As the album model has shifted over the years, so too have the implications of a debut LP. What was once a definitive opening statement and the first chapter of an artist’s career now may arrive a little later in the piece. An act can be around for years without an album out – and by the time they get there, it may even be considered a departure of sorts from their already-burgeoning body of work. This is something that is not lost on Melbourne quintet Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird – or Cousin Tony for short. They’re about to release their own debut album, entitled Electric Brown. It’s far from their first rodeo, though – originally forming in 2013, the band has worked for several years across a string of minor releases to further develop their take on pensive, lushly-arranged music of the indie rock persuasion.
“It’s a beautiful thing where a band can do all this work behind the scenes and then emerge with this fully-realised sound,” says Lachlan Rose, who fronts the band and serves as its chief songwriter. “That’s not really our scenario, though. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and over time we’ve found our sound to be quite eclectic in nature. That exploration is always going to continue – it’s never going to be a cemented sound as far as this band is concerned. After I finished uni, I think that realisation hit me. When I was studying, I found myself becoming more and more interested in all different kinds of music. I think that’s definitely something that’s going to continue.”
Electric Brown – perhaps titled as a satirical nod to Icehouse’s 80s classic ‘Electric Blue’ – was recorded in Melbourne in the first half of 2017 by producer/engineer Matthew Neighbour. Arriving some 18 months after their previous effort, the Melbourne Bitter EP, Electric Brown sees the band present a fleshed-out hybrid of tropical pop, post-punk and glamorous indie rock & roll. “Friends of ours who have been seeing us play since the first EP came out have said to me how amazed they are by how much the band’s grown,” says Rose; who’s clearly very proud of what he and the rest of Cousin Tony have achieved on the new record.
“The first song I ever wrote for this project was just me, by myself, with an acoustic guitar. It was a song called ‘Head Home’, I’m sitting here now, in a studio, surrounded by about 12 guitars and about eight synthesizers. I’ve recorded a small choir in here for a song. Y’know what I mean? I’d like to think that in the years I’ve been doing this band, I’ve grown – and the music has grown with me.”
It’s never going to be a cemented sound as far this band is concerned.
While touring in support of the aforementioned Melbourne Bitter, Rose and co. would occasionally include new songs intended for recording for Electric Brown in the setlist. “Sometimes we wouldn’t even announce it,” says Rose. “We’d just go straight into it and get an unfiltered reaction.” He claims that he was inspired to incorporate some of the newer songs when he learned about how Gilbert & Sullivan would have their musicals performed in front of a test audience. “They’d hand out sheets, and people would be able to tick and cross off each scene and each song and each performance,” he says. “You’d write comments and leave them anonymously. It would give them a lot of perspective on what they’d written – there were songs they thought were terrible that have gone on to become some of the best-known numbers in the world of theatre. I had that in my head when I decided to start playing new songs live. There’s really no better sounding board for it – nothing’s more honest.”
Fans of the band will have already heard ‘Morning Person’, the lead single lifted from Electric Brown. The brisk, sunny track is highlighted by Rose when discussing the stage in the writing and recording process in which he and his bandmates had a clearer idea of Electric Brown as an entity. “That was one of the most fun songs to record for the album,” he says. There was something about it that just really gelled.” For Rose, it’s the fact that the song implements a blend of light and darkness that results in something quintessentially theirs.
“It’s quite a sombre, sad song in terms of its meaning and its lyricism,” he explains. “That said, it’s executed in this colourful, upbeat way. Once we nailed that juxtaposition, that’s when we started to realise what the central crux of this record was going to be. It’s not always sad, what we’re singing about – but it does come from a sincere place. For lack of a better term, I’d say it comes from a deep place. I want my music to celebrate those emotions; to uplift them.”
At the moment, Electric Brown remains in purgatory – it’s long since been recorded, but its release date still looms at the time of this interview. That’s on Rose’s mind as he discusses the record: “You go through something, you write about it, you record it… by the time it’s out, you’re completely beyond this thing you went through,” he says. How to break that cycle? Rose concludes: “You have to have faith that what you’ve done has value.”
Electric Brown is out Friday March 2. Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird will play the Lansdowne Hotel on Sunday April 22.
