Track By Track: Bunchy's Big Score's New Album 'Wanda's Bicycle'

A genre-skewing Ōtepoti art-rock combo who've wormed their way into our hearts with their ineffably catchy tunes, Bunchy's Big Score today zoom into the new era of Wanda's Bicycle, their second album in less than twelve months. Embarking on a nationwide release tour sparking up this weekend at their hometown's Yours and at Ōtautahi's darkroom, Max White from Bunchy's Big Score spilled the beans about every single song on Wanda's Bicycle, in our exclusive Track By Track spotlight feature below.

Recorded by the legendary Nick Roughan (who nailed the brief) at Southlink Studios and featuring none other than Robert Scott (The Bats, The Clean) contributing backing vocals on selected tunes, the time is right now to hop on board Wanda's Bicycle. Like Captain Beefheart famously declared, "If you got ears / You gotta listen" — join the four-piece of White, Jack Ingram, Niki Knight and Reef Brazendale at the following dates...

Bunchy's Big Score
Wanda's Bicycle Tour

Friday 19th June - Yours, Dunedin w/ Rheumy, Fast Plant, Sick Of You (all-ages)
Saturday 20th June - darkroom, Christchurch w/ Out Of Luck, The Wendys, Homesickk
Thursday 16th July - Whammy Bar, Auckland
Friday 17th July - Mt Eden Scout Hall, Auckland w/ Slow Rage, Community Treatment Order (all-ages)
Saturday 18th July - MOON, Wellington

Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Jeremy Cricket

A jaunty little tune about a particularly crotchety fellow I once knew. This genre of person is often resigned to the fact that they will be furious and miserable forever, projecting these feelings onto others rather than trying to improve their situation. Someone tied to a railroad track, but not caring to escape came to mind. I’ve always liked writing portrait-type songs about people I’ve known, like The Velvet Underground’s 'Femme Fatale'. Perhaps it says more about me that these songs are often more negative than positive… I think it’s neat that the whole band gradually joins in as the song goes on, eventually detonating into the noisier outro. A slow and steady way to start the LP.

The Sound and the Fury

A complete mess of a song. Also, the only track here in an alternate tuning; D Standard. The guitar may even be out of tune on the recording. I like dissonant guitar parts where all the strings ring out with wrong notes. This is also the closest we get to the first album in terms of abrasiveness. I remember worrying it would be like a second 'Leather Dog'. Hamish and I workshopped the riff together very early on and I remember saying that the song should thump along like a rickety old car screeching, roaring, but eventually sputtering and dying softly once it had run out of gas. Honestly, I think the recording sounds more like a broken printer. The lyrics were quite piecemeal; I would write one or two lines each day on the way to work, usually in busy shopping centres with too many people. I think that environment is reflected in the song.

I Don’t Wanna Dance

Hamish came up with the main verse guitar line for this song in 2023 and had wanted to use it for our first song 'Scrapbook'. I like how it turned out here. There’s not heaps of playing in the verses at all making the choruses erupt more. “Quiet verse-loud chorus” really is a tried-and-true technique. I remember really struggling with the vocal melody and lyrics for this. I think I originally was trying to pull from The Smiths. This was the song that prompted Nick to summon Robert Scott in for some backing vocals because he thought it sounded like something from The Bats. I also remember Nick incessantly singing “Bunchy’s Big Score is RnB” when we were working out the middle 8 section. Jack’s guitar in the outro section is one of my favourite parts of the record.

Quasimodo

Quasimodo is a song about an old friend of mine who seemed to be having a bit of an identity crisis. I think this often happens when someone is made to feel ashamed about certain parts of themselves, which sucks. It can take a while to learn how to live for yourself instead of others. This song functions as a bit of a breather from the full band songs, and it was nice to structure a song around a proper piano part. I hope to use the piano more. I regret not adding a bit of organ or something in the choruses though.

Bad Things Could Happen

There was a computer demo of this song, which started quite slowly, gradually speeding up until the very end. I miss that quality a little bit. I remember showing the demo to Jack and he says, “Come on, it’s gotta be faster, no government buildings are going to be destroyed to that!” We were really trying to be like The Ramones which I think may come across more live. I love the outro here too, it’s rambunctious like CCR or something with the drum grove and the ridiculous guitar licks. Niki’s bass playing is great and motorik too. The lyrics were a bit of an attempt to write the most paranoid song; they were partially inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath which I was reading at the time. Namely, this part where he describes tractors being like enlarged, mechanical insects, that control those inside them rather than the other way around.

Oscar Says

Reef, Hamish, and I wrote 'Oscar Says' in 2024 right after we finished the first LP. We knew we wanted to make a less lo-fi, more immediate album next, and spent a long time trying to figure out how to go about it. Hamish had the chords for the verse and the chorus, and initially we played it a lot slower, I was thinking it might turn out like Th’ Dudes’ 'Be Mine Tonight'. The way Hamish would sing over it was a bit Springsteenean too. Lyrically, the song is about miscommunication and the occasional futility of language. I always thought that it sounded like Hamish and I were arguing and yelling at each other in the choruses, which is great. I think Hamish’s vocals really do make the song though. Jack was worried about putting this out as a single because, “It might become THE Bunchy’s Big Score song.” I’m glad we did, I think it’s one of our best.

You Are a Camera

To me, this is the closest we came to classic Dunedin Sound/The Clean, mainly because of the keyboard line. 'You Are a Camera' is my attempt at writing a classic love song. When beginning a new relationship, be it platonic or romantic, it can be confronting or difficult to allow someone else to see you and come to their own conclusion about who you are. I think the camera is a useful way of literalising this idea, as the view of a camera is never entirely accurate to reality. However, we often prefer to look at photos rather than things as they are in the present. Similarly, sometimes I’m more interested in how I’m perceived by those close to me than how I perceive myself. The song wasn’t going to be a full band song initially, and instead more of an acoustic slower track. I like how anthemic it becomes with the full band, erring on prog rock a bit with the irregular time signature of the riff…

There Goes My Head

Another slower non-band song. Winter 2025, I had an aggressive eczema flare-up as a lot of people get down here in cold Ōtepoti. It spread over most of my body and onto my head as too which caused some hair loss. This predicament was extremely painful and also not great for the self-esteem, so I wrote the lyrics about feeling a loss of control over your appearance. Niki thought the song was about watching your body be discarded after dying! The Velvet Underground again was a huge influence here with the sparse instrumentation, the tambourine and the atonal smashing of the keys in the outro.

Hey, George! Let Me Live with You

I find the difference between male friendships and female friendships quite fascinating. Men often struggle to express deep affection for each other, in a way that is far more common in female friendships. This is a great example of the patriarchy failing men as well as women. I’ve had so many male friendships where it’s “weird” to give hugs or to be emotionally vulnerable at all. Fortunately, this has changed recently, but I wrote 'Hey George' quite a while ago about a longing for that kind of friendship. I’m pretty proud of the chorus too, I was trying to do something like Alvvays' 'Archie, Marry Me' which is a 10/10 pop song. I believe this song is the other contender (with 'I Don’t Wanna Dance') for Jack’s finest guitar moment too.

Old Iron

Probably the closest Bunchy’s has come to alt-country. I had the instrumental since 2024 but struggled to complete the lyrics until recording come along. I hadn’t really written a story that was removed from myself in a song before, but I really liked the idea of a love/anti-love story between two people, being presented from the perspective of a removed third person. I think that there is a deep loneliness to this concept and the instrumental does well to reflect this loneliness, particularly Reef’s almost lazy drumming which is just behind the beat of the song. 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks does that third person narrative idea really well, and Dostoevsky’s White Nights too. It’s also an extremely voyeuristic concept.

I’m Still Your Itch

This was the strangest and most difficult song for us to record. Mainly due to some issues with the drum track. So difficult that we almost cut it! I’m glad we didn’t. Jack brought along a banjo, and at Southlink, there was an old out of tune piano which was perfect to get the honky sound. I really like it when bands do a strange, unexpected song at the end of an album, and I thought it would be a bit of a bummer to end on 'Old Iron'. The Beatles have lots of songs like that. The instrumental sounds a bit like Thomas the train too. The lyrics are a bit cheesy but are meant to be a reminder that frustrating or painful things are necessary. Gotta have bad times for the good times to be good! Reef jumps on vocals for a verse and a chorus, and his vocal performance is perfect and extremely endearing.

'Wanda's Bicycle' is out today on CD and major streaming platforms.