On episode nine of Round the Ground, I interviewed Ethan Pastor and Petar Kolundzic of South Sydney alternative rock outfit Toy Saints, who just released their fantastic debut EP, Colour of the Week, after a unique rebranding from Elliott Road.

You just wrapped up your first ever headlining tour, with shows all around the east coast of Australia, after 10 years of being together as a band. How are you feeling coming off the back of that?

Ethan: Yeah, I was buzzed for a while. I didn’t really feel down after the tour at all—some people I know who have gone on tour mentioned that it was something that they experienced, but personally, I was just inspired to get back out there.

Petar: No post-tour feels. I was just pretty keen to be back home, and very keen to be back in the studio, writing and recording some new stuff as well.

Before you released this new EP, you were on hiatus after quite a unique challenge that presented itself when you rebranded yourself from Elliot Road to Toy Saints. I’m interested to know the risks along the way, some challenges that you faced, and more importantly, how’s the new identity serving you?

Ethan: I think when we did rebrand, we had so many people that threw their opinion straight at us, and that was cool. It was very half-and-half. At the time, we were given direction to change the name by someone we trusted, in terms of just nailing our identity.

With Elliott Road, a lot of that was embedded in the stuff that we were doing in high school, and with some different members on top of that. So we were just relaunching, there’s nothing too crazy about it, but I guess it took a while for people to catch on. We were just super confident that it would work.

We’re still shaping our identity, and I think the thing that’s so awesome about releaisng this EP is after all those years, we’re on the ground floor. And when people say that they enjoy it, I say that’s level one. Like there is so much more… ceiling to go.

One thing that I noticed as part of this relaunch is a removal of your past work. You cleaned up your social media, and on streaming services, the work of Elliot Road is no longer available. Was that hard to move on from releasing a couple of EPs as Elliot Road, or were you keen for that relaunch?

Petar: I probably have a slightly different perspective on it since I wasn’t one of the people that were around to see those songs written. But I think everyone came to the conclusion that it was time for us to rebrand, and sacrifices had to be made. 

Some people still ask where they are and how they can listen to them, and to them we say… I don’t know.

Ethan: Sometimes projects manifest themselves, and I hear old songs in projects that we’re building now, so I’ve got no doubt that they’re gonna come to the forefront at some point and have a different impact than they did originally, when we were a little bit more immature.

In those old songs, is it more the recording and the production, or the lyricism and the storytelling that you wanted to evolve and move away from?

Ethan: Yeah, it’s a good question and it’s definitely both. We did a lot of the recording and production ourselves and handled a lot of that.

In terms of the lyrical content, we were very passionate about that and a lot of that was good, but some of it was also not exactly what we wanted to go forward with, at least for now. You know, a song about goon just doesn’t fit into our message and our image going forward.

Does that mean when people see you live, what’s the set list kind of like—is it all new Toy Saints stuff, or are there a few Elliot Road classics that you’ve got in the set list?

Ethan: There’s definitely Elliot Road classics and it’s also a lot of it’s based on feel. Sometimes we’ll have a set list and I’ll just look at D.B., and he just knows. Like yeah, let’s just play “The Goon” or “What I’m Made Of”, and we love tearing those songs up. They’re so intuitive and they’re not too hard to latch onto for us and for the audience. So they’re always there for the OGs when there’s a lot of OGs there.

Now, obviously you’ve been playing those old songs for quite a while because you’ve been playing for 10 years, forming in the Sutherland Shire. Have you seen the local scene evolve over time? Have you noticed any changes from the artists to the venues, to the type of identities coming out of the bands from the region?

Ethan: To be honest, I definitely haven’t noticed much of a change in the genre of artists. After the impacts of Covid on the music industry, I’m just happy to see that there’s soldiers in the rubble, getting their hands dirty, trying to make things happen in the Shire.

Something that I noticed is that there’s definitely a string of loyalty, and that’s unique to the Shire, at least for us. The shows that we’ve played there consistently have the same lovely people, and more people show up and are willing to buy tickets, and are willing to support. I can’t say that so much about other areas, but maybe that’s just because we have our roots here.

I think that in terms of attendance, the Shire shows have been some of our most enjoyable and our most active. But also at the same time, at our show in the Shire at Huxley’s, we had security guards intentionally preventing people from moving around and moshing, so we weren’t able to absorb the energy from the crowd that they really wanted to give us back.

Something that I noticed is that there’s definitely a string of loyalty, and that’s unique to the Shire, at least for us.

Are there any other challenges in the Sutherland Shire music scene?

Ethan: I think that there’s issues with presale tickets, which has been pretty evident all throughout the Australian economy and the gig economy. People don’t buy tickets if they know they don’t have to. I think that’s a difficult mindset to change. I don’t know how you approach something like that, but that’s prevalent in the Shire.

For example, at our [Huxley’s] show, with the help of our supports, we garnered 120 sales on the day of the show, which maxed our venue. So we were sitting a little bit unsure—once the word got around, it was selling out, [it was like] everyone kind came out from the dark.

It’s like catching lightning in a bottle. If you know how to do it, you can pull it off. But if you are a little bit inexperienced, there’s not really any pathways for you to just get up there.

People don’t buy tickets if they know they don’t have to. I think that’s a difficult mindset to change.

Can you tell us a little bit about Colour of the Week and “Ego Death” in particular?

Petar: [It’s] probably my favourite song. It’s a song that took quite a bit of time and quite a bit of arguing to lock down a final version. Probably the most proggy sort of experimental section, a song with a bunch of different sections in it.

Ethan: There was just a lot of experimentation that we had to cram in a short amount of time, so a lot of workshopping and a lot of debate. But it turned out for the best, and it’s pretty epic.

What’s next for Toy Saints, because you join me in the recording studio, and you’ve been teasing your debut album on social media. What’s it been like back recording?

Ethan: It’s been a process. We’ve had to be thorough, and it’s very exciting. I don’t like to hype up too much, but the album is another transformation. As I’m working on it now, there’s glimpses of really amazing stuff that I’m so proud of. But yeah, we’ve got a lot of work to do behind the scenes to get the release where it needs to be and to improve on Colour of the Week.

Note: interview responses have been edited slightly for clarity and readability.