PNAU tap rave roots and global success ahead of Byron show

INTERNATIONAL dance music outfit PNAU are heading to regional Australia, with a Byron Bay show on the horizon and a new international collaboration already gaining global traction.

Their latest single, Tu Corazón (Your Heart), sees the group team up with Mexican rock trio The Warning in a cross-genre collaboration that has already landed in a major World Cup campaign in Mexico.

But for PNAU member Peter Mayes, the project is just the latest chapter in a long career first shaped by Sydney’s underground dance scene, global experimentation and a deep connection to live performance culture.

Mayes reflected on the band’s early days in the 1990s Sydney rave scene, a formative period that helped define PNAU’s sound and ethos.

“We were like rave children,” he said with a nod to his youth.

He described how music became the early bond between him and bandmate Nick Littlemore.

“We weren’t really friends, and then we both realized that we had the same kind of obscure musical taste, and it really brought us together,” he said.

That shared taste led them into the orbit of early rave and electronic influences, with Mayes describing formative underground acts and DIY party culture.

“I remember going to this party called Carnival Ov Thee Mind in Sydney,” Mayes said.

“There were thousands of people there.”

The scale and intensity of the event left a lasting impression, with Mayes describing a party scene full of old Red Rattler trains.

“They were, like, super old trains, and this train shed was just full of them,” he said.

“So, people were partying inside them and doing all sorts of crazy things.”

Mayes said he recalled watching Meat Beat Manifesto play so loudly that people were blown back from the speakers.

“People were physically blown back from the speakers,” he said.

“It was like a jet engine had just started right next to them.”

Looking back on those early experiences, Mayes said “it feels great” to have witnessed the evolution of dance music from a rebellious subculture into a far-reaching global movement.

“It was truly an underground thing that really no one knew about until the press got a hold of it,” he said.

“A lot of people say a lot of negative stuff about the commercialization of dance music, but it’s one of the only reasons that many of us have been able to survive.”

“The fact that it has grown so much, and there’s all these amazing festivals and there’s all these great places to play… it’s great.”

For Mayes, the evolution of electronic music into a global mainstream force has not diluted its original spirit. Instead, he sees its expansion as a continuation of its founding values.

“At the end of the day, dance music, disco, house music, techno… these are very inclusive genres,” he said.

“Whoever you are, from wherever you are, these subcultures of music were always inclusive of everybody.”

“As a creator of electronic music, it makes me happy that more and more people get to experience it.”

He added that a sense of “release” remains central to why people are drawn to club culture.

“It’s a release,” Mayes said.

“The whole idea of clubbing is to go there and forget about everything, to forget about your problems and just unite on the dance floor and just let it all melt away.”

“The greatest DJs in the world provide that experience.”

That ethos still shapes PNAU’s creative process decades on, with Mayes saying he continues to draw inspiration from his youth in the rave scene, particularly its wildness and sense of joyful abandon.

“It’s those early, crazy youthful years that we still seem to come back to,” he said.

“Those are the years when we were just out there having a great time and didn’t think about anything, except for making music and enjoying music.”

That sense of freedom has also fed into experimental collaborations, such as Tu Corazón, which saw them connect with Mexican rock trio The Warning.

This cross-genre collaboration was not a first for PNAU, with Mayes saying he enjoys blending different styles.

“We’ve done that with other artists,” he said.

“It’s always a real pleasure creatively to take someone who’s from a different genre and bring them to our world and see how that works.”

As the track gains global exposure, PNAU are preparing to bring their live show to Byron Bay, a place which Mayes said readily embraces the group’s party spirit.

“I love playing Byron. Byron’s such a magical place,” he said.

“It still retains that party spirit.”

PNAU will play at Byron’s Beach Hotel on 28 June at 7pm.

Tickets are available through Moshtix.