It’s been a month since I moved to Melbourne, and in that time, one local discovery has stood out for me.
It started with Problem Dog, a track that serves as the opening salvo of the second EP from Melbourne/Naarm 3-piece Dumbhead, a self-titled masterpiece that dropped last Thursday (my birthday, talk about timing, happy 26 to me!) a whole 14 months after Problem Dog was released.
Now, they just played their first gig back, at Nighthawks on October 11 with G.U.N, NPCEDE and Rain Dogs, and are gearing up for an EP launch show at The Curtin on November 21.
Before we dive into my chat with the principal creative force behind the exciting new Melbourne outfit, let me introduce you to Dumbhead.
Dumbhead (Melbourne)
- Where: The John Curtin Hotel, 29 Lygon Street, Carlton.
- When: Friday, November 21
- Tickets: here
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
View this post on Instagram
Melbourne-based Maayan Barnatan, Billie Raffety and Zach Salmon; the trio’s singular sound sits at the intersection of trip-hop, IDM, and experimental jazz infused with Dumbhead’s signature haunting operatic chorale which you’ll hear echo across their entire discography.
The fusion of those chorales with intricate electronic down-tempo textures and Raffety’s effortlessly intuitively and organic, jazz-trained lead vocals floating above, yet still anchoring, makes for an unmistakably unique sound.
Sure, you can hear the influence from artists like Björk, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Portishead, HTRK, Acopia (who Dumbhead opened for in January 2024, in Melbourne), but there’s no question that Dumbhead maintains a distinct, forward-moving identity.
You never forget who you’re listening to when you put on their tracks, you recognise it when it comes on and if you’re anything like me, you’ll want more.
Sadly, we’ve only got 10 tracks (11 if you check out their bandcamp) so far, but project founder Maayan Barnatan tells me there’s lots more in the works for next year. You can skip down to the transcribed phone interview with him, or keep reading here for a little album review.
The Dumbhead discography
Dumbhead’s first EP Stop Motion 2023 was released two years ago in June. The tracks may have begun from Barnatan ‘playing around’ with beats and vocals in his Melbourne room, but the end result is an incredibly well-constructed and fully formed EP, both in its identity and it’s unmatched mixing and mastering, especially for a completely self-produced work.
Stop Motion 2023
‘Dive’
It immediately hooks you in, they’re not wasting time before layering and adding and growing. Such an interesting vocal tone; so smooth and warm yet still with that strange eerie Dumbhead (and a little Melbourne-esque, at least for me) element you see evolve with their discography, you can’t really picture the person it’s coming from, it’s almost just speak. The grand horns and brass notes swirl through the background, I’m fairly certain Saxaphone is key here, whereas later they switch it out for trumpet (Barnatan confirms this to me later) It’s layered and full. This isn’t just beats, it’s composition.
‘A-T-24’
It immediately takes a turn. A whole new voice (or at least it feels that way) speaking. So deep it’s forsaken notes and gone straight to pounding rhythm. Eerie warping and howling echoes, on first listen it was overwhelming. It’s the one we skip when we’re not quite in the mood for braving it. But when we are, it’s another Dumbhead masterpiece in a new direction. The chaotic finale almost hints at prodigy or idles with that voice. Anarchic voices in the background, I think I can hear a chain rattle or coins tumble somewhere distance? Then suddenly into –
‘Sally Constituent’
Ethereal female vocals now. It’s lighter, quicker.
Then that male lead returns and it yanks you back to the eerie otherworldly Dumbhead soundscape. More horns, brass – or is it just the lone saxaphone? All held up by that haunting operatic chorale, another key element in Dumbhead’s signature. Though it goes almost angelic for this one.
Then, nothing from the Melbourne trio – until an interesting sidestep with Rabbit in Pants (it’s up to you), five months later in Oct 2023 with Noah Learmonth (Radio Free Alice – another Melbourne-based band) which Maayan tells me was a forgotten beat he dug up.
“I was just deep diving through a hard drive and found that beat and thought there was something there, I used to play in Radio Free Alice and am good friends with Noah and I thought his vocals would sound interesting. I’m obsessed with the dance bit in Underworld’s Jumbo with some real nice chill vocals on top.”
“It was written based off a vocal melody that I had pre-recorded. Oftentimes we would have a vocal melody as a place holder then lyrics would come after. I remember sitting with Noah and writing lyrics based on the mumbles that were resting over the beat.”
Learmouth’s distinct vocal tone is a great pairing to keep it light with a touch of that eeriness, yet it’s fun and upbeat and easy to listen to, there’s almost an element of Bowie in it’s final choices to go big with electric guitar and the incredible lyricism throughout. I think it’s interesting choices like these by Barnatan that continue to anchor Dumbhead in its identity and makes for an exciting addition to the Melbourne undergound scene.
Then not another release until Problem Dog, the first single of the second EP Dumbhead; which didn’t come out until 14 months later (October, 2025).
The singles
‘Problem Dog’
Straight back into their signature grand haunting chorale sound and yet, there is something that feels more mature and considered and the main female vocals taking the lead with that backing chorale? A masterpiece.
Note from my second listenthrough of the album: *Female vocals take over from here, a nice choice.
It goes big in drums and bass too. For the folks that listen to music to really hear it – there’s something for everyone in here. IDM (intelligent dance music) would be a relevant genre here as it really is music to be listened to, not just dance music to dance to.
‘Want Light!
Want Light! is almost a folk strum at the beginning, but that deep/slow bass and drum keep it heavy. Female vocals go less ethereal with more strength and tone, the first hint at even more of Raffety’s range. It’s Dumbhead yet again giving us a fresh voice in their catalogue, keeping the intrigue and wonder in where their sound may go.
‘Strange hiatus’
Immediately back to haunting. Chanting hums and tsks and a jazz cimbal.
The turn it makes, takes it to a whole new level. That rasp and falsetto in the vocals? Raffety’s range is now another element that makes Dumbhead incredibly interesting and whispers at where they could still take their sound.
Then, Dumbhead’s latest EP, released last Thursday, which brings us three new tracks alongside those aforementioned singles (Problem Dog, Want Light!, Strange Hiatus).
Dumbhead (October, 2025)
‘Sly Folk’
Another almost-but-not-quite folk strum. This track made me realise Dumbhead’s sound is also incredibly cinematic (I feel this too with their bandcamp track Bella Bespoke, which has quite an epic 70s movie soundtrack feel). It still gets intense, overwhelming, with a grand chilling outro.
‘Bow to the child’
A mastery of storytelling, such great choices in harmonic dissonance and the warped loop keeps that eerie tone present on an otherwise ‘lighter; track (for Dumbhead, that is) Barnatan tells me this was Billie’s first take, improvising and freestyling as she went. This one’s over before you know what to think, other than ‘wow’.
‘Coda’
Immediately a hectic choice for the final track on an EP, and the perfect one (the word coda literally means the concluding passage of a piece or movement).
It wraps up an EP that displays the huge range of where Dumbhead can take their singular sound. There is such variety in where they take it, and this EP encompasses all their talent and skill in writing, producing, mixing, creating and showcases that.
It’s exciting, though, because as much as it’s encompassing it never suggests this is the end of what they can do, it does the opposite for me. I can’t wait to hear what they do next.
Q & A – Maayan Barnatan, Dumbhead (Melbourne)
Take it right back to the formation of Dumbhead, how did you all find each other or know each other and where did that first spark for Dumbhead begin?
It started two years ago, initially it was just me making the beats from my room and doing the vocals. Zach and I went to school together; he’s been my best friend since probably year eight but hadn’t joined in at that point yet.
I’d just met Billie maybe a year or so prior, at Bar 303, and asked if she wanted to come do some ethereal backing vocals. I realised she was a way, way better singer than me so I asked her to take the lead and she happily accepted.
That was two and a half years ago. We released that first EP and that’s how it started and it just developed into a more collaborative experience between Billie and I, with Zach doing a lot of the drum and bass programming with us as well.
Talk me through what we’re working with in terms of instruments, who’s on vocals, any machines?
Billie really took control of the vocals sound and I’m blown away by where she’s taken it. She’s a trained jazz singer, she studied three years at VCA, so she’s got all the knowledge. But, even though she learnt the theory of it all, it really feels intuitive and organic when she does everything.
In fact, a lot of the final takes of the EP tracks was just me coming to her with a beat and going just jam over this; Bow to the Child and Sly Folk were her first takes off the bat.
I pretty much play mostly guitar and program the bass and drums, Zach does programming bass and drums, he uses a Tascam mixing desk and does a lot of live dubbing, like on Sly Folk, all those delay whisper effects is an SP in a Tascam mixer and he’s doing live dubbing. A lot of our live sound delays and effects are Zach.
My guitar, a Moog Mavis on Sly Folk, which is a semi-modular synth. Quite a lot of the tracks are just in the box, sound from programs. As we continue on, we do really want to go into analogue equipment moving forward. Billie’s on vocals.
Will it still be the three-piece for the upcoming live show?
Yes, Dumbhead is still at its core a three-piece with Billie, Zach and I being most involved with everything Dumbhead. We do, however, get our good friend Henry to come and record trumpet on our songs, as well as play with us live. We’ve had two great saxophonists in the past, but we felt trumpet was a much better fit for our sound. We’ve also had our friend Erin play flugelhorn a couple of times which has sounded really good.
What influences or ideas led you to this particular down tempo, trip-hop jazz, grand haunting chorale sound or was it just experimenting and play?
It was probably more experiment and play. I love artists who have diverse instrumentals and songwriting, artists like Björk or Radiohead. Björk uses such a broad range of musical elements in her discography, but even still she has her Björk sound throughout it all. We may take from other influences but we still have a sound woven through there and it’s still tied together with Billie’s incredible vocals.
Each of us are such big fans of music, so we’re always finding new music and incorporating it, I’m starting to make music inspired by elements of the trapworld, like Blade, Oklou – I love Blade Bird and Obvious from her. Newer music as opposed to older stuff like Massive Attack or Björk, who were heavy inspirations for Problem Dog.
On a production level, I’m trying out newer production styles like Blade and Oklou, artists like that. We’re always taking from different genres and trying new stuff.
You mentioned to me when we first spoke that it’s good to be returning to playing live shows, how long has it been and can I ask why the pause?
It’s been six months from the last show to the nighthawks gig we did last weekend. Billie went on a backpacking trip, rode from Amsterdam to Turkey on a bike.
What did you guys do while she was away, any other solo projects?
My only project is Dumbhead now, after playing in Radio Free Alice and a few other things. Zach and I just made some beats and had chill time while Billie was away, it was nice to have a little downtime. We slowly chipped away at newer stuff. Kept the ball rolling just at a slower pace.
How do you feel your sound has evolved since then?
A lot of the songs were written around the same time, so we were in the same mindspace of what we wanted to create. Then, listening to them at the time, we thought those singles would be good as singles, so even though they were quite earlier than this EP, they were created around a similar time.
Most of these tracks were from that year ago era of creating. Newer ones like Coda’ was Zach creating a beat I heard through the wall and I went in and said, “what is that? That has to be the final song.” That was the newest and it fits perfectly at the end. So even though they’re different in production, they still tie together.
I’d just moved to Melbourne at the time and was getting exposed to new music. I’m influenced by Massive Attack, Portishead, and there was even newer stuff coming into my musical vocabulary.
Things like HTRK, Acopia; they were in the back of my head while making music, but it honestly developed quite organically when Billie came in, and I think there’s a point of difference in Billie’s vocals that lean it in a particular direction.
Have your practices changed since the last music you wrote and recorded? What different methods or experiments or approaches did you try?
In the beginning we’d make the instruments track and I’d bring them to Billie to sing over, but now we get into the studio and with most of the newer stuff (unreleased) we’re slowly recording now is Billie and I jamming, she starts a vocal idea on the top of my guitar – so we’re working in the opposite direction.
This method has meant some of these newer songs are a lot more song-y, less harder electric beats, more focus on chord changes and melodies on guitar and vocals that were more backdrop elements on the more chordal songs previously.
To put a song like A-T-24 on the same EP as something like Sally Constituent with those ethereal vocals – is that a conscious choice or just happens to be the spectrum of the music you enjoy making?
Less intentional, we just love creating different types of music and releasing something we just did without it being part of a considered choice. I don’t mind if there’s a bit of diversity on the one EP when I listen to artists, so that’s just how it’s happened.
What can we expect for the upcoming live show?
It’s a hard one to describe what people should expect, but if you have a broad taste in music including bass-heavy electronic and downtempo, all the way to indie rock and folk, between the four bands we have it all covered.
What’s in store for the future?
Next year we want to play a lot more shows.
We want to release either a single or double single in March next year, and hopefully get onto another EP. Billie is eager to do an album and I’d love that. We’ll be releasing quite a lot of new music next year, we’re back in the studio and writing now.
Keep an eye out on Beat Magazine’s social media for a pre-show sit down interview in Melbourne with Maayan, Billie and Zach coming soon!
Dumbhead are playing in Melbourne at The John Curtin Hotel on November 21, tickets here.
