Two decades into their electronic dance music run, Bag Raiders, composed of Jack Glass and Chris Stracey, continue to treat curiosity like a renewable resource. Since emerging from the 2000s bloghouse boom in Sydney, Australia, the electronic duo — best known for their runaway hit “Shooting Stars” — has carved out a style that’s less about aggressive drops and more about emotional clarity. Even in the chaotic club circuits they came up in, their sound stood apart: rich in melody, grounded in harmony, and consciously resistant to the gnarlier side of dance music.
Glass credits this outlook to a lifetime of chasing feeling over formula in their third time in the Philippines since 2018 for Wanderland in Manila and 2023 for Wavy Baby Festival in Cebu. “The only way to have a career this long is to be curious,” Glass tells Rolling Stone Philippines, “to be different in every way, and to take inspiration from everything around you.”
The Resistance of Bag Raiders
While the 2000s bloghouse era pulsed with maximalist energy, Bag Raiders leaned into restraint, often pulling back just when a track is about to go too hard. Even during the peak of the 2010s EDM explosion that swept the United States, they resisted the pressure to follow suit. Instead, they reworked their process, rotating analog synths like toys in a sandbox, and refusing to calcify into a single sound.
“We’ve always been interested in melodies and nice chords,” Glass says. “That was a big scene and a big moment to be a part of. In Sydney, there were so many amazing bands starting out like Cut Copy, Van She, and The Presets. It felt like the city was alive and there was a lot of energy.”
Their longevity owes as much to that curiosity as it does to a viral moment. “Shooting Stars” has enjoyed multiple lives on the Internet, outliving its original context and returning in waves of meme-fueled revival. For Bag Raiders, it’s less about control and more about flow, riding whatever wave comes next. Even now, Glass says new sparks can come from unlikely places. One recent track was born out of a muffled rhythm he overheard from a neighbor’s party across the street. Other times, it’s about adapting and learning to write on the road, or breaking old habits just to keep things interesting.
“Every now and again, I swap in and out so I can keep it fresh,” he says. “Because it’s not even about the way they sound, it’s more just the way that you interact with it. You have a new keyboard with new parameters and new settings. It’s like, ‘Okay, I’m going to do something different on this,’ and that triggers some new way of thinking about music.”
When asked how the group keeps evolving without chasing trends, the answer’s simple: They don’t chase anything; they follow instinct and they continue to stay curious. They have this unshakeable desire to keep things fresh. Nearly 20 years in, Bag Raiders isn’t running out of ideas; they’re just getting better at listening for them.
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