Meanjin/Brisbane alt-rock band Whose Party return with Scratches In The Glass, a dark and restless track shaped by late-night train rides, fluorescent lights and the discomfort of being left alone with your thoughts. A driving, hypnotic bassline anchors delicate vocals and eerie modal guitar lines, with a faint surf-rock twang and gothic/post-punk edge. The song moves between restrained tension and heavier, more jagged peaks before ending in an extended instrumental groove. Mostly recorded in a studio rather than Ivy’s usual bedroom setup, the track marks another step into Whose Party’s stranger and more atmospheric side.
Scratches In The Glass is the sixth single from Whose Party, leaning further into the project’s darker and more angular sound. Built around a catchy, recurring bassline and eerie modal guitar melody, the track blends alt-rock with a gothic/post-punk edge, a hint of surf-rock twang and airy vocals that become more urgent as the arrangement builds.
The song began around a year ago when Ivy bought her first loop pedal and started layering the bassline that now drives the track. Although it quickly became popular with listeners and live audiences, Ivy initially doubted whether it was strong enough to release. “I thought it might be too strange and not catchy enough to work as a single,” Ivy says. “We stopped playing it for quite a while, then suddenly remembered it existed before going into the studio to record, which was lucky, because we’ve ended up loving the song. People were very happy when we brought it back to our live shows.”
The lyrics grew out of long train rides and long waits at stations, often late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Caught between city and hometown, Ivy would write fragments into her phone under the harsh fluorescent lights, feeling as though she was trying to live between two distant places without fully belonging to either. “It’s about being trapped somewhere you don’t want to be, but also trapped in time and in your own mind,” Ivy says. “There’s too much silence, too much waiting and too much room for every uneasy feeling to become louder.”
Lines such as “the cycle has no ending,” “I’m left in the past” and “waiting beyond the end” reflect that sense of repetition, urgency and emotional claustrophobia. The title evokes both the physical marks on public transport windows and the feeling of looking outward through something damaged or obscured. Unlike the band’s previous releases, which were largely recorded in Ivy’s bedroom setup, most of Scratches In The Glass was tracked in a studio at the university workplace of friend Kiran Hameed. The song was mixed and mastered by Marcello Lioy, a friend and collaborator of Ivy’s father.
Recording outside the bedroom gave the band more space to capture the song’s dynamics, particularly its darker and more forceful ending. “My favourite part is the ending, where we fall into a driving groove and jam,” Ivy says. “When we play it live, we sometimes bring in a friend to play a saxophone solo over it, which makes it feel even more hypnotic.”
Friends have jokingly referred to Scratches In The Glass as “the evil song,” but underneath its darker atmosphere is one of the band’s catchiest basslines and strongest live grooves. As one of Whose Party’s older tracks, its release also captures a piece of the project’s history that had been waiting to be properly recorded.
The band will be launching Scratches In The Glass at Black Bear Lodge TOMORROW – tickets here.
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