Vid Pick: Stand Atlantic – Chemicals

Australia has an impressive history of being a birthplace of great rock bands. AC/DC, INXS, Midnight Oil, Crowded House, Men At Work, and Tonight Alive all hail from down under. The latest band looking to become part of that incredible lineage is Stand Atlantic.

After one listen to their current single, “Chemicals,” it’s pretty clear they’re well on their way.

Formed in 2015, Stand Atlantic – which consists of Bonnie Fraser (vocals and guitar), David Potter (bass), and Jonna Panichi (drums) – have hit stages all over the world, and currently have two EPs to their name, the most recent being 2017’s Sidewinder.

I caught up with frontwoman Bonnie Fraser, to ask her about all things Stand Atlantic, including the inspirations behind the tattoos the band had done in their video for “Chemicals.” During our conversation Fraser also told a supremely creepy story about an incident in Poland involving a band member’s lost cell phone that could easily be the basis for a horror movie.

First off, I have to ask, is there any chance you’ve worked on combining “Chemicals” with Bush’s “Chemicals Between Us”?

Look, not gonna lie, and at the risk of being accused of living under a rock – I had never heard of that song before, so the answer to your question is no, BUT ... anything is possible???? {laughs}

What’s the story behind the scene in the “Chemicals” video where members of the band are getting tattoos? Were these planned tattoos, or random acts of body art?

Okay so two stories – Potter’s tatty is a reference to a Simpsons episode where they go to Australia.

There's this game we play called “odds,” and Potter lost, so he respected the rules and got the tat.

Jonno and myself got, in hindsight, something pretty dumb, as well, to be honest. We got a wine bottle that says “Side-WINE-der.” Basically it was a tribute to our EP (Sidewinder), because it’s changed our lives, but as well as that, we spilled wine that was inside a box of our merch on tour, ironically the ONLY shirt we were selling that had the word Sidewinder on it. So yep, just a dumb pun. {laughs} Definitely don't regret the tat, though.


You have toured all over the world. What’s the closest you’ve come to getting arrested, or accidentally causing an international incident, while on the road?

Okay, so we're fairly well behaved people, I’m not gonna lie. {laughs}

I'd say the closest story we have to this was this one time when we were in Poland. Potter’s phone got stolen and we'd managed to actually track it from my phone on the “find my iPhone” app.

We were on this wild goose chase for like an hour in the pouring rain, following his phone through these dodgy backstreets of Poland. The guys ended up at this grim apartment block knocking on this guy’s door to get him to give the phone back. They were texting him, as well, and all the messages had the “read” thing popping up. It was just so creepy.

The guys finally gave up, and as soon as they left the phone started moving again, so whoever stole his phone was just watching the guys the whole time.

Looking back, I don't know WHY we thought Potter would get his phone back.

That is super disturbing! Keeping things on the road, but far less creepy, what are some of your keys for staying happy as a band, and not at each other’s throats, while spending countless hours together in a van?

Good question! We're still a young band, I guess, so we haven’t had too many problems with this yet, but just talking to each other if one of us is having a bad day helps a lot.

Keeping occupied, and lightening the mood ALWAYS (helps).

We're constantly making fun of each other, too. Nothing serious, of course, but I think we’ve all had a moment where maybe we’ve taken it a little too far, so again, everything comes down to communication. Just speaking to each other about anything we're going through has a huge impact.


As you noted, you guys are still a relatively young band, but that said, you’ve done A LOT over a short period of time. Have you had the chance to take a breath, and look at what you’ve accomplished so far?

Everyday we're just blown away by everything. To look at where we were in 2016 even, almost at the point of breaking up, and then to be where we are now, it’s just insane to think about. We're just so grateful that things have gone the way they have. So to answer your question – yes!

On your personal Twitter page your header image is of someone commenting “You’re nothing special.” That seems pretty harsh. I hope it’s not a comment that was left on one of your videos! Why did you choose this as your header photo?

This is literally the first time this has ever been brought up. I'm living for this question right now. {laughs}

It's actually my friend, Eliza, she sent it to me once in a conversation, and we had an ongoing inside joke of making cover photos of things we’d said to each other. To this day, neither of us have had the heart to change them, so it’s probably gonna stay there till the end of time.

Finally, pretending my entire knowledge of your home country comes from the Men At Work classic “Down Under,” is Australia really a place where “women glow and men plunder?”

Yeah, but I'm just here for the Vegemite sandwich.

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