Genre multi-hyphenates GAUCI mark their latest chapter with their guitar driven mixtape debut Growing Pains. Arriving today with self-directed music video for ‘Growing Up’ and the news of their Eora / Sydney Lansdowne headline show this May 11. LISTEN TO MIXTAPE HERE + WATCH HERE + TIX HERE.

Laying the groundwork for introspection with the recent ‘Come Around’, Growing Pains storyboards the all too visceral experiences of self-actualisation and the otherwise undiagnosable aches of change. Musing on friendship, courtship, loss and adulthood, GAUCI invite listeners to consider their place in the world while dissecting the triumphs and necessary complexities of living. Inspired by the organic elements of a live band and digital pop production, the mixtape is as much a self-deprecating middle finger to supposed feelings and actions as it is charged with emotional clarity.

In their own words, Felix reflects “There’s always been a running joke that we release one single a year in our band. I said to David and Antonia when we were picking the songs to put on this record that I wanted it to be a no skip summer road trip record. One you put on way too loud while driving down some highway belting the lyrics, not even reaching towards your phone until the record ends.” David continues, “I think it taught us all a lot about what does and doesn’t work for us, how important it is to try anything and everything, and has given us so much more to take out of it than we thought it would, for the future.”

Focus single ‘Growing Up’ arrives with voyeuristic music video directed and edited by Felix Lush, shot entirely on iPhone. Accelerating with grunge fuelled anxiety, the song growls with descending arpeggio guitars and walls of distorted chords into pure catharsis. Reflection on “all the little things” that ground us when it all gets a bit ‘too much’ gives credence to the very reality of getting older. A testament to GAUCI’s enduring love of indelible 2010s indie with the classics that inspired them, the track is a cornerstone to Growing Pains’ sound and message: “Sometimes your 20s SUCK but in the end every trial is a learning experience.”

Elsewhere tongue in cheek opener ‘Over Myself’ reminds us to stay un-serious, charging up the bright assertion of ‘BRAT’, the catchiest lament of the heart wanting what the heart wants, no matter how unrequited. ‘Come Around’, restrained but unapologetic with twee candor contrasts the biting electro confessional ‘Under My Skin’ (“I’m always told I look bored… Can’t take a joke, think it’s funny don’t you get it?”). Struck by the loneliness in a crowded room of phoneys, “I’m literally repeating things that have been said to me over the years,” Antonia explains.

Second in splendour to the empowered, grief-stricken ‘Dead Afraid’ is the Matt Mason (DMA’S) co-written epic ‘Eat My Words’, bridging the bedroom with the stadium in pure closing track fashion. “I’ve known Mason for almost a decade,” Antonia continues. “We’ve played in “bands” together this whole time but we’ve never finished anything we started, until now. I was listening to a lot of Soccer Mommy at the time, especially that song ‘Shotgun’ and I feel like I’m having a moment like that. Falling for someone, wondering if they feel the same about you.”

Growing Pains is a collection of GAUCI’s most assured work yet, boasting a diverse sonic palette wholly written, produced and recorded in-house. Reflective of their own pool of influences as wide as Clairo and Charli XCX to Max Martin and Wednesday, backed with a wealth of expertise in performance and production, the trio transform from accomplished individuals into a polished unit. Setting the scene for their mixtape debut’s true coming of age highlight, the artistic metamorphosis of Antonia, David and Felix as a singular force. With the freedom to authentically express their range, the result is a rich, dynamic display of their artistic vision, abundant with aplomb.

Already praised across Bandcamp (New & Notable), NME Australia, RUSSH Magazine, on Growing Pains the wallflowers of the past now step into the spotlight, only just scratching the surface of their own possibility. RSVP to GAUCI’s live coming of age BELOW, with appearances from Naarm / Melbourne’s Darcy Baylis, in support of his new album More Again Forever, Tokyo’s Aya Gloomy (DJ) and local hyper-popstar Holliday Howe. Tickets available HERE.