screensaver

Information

Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
screensaver

• Special Guests
  Monday 25th May
  The Old Hairdresser's
  18+

Throwing off the shackles of existential dread with hypnotic beats, punk energy and swirling synths, screensaver take weighty themes about power, lies, corporate coercion and systemic failure and deliver them via their blend of maximalist post punk. With a dance heartbeat, a kraut-rock back bone and new wave glimmer, there’s a catharsis in their anxiety induced compositions that is both dark but danceable.

Beginning as a trans Pacific collaboration between Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint/Exek) and Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision/Polo/Swim Team) back in 2016, the project spent three years in an incubatory state. By 2019 Christopher had long since relocated to Melbourne and the current line up now consists of James Beck (Personal Touch/ex Rat Columns) on drums, Dorian Vary (Soundtrackmusic) on bass and Jonnine Nokes (Horse Pills/Activities of Daily Living) on synth. 


In 2021 the band delivered their 10-track debut album Expressions of Interest on Upset the Rhythm (UK) and Heavy Machinery (AU) to positive international response. Establishing a sound on the album that ranged from electronic driven krautrock, to post-punk full of tribal toms and dirge-y synths to death-disco style tracks with touches of EDM. See praise for the record on Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll, KEXP, Post Trash, Blunt Magazine, Clash (UK). The album was also a regular feature on Henry Rollin’s KCRW Santa Monica radio show.

In 2023 screensaver released their sophomore album Decent Shapes which came out as a split release on Poison City Records (AUS) and Upset the Rhythm (UK) and extended on the bands brand of maximalist synth driven post-punk established on their debut. The first single The Guilt found itself in the AMRAP Independent Music Charts top 10 during its first few weeks of release and received praise on Rolling Stone Australia , Post Trash , Raven Sings the Blues and PBS FM. The album has received excellent reviews on NME, KEXP, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll and Brooklyn Vegan to name a few.

“You can hear the rocking yearning of peak Sleater-Kinney, the blunt thunk of early ’80s disco punk, coldwave’s synth-licked gloom (or the modern update of BELGRADO), and high-rolling Banshees goth rock. Often some of all of those are happening at once, which is in itself a niche of sorts, but a bigger factor in all this is that screensaverr are really adept songwriters” - Noel Gardner, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Being somewhat prolific in nature screensaver released their third album Three Lens Approach on Poison City in Nov 2025 with praise from Rolling Australia, Raven Sings the Blues, Post Punk.com, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll, RRR Radio and was the feature record on Melbourne’s PBS Radio the week after release and has also been on heavy rotation on Henry Rollin’s radio show on KCRW.

“Three Lens Approach moves like a warning flare shot across a collapsing horizon. No sermons, no tidy moral. Just five musicians channeling the world’s pressure cooker into something that kicks, sweats, trembles, and insists on being felt. screensaver aren’t documenting the chaos…they’re swallowed up in it, transmitting whatever they can before the signal cuts. If you want anything expanded, louder, meaner, or more chaotic, just say the word.” – Alice Teeple, Post Punk.com

The band has toured Australia multiple times, embarked on two international tours, the USA in September 2022, playing Gonerfest 19 in Memphis, Tennessee and the UK and Europe in August 2024 including Get Lost Fest X in Hamburg, Germany. They’ve also shared bills with Tropical Fuck Storm, Party Dozen, Snooper, Coffin, Power Plant and more.

The band is set to return to Europe and the UK thanks to Annibale Tours in May 2026.