Post-punk duo HighSchool today share the latest preview of their self-titled debut album HighSchool (out Oct 31) with new single ‘Sony Ericsson’. LISTEN + WATCH HERE + PRE-SAVE HIGHSCHOOL LP HERE.

Harnessing the sharp melancholia of Molchat Doma and Bar Italia, ‘Sony Ericsson’ is steeped in the past. Much like their latest single ‘Dipped’ which explored themes of luck, chance, and gambling using the Greek tragedy of Achilles as a metaphor for addiction, impulse, and human weakness, ‘Sony Ericsson’ is charged and affecting, as it attempts to make sense of modern relationships, from texts left on read to the push-pull of love in a social media world.

Speaking to the release, they share “Sony Ericsson is about the strange dynamics of modern connection, the games people play over text, and how a single message can spiral into endless over-analysis. A few words on a screen can be pulled apart, read and re-read, and imbued with layers of meaning that may never have been there to begin with. It speaks about the discrepancy between how someone appears on a phone screen versus who they are in real life, and how the digital version of a person can feel both enticing or alluring but also unreal or unknowable.

It was one of the first songs we wrote for the album, but the last one we finished. For a long time, it existed as an unfinished sketch, an idea we loved but couldn’t quite crack. We had almost written it off until one session when we pulled it apart, rewrote it, and suddenly it clicked, becoming the twelfth and final song on the record.”

The track is accompanied by a video directed by Rory Trobbiani and Joel Wilson, which ruminates on the themes in the track as the band explain, “The Sony Ericsson music video is a teen love story that uncovers the hidden sadness and quiet beauty of middle-class suburbia. Its style and tone draw inspiration from Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, Larry Clark’s Bully and Ken Park, and Lukas Moodysson’s Lilya 4-ever. Like these films, it explores the raw, unsettling undercurrents that run beneath seemingly ordinary teenage lives and suburban settings. The result is a narrative that is both stark and beautiful, exposing the loneliness and desperation simmering beneath suburbia’s glossy surface.”

Arriving as the final taste of their forthcoming self-titled debut album HighSchool, ‘Sony Ericsson’ joins lead single ‘149’ and their latest release ‘Dipped’, which found praise across the board at NME, PAPER, Stereogum, BBC 6 Music, triple j, The Line of Best Fit, Rolling Stone AU/NZ, RAGE and more. Considered “exquisitely moody and mood-making, a wash of rough textures and totally smooth melodies” by PAPER Mag, ‘Dipped’ was also praised by Still Listening Magazine for their “sentiment, their direction, and their alternative adolescent vibe is back in full force with a track that’s dying to be heard” and “long-awaited” from BBC 6 Music, making it clear that HighSchool have their eyes set on presenting a project that reflects their presence on a local and international scale.

The project of Rory Trobbiani and Luke Scott, HighSchool offer a new lens on distilled shoegaze, new wave and post-punk. Since forming in 2021 with their breakout Forever At Last EP (which included popular tracks ‘New York, Paris and London’ and ‘Frosting’) and 2024 follow-up EP Accelerator, they’ve finely tuned a sound that ruminates on the sentimentalism of suburban adolescence and fleeting youth. Following a stint living in London and cutting their teeth on the Windmill scene, their wall of sound traverses the alternative underground having made their mark internationally with shows in Australia, Europe, Japan and North America, tours alongside Wunderhorse, Sam Fender, Provoker and Chvrches, and renowned festival appearances at SXSW Austin, The Great Escape, All Points East, Wide Awake and Reeperbahn.

With influences as wide as slowcore, Drain Gang-style hip hop and the alt-rock steps of Alex G, HighSchool’s forthcoming self-titled debut album (out Oct 31) sees the band further refine their signature sound as heard in their previously acclaimed EPs while simultaneously curating a new terrain that translates stages of life. Recorded between London, East Sussex and Melbourne with producers Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode) and Finn Billingham (RIP Magic, Sam Akpro, Sunken), meticulous in its construction, the album is an intoxicating delivery of 80s post-punk with reflections of alternative revivalism.

The LP is available for pre-order now, with vinyl and CD out Nov 14. AUS PRE-ORDER HERE + UK/EU PRE-ORDER HERE.