Catch up with Ethan Sharp, Chad Barnier, and Jake Allen of Drawing North to see what's coming next from the Australian five piece and look for their album, El Dorado, to be released later this year.
What brought you all together?
Jake: Drew, our drummer, and I have been best friends since we were three years old and towards the end of school, he decided to start a band with our singer, and he kind of just slowly roped us all into it.
Chad: [Laughs] He's been regretting it ever since.
Jake: No, no, no. So, we've just been old friends.
Why choose the name Drawing North?
Chad: Well, Drawing North just seemed to symbolize a lot of things that we wanted to represent as a way of striving for more and kind of pushing through any struggles. And, it's originally a play on words from our drummer's name, but we kind of thought it encompassed everything that we wanted to represent.
Which artists or bands have you been influenced by?
Ethan: Especially our stuff at the moment, One Republic, I think, is one of the main bands. Maybe bands like Imagine Dragons or The Script, we're kind of delving into that pop scene but we still have the elements of anthemic rock, at the same time. Earlier on, about five years ago, we were doing more kind of pop rock, pop punk stuff, but it's developed into more of an anthemic kind of Coldplay pop band.
Which words would you use to describe your sound?
Chad: Anthemic pop or stadium pop rock, I guess. They're kind of easy lyrics to latch onto, nothing too convoluted. Yeah, anthemic radio pop.
What was the inspiration behind your single "Ars Amatoria"?
Jake: Yeah, so Drew wrote that and he started writing that when he was in London and it is actually about the story of Guinevere and Lancelot. So, Guinevere leaving Arthur for Lancelot and then they find out about it and they try and flee the city and Guinevere gets caught and then Lancelot comes back to save her. So, it's kind of about love and relationships and everything going wrong.
Chad: There's forbidden love inside of that.
Jake: Yeah, kind of forbidden love and it's actually, personally, one of my favorite songs. And, Ars Amatoria is the Latin art of love, a book about courting, so we just thought the name fit the song.
Do you have a favorite track to perform live or a favorite from this forthcoming album?
Chad: I think most of us have a different favorite track from the album, which I think is really cool, it kind of speaks to different people's tastes in music, but they all kind of come together with a pop sensibility. My favorite would either be "Ars Amatoria" or "Carry On". I know some of the guys here will have a different answer to that.
Ethan: Yeah, we just recorded a brand new song that's going to be on the album called "Piece of the Light"; that's up there for me, as well as "Carry On", is my favorite live.
Jake: I think "Save Your Love" is one of my favorite songs to play; it's definitely our danciest, catchiest big song, and it's our next single coming up for the Australian Summer, so we will be releasing that in the next few weeks. And, also, "Ars Amatoria" is one of my favorite songs on the album, I honestly have to give credit to Drew, it's one of my favorites, just hands down - or period, as you guys say - yeah, it's one of my favorite, favorite songs.
"Ars Amatoria" is off your forthcoming album El Dorado; how would you describe this album?
Jake: Our new album is very relatable, even if you don't like pop or don't like that genre of music, there are so many different styles of songs you're probably going to like something about it.
Chad: I think, in terms of storytelling, it is incredibly representative of the last three or four years of us as a band with everything we've been through and different relationships we've had, but the lyrics are not too specific enough that no one can latch onto them, so I think that people can put their own stories and interpretations into the songs.
Ethan: Yeah, definitely. There's some very folk like guitar influence in some songs, it's very diverse. I guess there's similarities in, obviously, the vocal style, but we've just changed the production a lot, which is kind of refreshing and a lot of artists seem to be doing that these days, as well.
What do you want your fans or listeners to be able to take away from your music?
Jake: I think one of the biggest things, as a band, that we kind of strive for is to really affect people, like one of the most rewarding things is when a fan messages you or the band and tells us how much our music has affected their lives or changed them or helped them in a way. So, that's probably one of the biggest things we aim to do with our music, is really just impact people. Over the past years we've been a band, we've had a lot of people come out and say how we've helped them with our music and that's probably the biggest thing we want to give to our fans, is like a piece of us in this album.
Chad: I think it represents a lot of what we want in life and the freedom to express that and it hopefully rings true in the album and helps people to not be afraid to express themselves in bad times or in great times.
Ethan: That's definitely one of the cool things in the album.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
Chad: We just found out that we'll be performing at SXSW. We'll be coming back to America, after a short trip home, in March, so we'll be doing a few shows over there in Austin.
Jake: And we'll definitely be promoting our new single "Fire Eyes" and also "Save Your Love" should be coming out in Australia as a Summer single.
Chad: Which will be pushed by Universal who we're signed with in Australia.
Ethan: Also, just our sessions in America have been amazing so far and I just want to say thanks to everyone who's been with us since arriving here and everyone who's come to a show.
Jake: Yeah, we actually love coming to America and playing. We're so well received and everyone is very welcoming and it's very refreshing. [Laughs] It's very different from Australia; we love playing for you guys.