New single ‘What’s In My Bag’ is built around the sharp refrain “I’ve become my clutter” – capturing the moment mess turns into identity, delivered through a frenetic collision of distortion and pop hooks.

On the new single, singer Clara Bach said: “Initially inspired by the ‘What’s In My Bag’ lifestyle videos you see online and thinking about how no amount of SPF beauty products can wash away your sins. Essentially, it’s about feeling like you’re trapped in the trash of your bag, smacking into a granola bar snack here and there. So yes, an everyday feeling. It’s an overdose of overconsumption and feeling ‘trashy’. But somehow in a fun way?”

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Opening on off-kilter piano stabs, the track sets up a tension that quickly gives way to something far darker beneath their restless left-field pop. Clara’s lyrics frame fixation as bodily and inescapable, from dirt under fingernails to crumbs in bedsheets and thoughts that won’t leave your chest.

“It’s about being completely obsessed with something or someone, but not in a cute way, more in a ‘your whole body is under attack’ kinda way. It’s sort of disordered, chaotic, overwhelming,” Clara explains.

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A wide-eyed surge of feeling, ‘I Love This!’ captures what PUNCHBAG describe as “the extreme sport of everyday life” – celebrating the dizzying highs and dragging lows, and refusing to separate one from the other.

Written in Berlin at 3am in a burst of chaotic energy, Clara’s brain-rush lyrics (“fleas, drugstores, tea leaves, dopamine dreams”) spiral over Anders’ maximalist production, teetering on the edge of collapse.  There’s a playfulness running through it too – a wink behind the chaos signalling that not everything here is meant to be taken too seriously, even when it’s hitting something painfully real.

“I guess you could see this song as an anti-depression anthem! You can hear the highest highs and the lowest lows – almost like it’s soundtracking the extreme sport of everyday life. Because sometimes it really is an extreme sport, so the highs should be celebrated. Getting through a shit phase should be danced about! With synths, a dance tempo, and something to shout! All that positive stuff.” – Clara says.

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The EP’s title track, new single ‘I’m Not Your Punchbag’ is a combative cut of razor-sharp pop that offers a message of defiance. “It comes from a ‘harmless’ small remark made to me at a dinner table once that really cut deep,” says Clara. “From this small seed, if you like, the song grew into a kind of anthem for fighting back – a refusal to let people dump their shit on you.”

It was after writing it that they realised that ‘PUNCHBAG’ made a good band name too. “This song helps explain the band name and our ethos,” Clara continues. “It’s something to scream along to; a perfect therapy. ‘Don’t take it out on me, bitch!’”

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Swinging between dizzying extremes, where unapologetically sugar-sweet pop hooks clash with radical leftfield production; where emotional overwhelm can be purged in the space of a single throwaway lyric; where lines are blurred and redrawn between aggression and joy, softness and toughness, PUNCHBAG (consisting of Clara and Anders Bach) are a compelling proposition.

Debut single ‘Fuck It’ introduces the duo with a grand wash of entrancing synths and piercing beats. Vocalist Clara sings of a life buffeted by anxiety and the fear of wasting time, as instrumental momentum builds and builds. Then, just short of escape velocity, everything flips on its head. Guitarist and producer Anders’ overdriven punk guitars attack in plunging dives as the vocal suddenly flips in tone; sharp, snippy and unabashed. “We might as well just say go fuck it!” Clara exclaims. “’Cos we’re all gonna die, die, die!”

This central refrain might be viewed as PUNCHBAG’s manifesto, although “it’s not nihilistic,” Clara insists. “It’s more like, we only have so much time, so do the thing you want to do. Kiss the person you want to kiss, say that thing you want to say.”

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