Inside Media Puzzle’s absurd world

MEDIA Puzzle will launch their new album New Racehorse at Blah Bar this month.

The project was born in 2023, the brainchild of Tom Peter and his drum machine.

“It started with myself, a friend on bass, and a drum machine, then I went solo for a while, and then the band joined in 2024,” Peter said.

The current Media Puzzle lineup consists of Peter on guitar and vocals, Solomon Jones on bass, Eden Yeigh on guitar, Kellie Eden on synth and trumpet, and Oli Clarke on drums.

Musically, the band is often compared to Devo, fitting within the egg-punk sub-genre, an offbeat, lo-fi style driven by distortion and experimentation.

“It’s kind of like scuzzy pop, everything’s just distorted,” Peter said.

The name Media Puzzle comes from the 2002 Melbourne Cup winner, reflecting an ongoing fascination with racehorse culture, albeit an ironic one.

“It’s not that we support horse racing at all, it’s very much the opposite,” he said.

“It’s just that I really like the names.”

That theme continues in the band’s latest album, which is titled New Racehorse, though Peter says the record marks a sonic shift.

“I’ve changed the sound,” he said. “There’s lots of things about it that are a bit exciting and scary to put out because it’s very different to anything else I’ve done.”

Media Puzzle’s galloping beat and frenetic energy echo the racehorse motif, while synth and drum machine elements inject a strange, alien quality into their sound.

Lyrically, Media Puzzle leans into satire, exploring punk concepts like low-budget living, late-night chaos and the overlooked characters that inhabit the fringes.

“I try to keep a solid message there most of the time,” Peter said.

“But sometimes it is absolutely just spew out of my mouth.”

The band’s punk ability to nail superficial culture is captured in Gold Coast Recycling Plant, a track inspired by a trip Peter took up north.

“It wasn’t just the plastic surgery, it was also the insane crazy body builder crew that get around up there, it was freaking me out,” he said.

The song uses absurd imagery to question what happens when artificial bodies outlast the people inhabiting them.

Peter credits Lismore’s resilience, particularly in the wake of repeated flooding, for shaping both his work ethic and creative outlook.

“It’s inspiring, seeing all the musicians giving it a go over and over again, no matter how rinsed they’ve been through flooding or whatever is going on in the town,” he said.

 

“The first two years of Media Puzzle being a thing, I just kept writing in a relentless way, in the same way that this town doesn’t stop either.”

At its core, Media Puzzle thrives on unpredictability, both on record and on stage.

“I remember back when I was running the band and I was doing a solo set, so it was kind of just me and a drum machine,” Peter said.

“This guy rocked up and he was so drunk.”

“I was only playing to about five people, but this guy just started doing the worm and the helicopter in front of his wife and kid.”

“He whacked his head at one point, but he just kept going.”

“He would stand up and jump into the worm and then just fall flat on his stomach.”

“After about five songs live with a drum machine, all the stuff can feel a bit repetitive, but if you’ve got some 50-year-old trying to do the worm in front of you, suddenly the performance is a lot more exciting,” he said.

This embrace of chaos extends to the band’s songwriting philosophy.

“There’s so many Media Puzzle songs that make absolutely no sense,” Peter said.

“I just write whatever comes to mind and it is sometimes the most interesting stuff for me personally.”

“I also think it’s funny watching people try and make sense of it.”

Operating in that “wacky” space, Peter says, is freeing and appreciated by audiences, particularly in an era shaped by online scrutiny and pressure to conform.

But beneath the humour and absurdity, the lyrics often carry a darker edge, with Peter noting the music draws directly from real-world pressures.

“I think it’d be stupid not to be shouting about whatever’s going on at the moment,” he said.

“I’ve been talking about the cost of living and all that stuff, but oftentimes it’s quite sugar-coated to take the edge off a bit.”

That mix of commentary and chaos is what defines Media Puzzle, a band built on momentum and the freedom to be strange.

Their new album New Racehorse will be released at Lismore’s Blah Bar on 17 April from 7pm and will be supported by Turp, FEE VER and Lipstick On A Pig.

Tickets can be booked via Humanitix.