Mouse - Here was Then (LP)

Mouse singer-guitarist Caleb Anderson first encountered his favourite band when they made a guest appearance at a festival in the ‘Homerpalooza’ episode of The Simpsons. But it was years later that he fell in love with Sonic Youth’s wildness, when his mate Matt Boggis (The Chats) showed him Goo on vinyl.

“He said ‘Do you want it? I’m kinda over it…’,” Anderson explains. “I felt lame because he was already too cool for it, but I thought it was the best thing in the world.”

Based on the Sunshine Coast, Anderson says the only thing he’s wanted to do since he was 15 is write an album - he’d turn the lights off in his childhood bedroom and spend hours lying with his head next to the speaker of a $50 amp, making the loudest noises he could. At 23, he’s finally realised his dream, spending the interim years cutting his teeth in live shows with his old band, Glasshouse, and studying up on the 80s scenes that birthed his beloved post-hardcore and post-punk acts: Sonic Youth, Fugazi, The Breeders. 

 Mouse sees him joined by Kate Mcguire, Riley Brown and Jamie Clive, they’ve played alongside Screamfeeder, Moaning Lisa, Teenage Joans, Dear Seattle and VOIID. 2021 saw them score a spot on the Mountain Goat Valley Crawl line-up despite having just one song released online. 

 The songs that make up their debut LP, “Here Was Then”, invite listeners to join Anderson as he relives and transfigures scenes from his coming-of-age, with its touchstones of first love, power struggles and opposition to the societal norms of Australian culture.