Good weather ups the good vibes, as does ‘Moving Forward’, the latest single from The Cool Calm. No other way to describe the latest injection of sound from the Melbourne outfit than easy breezy lemon squeezy, really, adjectives that delight members Soren and Tane Walker. Ahead of their appearance at Queenscliff Music Festival, the boys mull over the direction they’ve gone with their music since their formation in 2016.
Equally epic is ‘Hand’, the predecessor, and ‘Nothing For Nothing’. The Cool Cam have been working on new material for their second album, It’s Okay. “We’ve got one ore tune we’ve been trying to finish off,” explains guitarist Soren Walker. “We’ve been a bit slower in that aspect of the band, when it comes to getting songs out there as quick as possible. We’re ready to drop the rest of the EP and then we can move forward!”
Much like the singles that fans have already enjoyed, It’s Okay will, as Soren explains, flow in that same smooth groove vibe we’ve already been hearing from The Cool Calm. “Essentially it is, we’re pretty excited about the ones you wouldn’t have heard.
“One’s been a bit of an experiment for us – we worked with a friend and it’s come out super casual, relaxed.
“What would you say?” Soren asks his brother, vocalist Tane, for his opinion on the band’s new music. “Probably more simplified in ways,” he says. “Less production, more instruments. A bit of a departure from the other songs, which will be pretty cool.” “It’s definitely something we haven’t done before,” finishes Soren, “There’s a little bit more substance to the stories, I think.”
Honing in on those words, substance and story, The Cool Calm admit they didn’t really have a particular direction in mind for the new album. “I guess it does come back to just the last five years all summed up in terms of life and what’s been going on,” says Soren. “It’s coloured in a way that you can tell there’s a bit of angst in there and what not…” Turning again to his bandmate for words, Tane offers a summary for the journey over the last five years. “It’s got a fair bit of raw emotion in there, I think that does come across.
“Other songs show the lighter side of us as well, which I think is important, I think we’ve got to get that out further, that people can see the side of us that we have a lot of fun.
“I think we’ve hit the hat pretty nicely in all these songs in terms of representing various aspects of our band.”
The 2018 Queenscliff Music Festival will be held from Friday 23 – Sunday 25 November.
Written by Anna Rose
