Reason To Believe

Normally a debut has a few kinks – a couple of creases. Because it's all just about getting an album out and touring it, right? Right? Not according to Brisbane quartet The Cairos.

Dream Of Reason is the cream of a 100-plus song crop, “exercises in writing music” as summarised by Alistar Richardson. Reflecting on the process behind the record, a creative stretch that has seen some of these songs exist in one form or another for up to two years, the frontman admits that the hard part has passed and now it's just about getting these songs heard. “Everything has gone on for such a long time that it's exciting we've got all the pieces in place now,” he smiles, “all we have to do is give it our best and really hope that it connects with people.”

The Cairos have written some utter gem singles in the past – 2012 tracks We All Buy Stars and Shame drive that fact home. But immediately, when you listen to Dream Of Reason – cut with acclaimed producer Nick DiDia [Pearl Jam, RATM, Powderfinger] at Byron Bay's Studios 301 – you're struck by how much the band have extended themselves, with a huge amount of variety in mood and theme found end-to-end.

“We've always been different songwriters and we've come up with different sounds, but I think only ever doing EPs we've sort of concentrated ourselves into a certain kind of sound just to have some sort of cohesion. Now that we're older and we've been writing for a bit longer, to be able to show what we can do has been a real important thing to us, and we definitely enjoy the mix of songs we have on [the album].”

This diversity in content is a direct byproduct of the fact that all four Cairos' members tackle songwriting duties equally. Richardson says that sharing those individual viewpoints, together, was a massive factor when writing their debut. “The toughest part, because there are so many different sounding things, was finding out which [elements] would suit each other the best. Because when you have an opportunity to go and record with someone like Nick DiDia and it's your first album, there's a lot of obsession regarding what you're going to do and what's going to happen. But strangely, it works out really well. It's difficult, but it does work out.”

And with a band full of guitar-wheeling, free-thinking individuals, inspiration is never far away for The Cairos. “But that's always been the case with us,” Richardson shrugs. “If there is a creative lull there's always three other songwriters in the band, and once you come up with an idea people feed on it and really turn it into something.”