There’s a melodramatic sensibility to Newcastle based band Ponzi Scheme that you don’t often see in music today.
Take their debut single ‘Nightcrawler’ which blends post-punk guitars, jungle-style drum breaks, and dark-wave synth lines. Front woman Vienna LaPalma McVernon’s vocals dance over the track, oscillating between the melody, spoken word, and gleeful screams. The music video, filmed across Awabakal and Worimi lands is half shaky-cam, found-footage style thriller and half high-fantasy complete with hooded capes, swords and fairy-tale mirrors. Backdropped of course by the industrial landscapes of the Steel City.
The three-piece have only been active since March 2025, releasing their debut self-titled EP in early 2026. Their self-described ‘nocturnal noise’ brings to mind the goth-electronica of Boy Harsher and Buzz Kull (who they recently supported in Sydney), and the theatrics of legacy acts like The Cure and The B-52’s.
Ponzi Scheme gives us a healthy balance of light and dark across these tracks, their gloomy sounds offset by the band’s inherent playfulness, stopping things from getting too self-serious. It’s what would play while you’re being chased through the woods by a creature from an 80’s horror film. It’s urgent, exhilarating, but also incredibly camp.
Words by Louisa Christie