Ecca Vandal turns disconnection into liberation on LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW, an album built on the idea that sometimes the best way forward is to shut out the noise. Arriving after years of touring, festival appearances, a Coachella debut and dates with Deftones, the record captures Vandal at her most fearless, pulling punk apart and rebuilding it with everything she has picked up along the way.

Punk and hardcore remain at the center, particularly on the explosive “EYES SHUT” and “DANCE IN DEBT,” but Vandal refuses to stay inside those boundaries. Bhangra rhythms collide with squealing guitars, d-beat erupts into skaterock harmonics, and the massive “DO IT ANYWAY” rides a reggaeton pulse beneath one of the album’s clearest declarations of independence. Breakthrough single “CRUISING TO SELF SOOTHE” further demonstrates just how naturally she can bring seemingly incompatible sounds together.

That musical restlessness makes sense given Vandal’s background. Born into a Sri Lankan family in South Africa and raised in Australia, she grew up surrounded by soul, gospel and South Indian music before studying jazz at the Victorian College of the Arts. It was there that classmates introduced her to Radiohead, Fugazi, Pixies and Björk, opening another door entirely. As Vandal puts it, “To me, Ian MacKaye is just as expressive as Billie Holiday.”

LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW was recorded and produced by Vandal and Richie Buxton in Buxton’s childhood bedroom, where the pair spent nearly two years deliberately removing themselves from the constant demands of social media. With slow internet and little concern for timelines, metrics or online visibility, the makeshift studio became a place to experiment without outside interference.

That isolation also shaped the album’s larger message. For Vandal, “unfollowing” means cutting away the systems, expectations and artificial connections that drain energy and cloud creativity. Rather than tailoring songs to algorithms and short attention spans, she and Buxton committed themselves to making an album meant to be heard as a complete work.

The result is loud, restless and wonderfully difficult to categorize, held together by Vandal’s punk instincts and willingness to follow an idea wherever it leads. After sharing stages with Queens of the Stone Age, IDLES, the Prodigy and Deftones, LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW makes a convincing case that Ecca Vandal is ready to command those stages entirely on her own terms.