Melbourne trio return with their third EP, an explosively addictive mix of electronic adrenaline, punk-infused guitars, and blood-boiling anger.
The trio – made up of Vicente Moncada (drums/production), Wry Gray (vocals/lyrics) and Kaya Martin (guitars/ synths) – gripped Australia’s music scene by the throat in 2025 with their two previous EPs ‘Body Broker’ and ‘No Love’. Their new project more closely defines their identity and sound. It’s Sex Mask at their most confident, and most daring.
Moncada and Gray started writing as a duo in 2022, when they both found themselves living in Melbourne after spending almost a decade apart. Despite their dissimilar music tastes, they found writing together to be fruitful, and that bringing together their opposite influences worked well. The ‘collaging’ of incongruous tastes continued when Martin joined in, and still stands at the core of their writing practice, resulting in a sound that cannot be pigeonholed, and exists outside the restricting boundaries of genre.
The latest EP, self-titled Sex Mask, blends elements of post-punk and electronic with raw, intimate songwriting, an attempt to capture the fleeting nature of feelings in the context of human relations. The opener ‘Raid’ is an anger-infused feigning of self-sufficiency, a claustrophobic track whose signature guitar riffs leave no space to breathe. “Fuck your favour, fuck your help/ I was doing it all myself” Wry sings. It’s about the universal instinct to push people away in the face of pain, conflict, or denial, an instinct that ultimately reveals itself to be futile.
Wry recognises how those feelings can be immature and juvenile, despite their momentary intensity, and how we can find resolution in genuine human connection. “The people I have in my life, my friendships, my relationships, they all have relevance for me” Wry says. “I make music with them, or at the very least we share the same aspirations and values, and that’s really important. It makes everything easier, sharing dreams with people”.
Tracks like ‘TFYU’ directly oppose ‘Raid’, both thematically and musically. ‘“How many bridges must a man burn down / before you learn to swim?”’ the track opens, with an emotional honesty that tears down the anger and bitterness of the opener. Martin’s powerful synths take center stage in a danceable rhythm that’s incredibly attractive and fun.
While each track is dramatically different from the rest, the EP still works incredibly well as a whole project, as Sex Mask have honed down on their sound and are now more confident than ever in their identity as a group, without restricting themselves or sticking to a certain formula. “We’ve played around and experimented a lot, and through that process we’ve figured out what is really important for us and for our sound. We always try to broaden our horizons and that’s really helpful, because what might not sound good on paper sometimes turns out to be really good.” Experimentation is essential, especially with the push and pull dynamic that exists between the three members. This willingness to step out of their creative comfort zone produces something that’s fresh, genuine, true to who they are as artists, both individually and as a group.
The trio tries to maintain the same mindset with their live shows, never sticking to a formula but reacting and adjusting to the crowd in front of them. “When I get up on stage I want to tune into something outside the everyday convention. I want to be a conduit for losing inhibition. We bring a sort of surrender to the stage that makes every show different, unpredictable”.
As they are readying themselves for a headline tour across Europe and the UK, and on the stage of End Of The Road Festival, Reeperbahn Festival, Manchester & Brighton Psych Festival, the excitement is thick in the air. We’ll anxiously be waiting for the moment Sex Mask step on the stage, ready to .
Sex Mask’s self-titled EP is out now via Winspear.