NME’s latest star of The Cover, Ecca Vandal, has created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The South African-born, Melbourne-based alt rock musician is on this week’s (June 1) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Ecca Vandal’s profile here, written by Ali Shutler and featuring photography by Brianna Alysse.
Alongside her The Cover story, Ecca Vandal has curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘Tunes To Inspire Making Records In Your Bedroom’. The selection includes cuts from a wide range of artists and musicians, including A Tribe Called Quest, JID, Rage Against The Machine, Sonic Youth and more. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
Nine years ago, Ecca Vandal came out snarling. Her self-titled debut album introduced the unapologetic artist with a swaggering collection of rock–rap bangers that saw her rightfully championed as one of the most exciting new voices in heavy music. But while the excitement around her was still buzzing, she made the “very intentional” decision to go offline completely. “I wanted to tune out all the noise,” she explains.
After spending some much-needed time off the grid and out of the spotlight, Vandal made her return in 2024 with ‘Bleed But Never Die’, a furiously celebratory track about the strength of women. “It was written at a time when I was trying to understand my own femininity,” she explains. “It just felt right as the first song back.” The excitable response proved that people hadn’t forgotten about her, and six months later, ’90s-inspired rock banger ‘Cruising To Self Soothe’ took things to a whole new level.
At the time the song was released, Vandal had 11,000 followers on Instagram and thought about half of them would be into it because “it just has some sauce to it”. It travelled far further than she thought it would, though, and became a bona fide TikTok smash, helped by a stint supporting Limp Bizkit on their 2025 US headline run. At the time of writing, the song has more than 9million Spotify streams, while her Instagram following has skyrocketed to over 400,000. “The whole thing has taken me by surprise,” she beams.
Read Ecca Vandal’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.