When Findaway dropped their new EP Discourse, it felt like what we'd all been waiting for. A band capturing what it feels like to be on the cusp of something. To watch the scene we all knew and loved slowly fade away and to be stuck in that silence, waiting for someone to cut the crap and announce that this is just the beginning of something new.
Fronted by Guy Di Mattina, Findaway have always been that band for the scene. Their live shows epitomise the raw, uninhibited spirit and swagger that anyone who's been in the crowd can confirm. Their 2024 album Intertwined captured that lightning in a bottle. Findaway have always operated like a sleeping giant; their awakenings matter more because of their silence is what makes you notice how fucking boring it is when they're not around.
Discourse is a stopgap, and they know it. It's a creative guiding statement; Findaway telling you what they're planning on doing next. And compared to Intertwined, it sounds more mature. You can feel Guy experimenting with new sounds, the band evolving past their hodgepodge of thrash-alternative-crossover into something sharper. This is a band that's made it to the top of the scene and is seeking to expand its boundaries and take the scene with them. Findaway know what silence means, and they're done waiting around in it.
Their opening track 'Asystole' matches the EP's cryptic cover; an authority figure with a Rubik's Cube head tries to "solve" the head of a child whose Rubik's Cube head happens to be unsolved. The song contains heartbeats and newsreel snippets: the sound of every conflict happening in the world right now compressed into something you have to sit with. It gets you inside Guy's mind. The song's title is a clever way of saying "As I stole"; what you feel from it is that Findaway know exactly how the bullshit in the world, caused by shitty people who want to manipulate how you think, fogs up your mind. It's this cryptic, surgical level of precision that sets them apart from other local bands, and they pull it off in a way that feels completely casual. Findaway make you decode what they're saying through your own personal experiences, and that's what makes their music stick to you emotionally. Other bands in the scene aren't doing this.
'Left For Us' was debuted at their September 21st show at Paddington Skatepark. Guy says it was one of their best shows, and for good reason; they brought the scene together at a time he admits was "a lull", and for a good cause, donating money to charities addressing climate change. That's what this song is about. People fucking the planet out of their own greed.
This is THE standout track. This is Findaway taking bits and bobs from their influences, trying it out on stage and putting what works into a track that tells you exactly where they're heading next. Guy's unique, weirdly-nasal-but-in-a-way-that-actually-sounds-good singing reaches something biblical here. The song combines his sentimental ballad writing with his ability to write anthemic songs big enough to rock out a stadium. The guitar solos are transcendent. The breakdowns are transcendent. Forget saying something is 'better than…'; the metalcore screams feel like all the air from Guy's lungs has been pushed out at once. Findaway took what made them great and multiplied it by the power of three.
'Drown' carries it forward for all the heavy music enjoyers. That thrashy intro riff is Findaway showing they haven't pulled a Metallica and commercialised their sound just for the sake of it. Hell no. Their sound is 'commercial' in a different way. What really sells is when you can FEEL the musicians putting their all into making good music.
It's about something anyone can relate to. That consuming feeling of being crushed by your own thoughts, the hopelessness and self-doubt about whether what you're doing is really working, whether you should just go back to distracting yourself instead of grinding through the sometimes brutal, gruelling journey towards something higher. The anthemic chant of 'I know, I know, I know…' is prime crowd engagement gold. Guy's vocals translate that familiar feeling into something you can rock out to; not whiny like 2000s emo, but still capturing that yearning and unhinged emotion. It's melodic and it infests itself as an earworm instantly.
'Seventeen' is where Findaway lean into their inner Blink-182 and showcase their pop punk side. It starts with an instantly recognisable dual guitar riff that takes you back to a skate park in the '90s, accompanied by lyrics that keep beginning with 'what if', leading you deeper into Findaway's trance. It all culminates in a breakdown that serves as Guy's declaration, what he wants in response to his own questions about independence and autonomy as a teenager. The chant 'I just want to take it all into my own time' is pure catchy song material, and it's what makes Findaway's songs work.
It reminds me of what makes Oasis songs great. If Oasis were the masters of writing rock and roll songs that take the best of everything that came before them and turn it into something British people in the '90s could relate to and sing along to, Findaway are the masters of writing alternative rock songs that take the best of everything that came before them and turn it into something all young people in the 2020s can relate to and sing along to. And that drum outro; what better way to end a pop punk song than to pound on the drums as loud as possible and hammer the song into people?
'Everything To Me' closes the EP, and it isn't a full blown rocker because it isn't supposed to be one. It's supposed to be the one that intertwines Findaway with defining moments in people's lives. The one people are gonna wave their arms and their phone flashes to. The one that makes some nervous guy on a date at a gig consider going in for a kiss during the emotional peak. Findaway know exactly what they're doing here. It's prime middle-of-the-set content; the moment the energy shifts and people feel 'what the hell happened? Why is the music slower now?' and then forget a few seconds later because their emotions are in Findaway's hands. The piano tells you everything. This is the song where Guy puts down his guitar, sits behind the keyboard, and blows everyone's breath away. As a closer it leaves you sentimental and wanting more, which is exactly what an EP is supposed to do.
Discourse is top notch. Findaway's time spent rehearsing and writing new shit has not been in vain. In the big '26, Findaway is the word we're all gonna keep hearing.
From the archive. Music review · likely 21 March 2026 (write-date, catalogue correction) · docx carried verbatim; catalogue flags this piece as likely AI-assisted, included here as published-record content with that provenance noted.