Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
With a collective history stretching across some of Australia's most influential underground rock bands, Fancy Weapon might look like a “supergroup” on paper, but according to members Claire Birchall and Joel Silbersher, the band's origins were far more organic. Speaking with Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips, the pair explained that the project grew from a long-held ambition between guitarist Mick Turner and Silbersher, who had spent decades exchanging ideas and recordings while repeatedly promising to start a band together. Eventually, after "about 30 years" of talking about it, they finally acted on the idea.
The lineup came together when Turner invited longtime friend and Mudhoney bassist Guy Maddison, who had recently returned to Australia after years living in Seattle, to join the project. Birchall, a prolific musician known for her work as a solo artist and with Kim Salmon's Smoked Salmon, was recruited on drums. Despite Birchall never having previously met Maddison or Turner, she says the chemistry was immediate. "It just instantly sounded like a band," she recalled, describing the first rehearsal as surprisingly natural and effortless.
That chemistry is a defining characteristic of Fancy Weapon's self-titled debut album, released on June 19 through Poison City Records
#Australianmusician #fancyweapon
With a collective history stretching across some of Australia's most influential underground rock bands, Fancy Weapon might look like a “supergroup” on paper, but according to members Claire Birchall and Joel Silbersher, the band's origins were far more organic. Speaking with Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips, the pair explained that the project grew from a long-held ambition between guitarist Mick Turner and Silbersher, who had spent decades exchanging ideas and recordings while repeatedly promising to start a band together. Eventually, after "about 30 years" of talking about it, they finally acted on the idea.
The lineup came together when Turner invited longtime friend and Mudhoney bassist Guy Maddison, who had recently returned to Australia after years living in Seattle, to join the project. Birchall, a prolific musician known for her work as a solo artist and with Kim Salmon's Smoked Salmon, was recruited on drums. Despite Birchall never having previously met Maddison or Turner, she says the chemistry was immediate. "It just instantly sounded like a band," she recalled, describing the first rehearsal as surprisingly natural and effortless.
That chemistry is a defining characteristic of Fancy Weapon's self-titled debut album, released on June 19 through Poison City Records
#Australianmusician #fancyweapon
