No Rules, No Limits: Inside Unsound’s Fearless Approach to Music
Co-founder and Artistic Director of Unsound, Mat Schulz, answered a few questions about how Unsound came to be, why this year’s lineup has something for everyone and the most unsound thing on his playlist.
Interview Tobias Handke // Image supplied
For anyone who doesn't know the story - you're a Wagga boy who moved to Kraków to write a novel and ended up founding one of the world's coolest music festivals. Give us the short version of how that happened.
I had my first novel accepted for publication back in the mid-‘90s, received an advance and decided to relocate to Europe to write. I was fascinated by the eastern side of Europe emerging out of communism, and Krakow felt particularly raw, a city in flux, a fascinating place to live. Several years later, a friend and I started Unsound as a passion project. There were far less music festivals then, especially those dealing with experimental, adventurous music – whatever you might call it. Unsound was originally intended as a small, local event, a hobby – but it grew.
Unsound's Australian home is Adelaide now. What do you love about bringing the festival here each year?
Adelaide has been very supportive of Unsound from the start, firstly as part of Adelaide Festival with David Sefton, and now as part of Illuminate. Lee and Rachael, the directors of Illuminate, have really gone above and beyond to ensure the festival stays in the city, accepting my sometimes crazy ideas. I like the idea we’ve developed Unsound fans in the city, and that people have to travel from elsewhere to experience the festival. Now Unsound and Adelaide are deeply entwined – there’s such a long history.
For someone who's never been, how would you describe the feeling of an Unsound night?
Open your ears and mind, and you’ll go on a great journey, encountering all kinds of genres. I often think the word “experimental music” can be a bit misleading, that audiences who haven’t been might feel it’s somehow difficult music. Some moments are challenging, but overall, I think a night of Unsound music is sonically thrilling – you don’t need to know a single artist on the lineup to enjoy it, and who knows, it might change your way of listening. A lot of this music is best experienced live, on a formidable sound system.
This year's lineup is stacked. Who are you most excited for people to see?
I think people will love the YHYH Nailgun show – it’s killer, a visceral, wild, rhythmic ride. billy woods is one of the greatest underground rappers in the world. Ka Baird and FUJIIIIIIIIIIITA will blow minds with their unique, performative show, and Hania Rani will play an ecstatic set of music on Prophet Synths that is really strong, taking her sound in new directions. I could go on. I like all the artists, of course.
Suzanne Ciani and Actress are teaming up as Concrète Waves, linking Ciani's Buchla system with Actress's drum machines and laptop, and it's an Adelaide exclusive. What makes that one special?
Although they come from different generations, they’re two titans of electronic music who’ve had a big influence. Actress in terms of music at the intersection of club music and experimentation, and Suzanne in terms of synth music. Yet at the same time, the match is quite unexpected, based around improvisation, so every time it’s fresh. Like Hania Rani, it’s a show that pushes boundaries but is accessible to a wider audience – we always like to include shows like this in the Unsound Adelaide program.
Image Nerea Coll
Unsound is all about music that pushes the edges. For someone who finds "experimental" a bit intimidating, why should they just come along and dive in?
Genres are very blurred in 2026, with experimental music feeding into pop all over the place – Charli XCX is a good example. Brat would not exist without PC Music and the likes of Sophie, early on represented at Unsound. It’s not just people making weird noises on laptops. Unsound Adelaide 2026 moves through rap, pop, club music, post-punk, wondrous synth sounds, R&B – the main thing is the music is pushed by an adventurous spirit. It’s a program that is designed to appeal to an audience who is not necessarily acquainted with what’s on offer.
If you could send a first-timer to one show across the weekend, what would it be?
Probably YHYH Nailgun, Hania Rani and Lucrecia Dalt. Sorry, that’s three shows, but all on the same night.
You've taken Unsound everywhere from New York to Berlin. What's something about doing it in Adelaide that you don't get anywhere else?
I come from Australia, so the Adelaide edition is particularly meaningful to me on a personal level, to have this long running outpost of Unsound there that is now a part of its identity and history. As an Australian I understand the country is remote, that it's expensive and complex to bring artists there from overseas, and it makes the mission of bringing new names for the first time particularly exciting.
You were a novelist before all this — do you still think like a writer when you're putting a festival together?
Definitely, I obsess over the curation and order of acts, with the idea of building a narrative. I also like taking risks, and thinking about this job in a creative way, to take the audience on a journey, and that’s what a good novel does.
After two massive nights, where are you headed in Adelaide to unwind?
I unwind before Unsound rather than after, as I always arrive in Adelaide a few days earlier, to spend a few days with my father on the Fluerer Peninsula. I love it there in winter. I love the ocean, the food and the wine – it’s a perfect intro. Usually my partner in life and Unsound Gosia Plysa also comes, but this year she’s staying in Poland looking after the main headliner of the year, our new son.
Lastly, what’s the most unsound thing on your playlist?
I’ve always had extremely wide taste, so there’s plenty of music that wouldn’t fit to Unsound. But I did play Babyshark to our son just to see how he would react – I’ve heard its musical crack for kids. He loved it and I hated it, especially the fact I was humming the melody for hours afterward. So now he's returned to a steady diet of Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan and Lou Reed – low voices that send him to sleep when needed. He also loves Elton John. I’ll introduce him to experimental music slowly, and then hopefully he can take over my job in 2050.
Catch billy woods, YHYH Nailgun, Hania Rani, Lucrecia Dalt, Shannen SP, Actress and more performing as part of Unsound 2026 across Lion Arts Factory, Hindley Street Music Hall and Ancient World on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 July. Tickets on sale now via moshtix.com.au.
