Into The Horizon

Before it was even released, Rise Like The Sun had won its first award, lead single Golden taking out the blues/roots category at the QMAs. For guitarist and vocalist Shannon Sol Carroll it was a perfect start to the release. “We're rapt,” he says excitedly. “It was a good surprise that one. We were so lucky to already have a song be awarded before the album came out. Hopefully it will allow some more people to hear it and check it out. We're getting great feedback too from the people who matter: good friends, family, crew. Before and after every gig we have a line of people waiting to buy the CD and it's felt really good to have it there on the stand and to see people walk away with smiling faces.”

There's a change in sound on Rise Like The Sun, a move away from the psychedelic and into a more traditional roots vibe. They're enjoying the change, but Carroll insists that it's not a permanent shift. “Yeah, we had much more material than would fit on the record,” he explains. “So a few of the psychedelic tracks have actually been left off and we're going to include that in the deluxe download album. I'm pretty keen to follow up with the next recordings to head back into the psychedelic realms. But for this album we had a choice, basically to drop one of the stronger songs off for one of the instrumental jams or to just put out this album full of songs that we had in the bag. But the live shows head off into that realm anyway so we sort of use the [recorded] songs as a bit of a platform to explore.”

Carroll has described the new album as “An evolution towards truth and a documentation of all the stages along the way” and he says that because the album was written over an extended period it's able to cover a wide emotional scope. “If the whole album had been written in the same block of time that's represented by, say, one or two songs, then the whole album would have that flavour,” he says. “But the interesting thing is that during the period of time that the album was written over I got to basically go through what I was going through, write about that, and then move through that, evolve to the next stage and then write about that and then move through that and evolve and then write new tracks about that. So the whole process, the whole period of time in my life, has been a whole lot of amazing challenges on the relationship front and just in life in general. Kind of stepping up and accepting everything that actually is happening and rising up to the challenge that life throws our way. It's a nice feeling to have it out finally as a creative piece of work which encapsulates that whole journey.”

There's a strong thread of activism running through the band. In 2011 they went on a month-long kayaking trip with surfer and environmentalist Dave Rastovich that followed the migration of the gray whales and aimed to highlight the plight of marine animals. Carroll says the activism may well become part of their music, but that he never wants to preach. “I don't really want to walk around the world with my cup full of my own ideas; I'd rather have an empty cup and just listen as much as I can. Because you just learn so much more that way than walking around spouting off your opinion. The most important thing for us is to learn as much as we can.”

Band Of Frequencies are playing the following dates:

Friday 30 November - SoundLounge, Gold Coast, QLD
Saturday 19 January - Workers Club, VIC
Saturday 23 February - Mojo's, Fremantle, WA
Sunday 24 February - Indi Bar, Scarborough, WA
Wednesday 27 February - Ellington Jazz Club, WA
Thursday 28 February - Prince Of Wales, Bunbury, WA
Friday 1 March - Settlers Tavern, Margaret River, WA
Friday 1 to Monday 4 March - Nannup Music Festival, Nannup, WA
Sunday 3 - Clancy's Fish Pub, Dunsborough, WA