Stella Farnan and Soren Maryasin have always loved music, so much so that they spent years playing as session musicians and touring for other people’s projects.
But while supporting the music of Mallrat, Angie McMahon, Gretta Ray, and many more is incredibly valuable in and of itself, Farnan and Maryasin desired something deeper and more their own.
Together they formed Wishlist, an experimental alt-pop project that finds them embracing their turn in the spotlight.
The duo dropped their debut EP, Big Sign, last week, the culmination of a truly experimental approach to recording and songwriting.
“The band began during a session where we discovered this way to write using an intertwined co-production setup: we both work simultaneously with identical gear — two laptops, two sets of headphones, and a third laptop acting as a live ‘tape machine’ to capture and record ideas in real time,” they explain.
“We had been really struggling to make any breakthroughs while following the traditional collaboration format of one producer and one artist — at the time it felt kind of loaded and limiting. But once we found this way of working, we made like seven demos in a couple of days.”
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The result is a six-track collection of contemplative, shimmering alt-pop that will delight any Caroline Polachek fans.
“‘Big Sign’ has been a place for us to explore our creativity and big pop dreamscapes together,” they say. “We want to make pop music with all of the things we love in it. I think we both find a lot of catharsis in ideas rubbing up against each other and not quite fitting.
“With the record, I think we’re moving in as many directions as we want and letting ourselves have a big question mark to jump off.”
To celebrate their debut EP, Wishlist are playing a show at 185bar in Sydney on Saturday, August 22nd (tickets here), followed by another show at Shotkickers in Melbourne on Friday, August 28th (tickets here).
In the meantime, read our catch-up with the duo as part of our Up-And-Coming Australian Artists series below.
Wishlist’s Big Sign EP is out now.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: How did music influence you in your early life?
Soren: Music came into my world when I was six. I’d just started playing drums and I heard [Nirvana’s] “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time. It absolutely blew my brain wide open, it was incredible. From then on, I’ve been dedicated to music!
Stella: I grew up in a musical household and would listen to whatever CDs my big sister had at the time. She was listening to lots of great songwriting that I would kind of study and try to replicate. I was singing all the time. I remember borrowing my dad’s iPod Classic while we were on a long train journey as part of a family trip — I was maybe nine — and I listened to the same two songs on repeat for about six hours: “Song 2” by Blur and “Pieces of Me” by Ashlee Simpson. I think that experience influenced two sides of my music taste in a very specific way.
What artists influenced you growing up?
Stella: I think there were a few CDs that my mum would put on that had a huge influence on me. The Reminder by Feist and Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple were two big ones. I still adore those records. And then my sister introduced me to “The Fear” by Lily Allen and I fell in love with pop. I can really see the way that those melodies and arrangements became etched into the walls of my brain.
Soren: Some big teenage touchstones for me were Nine Inch Nails, Björk, Deftones, and The Drones.
When did you discover your passion for creating music?
Stella: I remember playing around with a loop pedal as a kid for hours on end. I would arrange full songs, layer upon layer. I’d play guitar into the mic and then find objects around my bedroom that I could use to turn into make-shift drum sounds. I feel like I learned a lot about harmony just by layering my voice.
Soren: I think when I started playing guitar towards the end of primary school. Every recess and lunch I’d insist on playing my shitty red Aldi guitar non-stop, and I found my own way of moving and writing on it at that point.
What are some career highlights so far?
As session musicians we’ve both done lots of touring and played some really fun shows with some really amazing people. We’ve been lucky to play bucket-list venues and festivals like the Forum Melbourne, Laneway, and Corona Capital, as well as a fair bit of international touring too. It’s not something we ever thought we’d get so lucky to experience — definitely lots of highlights in there.
For Wishlist, though, I think the most important highlight is literally just making music together as best friends. Putting this record out is a huge thing for us — it’s been a long time and feels like a real culmination of work and friendship. I think there’s a lot of us as people in these songs. We aim for all of our creative efforts to be 50-50, so there’s something particularly rewarding about making music that way with another person.
What kind of personality traits and values do you believe it takes to succeed in the music industry?
I guess we all get pushed toward ideas of endless ‘growth’… Shout out to all of our beautiful friends who make amazing art despite it! In our bubble of a music community, we’re so lucky to be around a lot of kind people who are also interested in pushing up against artistic boundaries.
From day one, this band has been about one thing: we want to remain best friends forever. And secondary to that, we want to make music together as much as possible, as we desire. And so for us, living out that life would be success.
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How would you describe your music to a potential fan?
Sparkly, cathartic alt-pop for fans of Caroline Polachek and Sorry.
What are your goals for 2026 and beyond? What can fans expect from you this year?
We’re going to play some more shows which we’re really excited for. We are both quite obsessive and insular with our music-making process so it’s going to be such a great release to share the full record, especially in a live context. And most importantly, we’re going to be making more music together!
