PREMIERE: Caution:Thieves Return With Energetic New Track ‘Far From The Sun’
We love a good comeback! You know, overcoming the odds and pushing through the tough times to create something new—it really gets us geared up. For that reason, and many more, we are very excited to be premiering Caution:Thieves’ brand new track ‘Far From The Sun’!
It’s been four years since the Naarm/Melbourne-based post-hardcore band last released music, and this new track is bursting with renewed energy and passion. Think addictive, rock fueled riffs with rhythm driving drums, and strong, raspy vocals. If you want a new, upbeat song to sink your teeth into, you’d be hard pressed to go past this one.
Of the new track and new era of the band, Caution:Thieves say:
“Like most bands, we had a lot planned for 2020, especially on the back of releasing ‘The Blueprint For Moving Forward’. Covid, lockdowns, and life in general put a stop to all of that, but having this time away from it all provided the perfect opportunity to dive in and create something bigger than we’ve ever done before.”
Interested? We sure are, so we caught hold of vocalist, Nicholas Simonsen, to find out more about how they were pushed in the studio by Callan Orr, what this new track leads to in the future, and how being nerdy leads to great things.
‘Far From The Sun’ is your first release since 2019, congratulations! How did Covid and the last four years impact the band and yourself personally?
It was a lot haha. We released our last record in the second half of 2019 and like so many others, we had a tonne of things on the calendar for 2020 that Covid quickly put a stop to. We went into the first lockdown, so I decided to start writing some music to pass the time and keep myself sane. Fast forward two years and a couple of songs turned into over 25 demos and a full-fledged, science fiction concept. Covid put a lot of things in perspective for all of us and we all faced some heavy change. A few members left the band to pursue other passions in their life and personally, I spent over a year having to rebuild strength in my voice after Covid damaged my vocal cords. What started as a welcome break and a chance to work on new music ended up being a super rough time where we were all close to packing it in. Thankfully, we’re very much on the other side of that now, having welcomed some old friends into the fold and have a tonne of new music to share. It’s all up from here.
This track is very high energy and exciting, can you give us some background on how it came together?
‘Far From The Sun’ was a bit of a happy accident, really. We were maybe two weeks out from the studio to start tracking the first block of new material and Chris (guitarist) and I were talking about how cool it would be to come back with a really in your face, high energy track. We had all of the tracks we wanted to record demoed and rehearsed, but this idea of a fast and ferocious track stuck with me. I picked up one of my guitars, started noodling around and the song went from initial idea to full-fledged demo in the space of an evening. I sent it to the guys, they said “yep, that’s it” and that was that.
Where does your passion for music and song writing come from? What are you trying to portray to listeners?
Honestly, we’re all just a bunch of nerds who listen to a wide variety of music. Our rehearsals are often made up of 50% rehearsing and 50% nerding out about new records or classics that we all love. I think that passion naturally bleeds into what we do and in turn, influences our music. From my perspective, I’m always just trying to write something that moves me in the same way that my favourite records move me. I’m very selfishly motivated to try and write something timeless, rather than focus on what is or might be popular right now.
‘Far From The Sun’ is the first taste of future music, what do you have planned?
Oh, there is so much to come. ‘Far From The Sun’ is very much the prologue or opening of proceedings, if you will. One of the key reasons we’ve taken so long between releases is because we wanted to make sure that when we came back, we had the ability to roll out music consistently. This is very much the beginning and 2024 is going to see a crazy amount of new music from our camp.
You’ve worked with Callan Orr previously, and you’ve returned to him for producing, mixing and mastering. What is it about his approach that results in getting the best out of you for this new track?
Firstly, Cal is the best and if I’ve learnt anything in my years, it’s that there is nothing better than working with your friends. From day one in the studio, we were all just super comfortable and cracking terrible jokes. Cal and I have scarily similar approaches and tastes in music, which made it really easy to try out ideas on a whim and just see what worked. While my vocal cords had fully healed after tireless months practising, I was still really nervous to get back in the booth. Not only did Cal help me get my vocal confidence back, but he also helped me commit my best vocal performance ever to tape. Cal is king, trust.
What is a Caution:Thieves live show like?
Nowhere near as serious as you would think. While our music is very emotional, vulnerable, and intense, we don’t take ourselves too seriously and just focus on having a good time. I’m also never going to get used to being a frontman, so I often just go into autopilot when we play, which results in some dumb yet hilarious rambling at times. At the end of the day, we just want to take this music that we love and do it justice on stage.
Interview by Ebony Story
Follow Caution:Thieves on Facebook, Instagram, and Bandcamp.
Caution:Thieves is – Nicholas Simonsen (vocals), Chris Meekin (guitar), Chris Lewis (guitar), Tomas Leitch (bass), and Jim Stevens (drums).
Pre-Save/Stream ‘Far From The Sun‘ here.
