Get into the habit of hearing more from Habits
People who identify as a non-binary gender might feel neither male nor female; like a combination of the two, or somewhere in the middle. Maia Connolly and Mohini Hillyer, who form Melbourne darkwave duo Habits, both identify as non-binary and prefer to be referred to using the singular pronoun "they".
Their experiences – both as non-binary people and as humans more generally – inform their music.
Mohini Hillyer and Maia Connolly have released a Habits EP, Ugly Cry. Credit:Elliott Lauren
"There's lots of stuff about anxiety and dealing with mental illness, break-ups, dealing with being trans and being queer and feeling unsafe a lot and feeling like our identities aren't valid or recognised," Hillyer says.
"It's such a new idea to other people, there's still a lot of catching up to do," Connolly says. "It's one thing within the creative communities where it's not a big deal and there's an amazing community of artists that share similar experiences, but that's worlds apart from getting on a tram and the general public."
Connolly and Hillyer met in Year 12 at school, but it wasn't until 2012 when they started playing music in Connolly's East Brunswick house. "Mo and I would make these atmospheric and vocal texture-y things with nonsense lyrics about kicking cats and partying," Maia says.
The pair played their first show at an arts night hosted by a friend and attended by producer and musician Oscar Key Sung.
"Bless his heart, he invited us to do a show and we were like, 'maybe we should write some more songs'," Connolly says.
Last year Habits released their EP Ugly Cry, a collection of glitchy, gothic, vocoder-heavy club tracks. As the bookings stack up – including last year's support slot for Peaches – they have honed their production skills and started to take themselves seriously as artists.
Habits' live shows are notoriously fierce, but it's taken time to develop their stage presence. "It took me a while to come to this realisation that people don't want to see you up there afraid to take up space and afraid to have a good time … they want a show," Connolly says.
And they promise a doozy of a show at what will be their biggest appearance to date – a late night slot at Golden Plains festival in Meredith this weekend.
"We've got some live visuals, saucy outfits and we've been beefing up some of the tracks," Hillyer says.
Habits perform at Golden Plains in the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre on Saturday, March 12. 2017.goldenplains.com.au
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