Tear Drive Talk ‘Face To Face’, Working With Cody McWaters and Touring With The Jungle Giants
Emerging Brizzy indie act Tear Drive have quickly become the toast of the town with the release of their debut EP, Face To Face. An absorbing five tracks of indie goodness, the album positions Tear Drive as ones to watch over the next 12 months. Ahead of their support slot on The Jungle Giants’ upcoming tour, Tear Drive’s Gabe Kolakowski opened up to The Note about the band’s new EP, musical inspirations and the Brisbane music scene.
Words Tobias Handke // Image supplied
Tell us a little bit about Tear Drive and how the band got started.
Tear Drive is an alternative rock/pop band from Brisbane. We’re all best friends, so writing songs and playing music always felt like another excuse to spend time together. We started out playing open mics in 2024 to get more comfortable playing in front of people and get some footage that we could send to venues. We couldn’t get any support slots for a while, so we took things into our own hands and put on a headline show. It ended up selling out, which marked our entrance into the scene!
What artists or albums inspired you to get into music?
Music’s always been a huge part of my life, but I think what really inspired me to start writing was falling in love with The 1975 and Go Farther in Lightness by Gang of Youths. I discovered them when I was 16, and for a long time, that’s all I would listen to. It’s obviously a pretty formative and confusing period in anyone’s life, but that was the first time I felt truly connected to songwriting. There was something in those songs that felt comforting, and all I wanted to do was learn to write songs that made me feel like that.
The four of you are all classically trained musicians. How did you go from that to indie rock?
It was inevitable for all of us, really. We’d spent so long playing music in ensembles and orchestras, and learning music at school, but when we first started finding and understanding music ourselves, and we shared that with each other, everything changed.
I’ve played violin all of my life and would spend the majority of my week at rehearsals. It was always under the guidance of a conductor, and playing classical music obviously doesn’t give you a lot of stylistic freedom. I always showed up, but in a way, I don’t think I even got to enjoy music much until I met these guys and we started writing songs.
If you had to describe your sound in three words, what would they be?
GUITARS GUITARS GUITARS!
Brisbane has such a great live music scene. How have you guys been welcomed by the community, and are there any local acts we should be on the lookout for?
The Brisbane scene is awesome! When we first started, I think we struggled to fit in because we were quite different to the bands at that time, but once we started putting on shows and bringing newer bands onto the lineups, it felt like a new space started to open up.
There’s so much great music happening here; we’re so lucky that every week there are so many awesome bands and artists you can go and see. We love Bottlebug, Taillight, FELONY, Lottie McLeod and Hyphen - they’ve all got some really cool stuff out and coming up.
Last year, Tear Drive won the People's Choice award for the 2025 QUBE Effect. Tell us about the win and the impact the award has had on the band over the past 12 months.
QUBE Effect was amazing! We honestly didn’t expect to win anything, so taking out People’s Choice felt really special, especially knowing that we received the most votes in the competition’s decade-long history. It opened a lot of doors for us and gave us a lot of confidence in what we’re doing. We met so many people who have supported us since, and the prize helped us buy PAs and gear for our live system, which has made a massive difference.
Tear Drive has just released your debut EP, Face To Face. Talk to us about how the EP came about and the excitement of having it out in the world.
This EP has been the centre point of our lives for quite some time. Everything felt like it was building towards this body of work, so having it out feels really special.
These songs came together over a long period, and in a lot of ways, they capture us becoming a band. Some of them started when we first began rehearsing together, before we’d even played many shows, and they’ve grown and changed alongside us over the years. It feels like a snapshot of figuring out who we are, getting closer as friends, and learning how to be a band together. A lot of the songs, and the conversations behind them, probably wouldn’t have happened without that friendship, so the EP feels really personal to us. It’s nice to have something that wraps up that chapter in a way that feels honest and cohesive.
What is the songwriting process like amongst the group?
It varies from song to song, but on this EP, it almost always started with a riff, some chords and one or two lines of lyrics that set the mood. From there, the rest would slowly reveal itself as we played the songs live and figured which parts worked and which parts didn’t.
Although sometimes the songs come together on their own in one go. I wrote ‘Lost In A Moment’ pretty quickly with just an acoustic guitar and brought it to the band as a complete song. ‘Carry You Back Home’ was similar in that Isaac wrote it really early on, and the core of the song has stayed the same ever since. Once we took those songs into the studio, we started paying closer attention to the individual parts and how to bring everyone’s style into them.
Tear Drive worked with ARIA Award-winning producer Cody McWaters (The Chats, King Stingray, Radium Dolls). How did that relationship come about, and what did he add to your sound while working in the studio?
We got really lucky with Cody. When we started talking about recording our music, we looked into who had produced some of our favourite songs. I was a huge fan of Selfish Sons and FELONY, so Cody’s name kept popping up. It turned out he was also based in Brisbane, and over time, all roads led to him. Thankfully, he was really excited by our music.
We usually self-produce our demos, so by the time we get into the studio, we have a pretty clear idea of what we want things to sound like. Cody has this amazing ability to instantly see what we’re going for and make it sound exactly how we hear it in our heads. More than anything, we’ve become close friends, and he’s given us a lot of confidence as writers. It’s so important that we have a really healthy space where we feel comfortable trying anything, and we are so grateful to have that.
What were you listening to during the making of Face To Face, and did those artists/albums influence the tracks on the EP?
Face To Face was recorded over a fairly long period of time, so there was a lot of music that we fell in love with along the way that naturally shaped our taste and influenced decisions we made in the studio. There are too many to list, but we were constantly listening to The 1975, The War On Drugs, Sam Fender, Radiohead, U2, Fontaines DC, Billie Eilish, Inhaler, Coldplay, The Neighbourhood and ROLE MODEL.
Tear Drive is about to embark on its first nationwide tour with The Jungle Giants. How excited are you for this?
We are so excited! We’ve never played a show outside of Brisbane before, so to be playing our first interstate shows on a tour with The Jungle Giants at our dream venues is kind of insane!
For those yet to experience Tear Drive live, what can we expect when you hit Adelaide?
Expect a show! Being on stage is the funnest thing we get to do, and playing Hindley Street Music Hall makes it even more special because it’s a dream venue for us!
Although Tear Drive are still relatively new on the scene, you’ve played some big shows in Brizzy. What has been the highlight so far?
We played our EP release show last week at The Brightside, and that was by far our favourite show yet! It felt really special. We packed out the venue, people were singing the words back to us, and there were so many new faces in the room. It was a huge milestone for us.
Finally, what does the rest of 2026 hold for Tear Drive?
Lots more shows, lots more music. More on that soon!
Catch Tear Drive supporting The Jungle Giants at Hindley Street Music Hall on Saturday 20 June. Tickets on sale now via moshtix.com.au.
