“It was unexpected to meet someone for the first time, and realise they knew the entire lore of Visual Kei.”
HARMINIA harminia fuses Japanese theatricality with Melbourne’s guitar underground — and she’s finding an audience that was already waiting. WORDS BY LUCAS RADBOURNE
Æ There’s a word for an image so warped it only makes sense from one precise angle. It’s called anamorphosis, and it’s the title harminia chose for her debut single — a track that treats the great abyss of human experience like an old acquaintance you keep bumping into at the shops. “Everything is a puzzle, gnarly and contorted, until one day you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and you finally see the shape of the abyss and its pretty eyes staring back at you,” she says. “Only then will you fall into its mouth.” That kind of imagery - clinical yet dreamlike, violent yet strangely tender - is harminia’s whole deal. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter occupies a sliver of the local scene that nobody else has really claimed: the intersection of Japanese Visual Kei and Western alt-rock, delivered with the intensity of someone performing surgery on their own emotions. Scan her tracklist and you’ll find song titles that read less like a setlist and more like a pathology report. osteotomy. nacl. 72°C. She describes her writing process as forensic work - pinning abstract feelings bare on the paper and examining them under clinical light. “My writing is naturally drawn to scientific language,” she explains. “I think it stems from my habit of wanting to surgically open an abstract feeling, thought, or theory - to pin the specimens bare on the paper and look at them.” Visual Kei - the highly codified Japanese rock movement built on theatrical costuming, elaborate stage personas, and emotional maximalism - might seem like an unlikely fit for Melbourne’s pub circuit. But harminia argues the fusion actually gives audiences a way into both worlds: the curated spectacle of Vkei and the rawer, guitar-driven energy of local alt-rock.
A new release called nana nods directly to the cult manga series of the same name, a touchstone of 2000s Tokyo culture intertwined with Vivienne Westwood fashion and the Vkei scene. It’s a deep-cut reference that rewards fans who already know the lore - and harminia has been surprised to discover how many of those fans are hiding in plain sight across Australia. “One of the things that surprised me was discovering that people who come to my shows were already Vkei fans,” she says. “It was unexpected to meet someone for the first time, and realise they knew the entire lore of Visual Kei - or more endearingly, that it was the reason they supported my project.” That hidden audience has given harminia something to build on. Her debut launch at Bar 303 back in March pulled 46 attendees for a 45-minute headline set with full band. The live show blends the costumed theatricality of Vkei with the volume and sweat of a Northcote rock gig. She describes it as a win-win dynamic. Vkei devotees recognise the depth and references baked into the project. Alt-rock fans connect with the grungy songs, shoegaze guitars, and sheer spectacle of the stage show. Neither camp needs to fully understand the other to get something out of it.
HARMINIA WHERE:
BERGY BANDROOM
WHEN:
19 SEP