‘To dive into yourself is scary’: the anxiety and awesome alt-rock of Liars

For 20 years, Angus Andrew has made Liars one of rock's most interesting, slippery acts - and by microdosing drugs to help understand his fears, he's written his masterpiece

One night, Angus Andrew woke to a blood-curdling scream. Rushing out into the darkness of the bush around his house in a remote part of Australia's Ku-ring-gai Chase national park, he encountered a giant python attacking a kangaroo. You could hear the kangaroo trying to breathe, I tried to bash the snake off it but my wife was all nature, nature, you have to let it happen'," he says. The roo's eyes are stuck in my brain - it was visceral."

Surrounded by menacing beasts, with no roads, shops, sewerage, or running water, isolation characterises the latest in a very long line of homes and workplaces for the sole remaining member of Liars, the alt-rock band Andrew co-founded 20-odd years ago. Though they emerged from the New York scene that also spawned the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and LCD Soundsystem, Liars perplexingly remain a cult concern.