track was going to be some kind of disco track, some sad drum and bass, like a Cure or Fat White song that had the same levels throughout. We started playing it live and realised it would be better to be more dynamic, and the chorus as well as the rest of the song benefited from that for sure.

This weekend you’ll be launching the new single in Melbourne and Sydney. Any idea what can we expect from the shows?

Melbourne show is going to be a big party with Mouseatouille and Moon Rooney always bringing amazing sets, $5 Young Henrys’ cans as well. Sydney show should be the same, just in a record store in the late afternoon with some chiller bands in Noodlehouse and Breadclub.

You were recently included on the Frontwomxn compilation, a really great initiative alongside a heap of really cool artists - how was that experience?

Yeah we were super happy to be included within that. Super important to continue to support diverse creative projects like that and it looks like projects like that are becoming more and more prominent, which is great.

What’s the rest of 2018 looking like for Cracker La Touf?

We'll be a bit quiet following this release for a couple of months to take time to record some more but expect more releases before the year is out.