Tropical Fuck Storm are an Australian band from Melbourne, Victoria, formed by Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin after taking a hiatus from the art-punk psych band The Drones. Lauren Hammel, from the band High Tension, plays drums, and Erica Dunn, from the bands MOD CON, Harmony and Palm Springs, plays guitars, keyboards, and other instruments.
Looking to reboot creatively, The Drones took a break at the end of their tour supporting Feelin' Kinda Free in December 2016. The following year, Drones founder Gareth Liddiard and longtime bandmate Fiona Kitschin started writing material for a new project under the name for the record label they'd coined to self-release the last Drones album. They recruited Erica Dunn and Lauren Hammel during the summer of 2017, before embarking on an American tour. According to Dunn, "They just rang me up. Gareth and Fi were on loudspeaker like excited children. The pitch was 'Do you want to play guitar? We’re just going to do some weird shit.' And I was like 'Okay, sure.' Then Gareth said 'We might go to America in the next month, are you free? And we have to write some songs.' Sure I'll clear my schedule. Hammer [Lauren Hammel] was a bit different though, because [Gareth] didn't know her and he had to take her to the pub...