COLOURBURN // On Folded Letter, Their Upcoming EP And More

Melbourne’s Colourburn are capping off their 2023 in a big way.

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Having dropped their debut single, Star, back in September, the alt-rock up-and-comers have kept the energy going with Folded Letter.

Both tracks will feature on their debut EP, Compromise in Colour, set to drop on Friday, November 24th. We caught up with guitarist Josh McIntosh to chat about all this, and also dug into the band’s sound, creative process and what listeners can expect next.

Hysteria: Run us through what inspired the latest single, Folded Letter.

Josh: When we first started writing it, I was pulling from audio recordings from six years prior. It’s been a long time in the works. I wrote it at my mum’s house. I wasn’t living there, but I had just finished uni and was still making that transition. I was going back and forth between her place in Bendigo and uni in Melbourne.

There’s a caravan up there, and I’d lock myself in and write music. That’s where the bulk of the song was written, but it wasn’t until 2020/2021 in lockdown that I sat down and wrote the rest of it. It’s been a long, drawn-out process. But it’s been fun.

There were things that changed over time. There were ways I originally played it that got changed. You could say I produced it a little bit. The fundamentals were still there, but I tweaked things, adding new bits too. The end result is 50/50 – 50% is how it first was, and 50% was during lockdown.

You’ve mentioned the Compromise In Colour EP takes a lot of different directions. Did you draw inspiration from any key artists or creative outlets?

It’s all over the place! There’s alt-rock, emo-rock and grunge in the EP. But there are also drum beats, especially in the yet-to-be-released Sinkhole and our first single, Star. The drum beats in there, at times, are almost techno. I love electronic music, so I had to fuse that in too! It’s a bit of everything.

There’s a caravan up there, and I’d lock myself in and write music. That’s where the bulk of the song was written, but it wasn’t until 2020/2021 in lockdown that I sat down and wrote the rest of it. It’s been a long, drawn-out process. But it’s been fun.
[ Josh McIntosh, Colourburn ]

Run us through the band’s creative process. Do you all have different influences and interests you’re bringing in?

We just throw out ideas. I know with Star, Jordyn (Briggs, vocals)… so she’s very into Japanese rock and pop, which really came out in the track. There are also some fast singing bits that are almost like rapping but not. That came in on top of my big, grungy chords, and it just opened the track up and made it something special and unique.

Jack (Gray, bass) likes a lot of classic rock – bands like Black Sabbath and Nirvana. He threw in some bass riffs that resembled that. And then, for me, it depends on what I’m feeling on the day. Somedays, I listen to more electronic which fuses into the track, and sometimes it might be more early 2000s rock. But then again, I could come back to it, feeling a different way and sprinkle something else in it.

What was going on for the band that inspired the EP lyrically?

A lot of the EP was written during lockdown, particularly tracks like Sinkhole or Feel Me. So that played into it, feeling like you were stuck. But it did create something really special. It was also just drawing on lyrics we had stored for a while that we thought would suit. It’s kind of all over the place.

Build your dream tour. Who are you sharing the stage with?

Bring Me The Horizon. Nirvana. Blink-182. I could go on forever!

Back to the EP, what was it like working with Christopher Vernon?

It was great! It felt like walking into a studio with a friend. It was laidback, chilled and inviting. He threw his ideas on the table, and if we weren’t feeling something he put out, he’d push it in another direction until we found something we liked. He worked with all the different aspects well. He knew how to get the best out of the drums, bass, vocals and everything. And while he touched a lot, he also left a lot of our core elements. He just sprinkled his magic onto everything.

What’s next?

We’ve got a lot of music coming! I can’t say too much, but there’ll be a lot more after the EP. We want to take this as far as we can and play more shows, hopefully tour around Australia and the world and see all the people who listen to our music.