A New Season

The Autumn Isles are proof that plenty can happen between albums. When they released their debut full-length in 2011, there was a real sense of nervousness and pride among the group, who felt as though they had done everything they possibly could to make the record perfect. This time, for their second album A Bird Called Cognition, however, there were other priorities to take into account, and while that doesn’t mean they haven’t worked on this one as hard, they’ve definitely gone about things a little differently. “Yeah, we’ve definitely had quite a few changes over that time,” Arpino begins with a chuckle. “There’s been a birth – two, actually; our bass player and keyboarder have both had their first children, and our bass player has just got married, so life’s definitely catching up with everyone, and I think the beauty of that is that while our priorities have changed, we’ve still managed to hold onto the love for what we’re doing, and we’re still keen to play. I think musically, in terms of songwriting, I guess I’d just use the word ‘matured’.

"There’s more honesty, and it’s not so much a conscious thing."

There’s more emotional content going into the songwriting, whereas early on it was more an intellectual process... There’s more honesty, and it’s not so much a conscious thing, it’s all just a part of the process of growing and feeling more comfortable in my skin in terms of being a songwriter and musician.”

Arpino and the rest of the band consider themselves to be in a good spot in terms of where they stand among listeners – popular enough to receive solid attention for their work, without having to stress too much about other people’s opinions.

“We’re a local indie band doing what we love, so there’s no real fan pressure, but as musicians, we want to be able to create something that we’re proud of and that demonstrates a step-up from what [we’ve] done in the past. Although we’ve done it before, it was still a long, hard process this time around. We wanted to open up the songs a little more and not be restricted to the whole verse-chorus-verse thing. There’s definitely some moments on the new album where we’ve sprawled out a bit more – we’ve thrown out the rule book. There’s still structure to the tracks, but [they’re] definitely a little more experimental. I feel like this has come together more as a final product, rather than it being perfected way before it was even finished like the last album was.”

Despite each member leading their own very busy life, there’s always time to play shows. The band play this weekend in Perth, but then, who knows? “Hopefully we can do a regional tour and then a tour over east. We’re just really excited to showcase what we’ve put together and we hope people like it.”