PIT Crack Open Newcastle’s Grunge Revival With “Needed You” And They’re About To Tear Up South Newcastle Skate Park

Newcastle’s teen grunge disruptors PIT aren’t waiting for permission; they’re showing up loud, early, and ready to shake the ground. The 17-year-old trio has spent the past few years turning every gig, skate park, and stage into proof that the next wave of Aussie hard rock isn’t coming, it’s already here.

And if you needed a sign, they’re leveling up? Here it is: PIT is playing a FREE all-ages show at South Newcastle Beach Skate Park on Saturday, November 29th at 1 pm, a full 1-hour set. No ticket price, no excuses. Just raw riffs, grit, and that messy teen hunger you can’t fake. PIT is Hamish Sanders (bass), Korby Essex (drums), and Bailey Parker (guitar/vocals), three kids who somehow manage to sound like they’ve lived twice as long. Their sound is this perfect collision of classic grunge dirt and hard-rock punch, the kind of fusion that makes older bands go, “Wait… how are they 17?”

Since forming, the trio has barely taken a breath between gigs, tours, and writing sessions. They snagged early attention after being featured on “Indie Sounds From Newy & The Hunter” via Vi-Nil Records, hitting their first tour while most teenagers are still figuring out learner’s permits. Fast-forward to now: PIT is officially signed with MGM and steamrolling toward a massive year loaded with releases, videos, and shows.

Their latest single, “Needed You,” isn’t coming from a place of polished, label-approved storytelling. It’s ripped from real emotional fallout. Bailey wrote the early pieces of it alone, poetry, fragments, little gut-punch lines you only write when you genuinely feel like the people you counted on vanished right when it mattered. After the instrumentation locked in, those pieces stitched themselves into one of PIT’s most vulnerable (and honestly, most mature) tracks to date.

At the heart of it, PIT wants listeners to feel seen. That’s it. No big marketing spin.

The band says they hope “Needed You” becomes that song, the one someone throws on when they’re feeling gutted, alone, or misunderstood. Just like PIT does with the artists they connect to. And the fact that music this emotionally aware is coming from a group barely out of high school? Yeah… that’s what makes people stop and pay attention.

You’re pulling a full 1-hour set at a skate park. What’s the energy or chaos you’re hoping breaks out during the show?

Well, it’s gonna be an awesome gig, we’re playing right above a massive skate bowl, so there’s gonna be people zooming around and doing tricks while we play, which is dope as fuck. There’s also something different about playing a show outside.. the energy always feels a little more exiting like you’re playing some sort of festival in the 90s or something. So I hope people lean into that and we get some cool footage. 

“Needed You” came from a pretty rough moment. How different does it feel performing something that raw in front of a crowd?

I have a weird relationship with playing songs, writing Needed You felt kinda lonely, but actually playing it live is the total opposite. I love the feeling of watching people enjoy something so personal to me. Seeing people sing your own lyrics back to you that you wrote by yourself in your room at like 2am.. It’s a hectic feeling. 

You’ve been gigging nonstop since you were basically kids. What’s the moment that made you go, “Okay… we’re actually good at this”?

I don’t think we ever actually had a moment that we all said we were good, especially growing up in a town like newy, you really have to stay grounded. We all still make jokes with each other about how we suck. But I think if we had to pick a specific moment, it’d have to be our first gig. We were 14 & 15 years old, and we played a mini Battle of the Bands festival in our hometown called Skate Fest. We came third and got $100 bucks, and when we got back home, I think we all simultaneously decided we really wanted to pursue the whole music thing. 

Now that you’ve signed with MGM, what’s one thing you refuse to change about PIT, no matter how big things get?

Definitely the music and the mate ship. When we first started the band, when we were like 14 & 15, we were all best mates and we all loved playing music. And we really want that to stay the focus point of the band. The music is the most satisfying part of being in this industry, so we don’t wanna let other things that come with being in this industry get in the way of us being best mates and doing what we love. 

Even now.. we’re still only 17 but we’re all still really tight mates probably even more than we were back then… and we still enjoy writing and playing music more then ever. 

There’s a lot of talk about a ‘Newcastle scene resurgence.’ What do you think makes your generation’s approach to grunge different from the older wave?

That’s a hard question because it’s not like us or any other band is trying to be a certain way or different.. But I think the last 20 years or so, the world has slowly drifted away from music that is real and honest in a way that 90s grunge was. Grunge music back then was so popular because people who listened could relate to the songs and their energy. We’re all starting to see a stir of grunge music coming back now, and I think that’s because it’s coming at a time that people really need it. And every day, more and more people are starting to relate to the music, which is awesome.