“We are capable of doing whatever we want,” Stand Atlantic vocalist Bonnie Fraser tells Apple Music. “So that’s what we’re doing.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise to long-term fans of the Sydney outfit—they are, after all, a band that’s evolved from their pop-punk roots into one of rock’s most forward-thinking acts. On 2022’s f.e.a.r., they embraced collaborations with artists outside of their scene such as emo rapper nothing,nowhere. and MC Tom The Mail Man, while incorporating a grab-bag of styles including electronica and hip-hop. So it continues with their fourth album, WAS HERE, which further embellishes their sound with elements of reggae (“ROCKSTAR”), metal (“CRIMINAL”) and electropop (“GIRL$”). “We’ve never wanted to be put in a box, but this record was defining in that scenario,” says Fraser. “We were just like, ‘If this song is sounding pop as hell, let’s roll with it. If it’s sounding really heavy, let’s roll with it.’” Though the album’s name was inspired by the dressing room walls on which the band members have scrawled “Stand Atlantic Was Here”, it also has a deeper meaning that alludes to the diversity of the LP. “I knew going into this record we were going to push ourselves a lot more than we ever have,” admits Fraser. “So I wanted it to set the theme of like, ‘Just forget everything you know about our band.’ It’s almost as if we’ve died and been reborn, in a way.” Lyrically, the record finds Fraser in typically unflinching form, working through issues such as sexual abuse (“17”, “17 // REPRIZE [ONE TAKE]”) and a crisis of confidence in her reason for being. “This album really helped me get back to how I was feeling and realise who I am again,” she offers. “It was really cathartic and therapeutic for me.” Here, the singer talks Apple Music through WAS HERE, track by track. “WAKE UP-SIT DOWN-SHUT UP” “The song was written when I was living in Manchester. I was feeling very numb. I was questioning everything about who we are, why we are here. Like, ‘Is this my life?’ I was getting super existential.” “FRENEMIES” “I had this friend, and I didn’t know where the hell I stood with them. For some reason, they just weren’t interested in being my friend anymore. I did everything I could and extended every olive branch and still didn’t get anything back. I was like, ‘Is this what it feels like to have an enemy? I don’t know what I did wrong.’ It was a sad moment.” “GIRL$” (with PVRIS and Bruses) “I’ve wanted to have Lynn [Gunn, PVRIS vocalist] on a song for a while. Someone at the label sent her the track and I got a text from her and she was like, ‘Oh, my God, “GIRL$” is so good!’ She loved the track and jumped on. I really wanted a third person on the track too, and having another queer woman [Mexican artist Bruses] is awesome. I don’t think we ever really got into depth about the song’s meaning specifically, but I know that at least me and Lynn have talked about growing up as a woman in the music industry, or in society in general. But I didn’t want it to be too heavy, it’s supposed to be fun and uplifting and like, the girls are the best.” “FREAKIN’ OUT” “It’s one of my favourite tracks on the record. Lyrically, it just goes back to a dark spot that I was in—I was numbing myself subconsciously and in my behaviour. I was partying and doing drugs and drinking without realising that I was trying to cover up my feelings and not deal with the stuff that I was going through. Kind of heavy, I guess. But the song’s super fun, so that’s how we balance that out.” “NOSE BLEED” (with Sueco) “I don’t know why this reminds me of Quentin Tarantino, but there’s this little organ thing that’s going on. And I’m like, ‘If Quentin Tarantino was a fucking song, that’s what it would sound like.’ So I was thinking a lot about that and that’s where all the visuals lyrically came in—of ‘nosebleed’ and ‘twist the knife’ and basically dying over someone and doing everything that they want and being stuck in this toxic cycle that you cannot get out of. And you’re like, ‘Well, just leave me to die. I surrender to the cycle, and I’m never getting out of here.’” “LOVE U ANYWAY” “The relationship I was in, it felt like make-or-break at the time and I was like, ‘I’m gonna write a love song for the first time in my life.’ I don’t know if I was trying to trick myself into thinking everything is going to be OK or not. We ended up breaking up soon after I wrote it, which is awesome karma. So I’m never writing another love song in my life!” “KISSIN’ KILLER COBRAS” “I have a fair share of experience in toxic relationships. Sometimes when you’re in a toxic relationship, because that’s your normal, you lean into that and you think that’s normal to fight back or participate and perpetuate other toxic interactions. It kind of made me feel like I was becoming the monster that I was being presented with, if that makes sense. So I was trying to write this little urban legend of someone getting attacked by a snake and then becoming the fucking snake.” “WARZ0NE” “It’s basically me being like, ‘Fuck you’ to the keyboard warriors—people on the internet who have nothing better to do than send hate for no reason. They don’t know you personally, but they’ll judge everything about you based on stuff they see online or your songs. You can tell yourself that it doesn’t matter and not to read into it, but when you see it, it does hurt a little. It makes you so angry because you want to respond and roast the fuck out of them, but you have to just not. So the only way I could do that was write a song and be like, ‘Fuck you guys.’” “CRIMINAL” (with Polaris) “The way I write and the style of writing that I participate in is like, I need to feel something and then get it out. I feel like you can get caught in this cycle mentally of like, ‘Oh, I guess I need to fuck my life up a little bit to write these songs.’ And the people that are selling them don’t care about what you’ve gone through to get there as long as you get the song. And it feels a little weird. You’re making other people money based off the pain that you put yourself through. Then you also make money off it. It does feel a little bit criminal.” “17” “It’s something I’ve barely spoken about. And I’ve definitely never written about it. It’s about sexual assault; it was something that happened to me a few years ago. I thought I’d processed the whole thing properly, but one night on tour, I woke up in my bunk and I’d had a dream about this person, who I hadn’t thought about in a long time. I hadn’t thought about the situation in a long time. I woke up and I was so angry, and I was punching the bunk above me. After that I was like, ‘I think there’s some residual shit here that I need to process, or at least stop burying and actually talk about.’ The only way for me to do that is writing a song about it.” “17 // REPRIZE [ONE TAKE]” “The original song is where I was at the time and getting all that emotion out. Then the reprise is like, ‘This is where I’m at now. It’s not fine, all that stuff that you did, because I have to live with that for the rest of my life. But I’m doing OK, and you’re not clouding up my mind every day. And I’m not fucking my life up because of what you did.’ The interesting thing about that song was that we did that in one take. The lyrics just kind of came out in one go.” “G.A.G.” “It stands for ‘Girl’s a Gun’ but I didn’t want to have the word ‘girl’ in two titles! That again is just back to a toxic relationship situation. Just feeling like you have to surrender to it to make it get better when it doesn’t. But you’re also questioning like, ‘Is this right? Are we doing something stupid here? Like, maybe we need to look at this a little further.’ But essentially it’s kind of just surrendering to it all, unfortunately.” “ROCKSTAR” “It’s about a specific person. I thought we were cool with each other, and then I found out he was talking so much shit on my friends, on my band, my friends’ bands. It just pissed me off so much. I was like, ‘You literally think you’re the coolest dude. And all you do is talk shit on other people because you’re friggin’ insecure. Fuck you.’ It’s just a huge middle finger to this person. There’s lots of Easter eggs, so if people know the story and know the person, they’ll be able to figure out who it’s about.” “SEX ON THE BEACH” “It was inspired by one of the first times I went to LA. I was in this club and it was full of douchebags wearing their sunglasses inside at 3 am and purposely being dicks. I was like, ‘This is so gross. I’m just gonna sit here and drink myself to death, I guess.’ Then, people at the same time were blowing smoke up my arse and trying to be a friend. I know exactly what you’re trying to do here, you’re trying to network. It just feels superficial. I did not like that at all.” “KILL[H]ER” “Lyrically, it’s when you’re in a situation that you feel like you can’t get out of and you are compromising who you are constantly. It feels like you’re killing off a version of yourself. It’s kind of like wishing to get that old you back but realising that that person doesn’t exist anymore, and you’re left with this shell of whatever the hell you used to be. You’ve killed yourself off, basically.”