New music is on the horizon from Melbourne’s favourite dark electronic outfit, Asylum Sisters.
Breaking a three-year hiatus and finally able to line up busy schedules, vocalist Caitlin Cunningham says the band have been able to work on a brand new single, ‘Hear, Taste, Trust, Believe’.
“We’ve been together since 2013,” says Cunningham. “We’ve got two EPs out [Educate Consciousness and A Faith Called You], [and] as everyone gets busier and busier, it’s hard to lock down band members and keep up momentum, so we’ve been working on a new track and it’s finished now and we’re about to release it.
“I think that’s how we’ll keep releasing new music, just track by track instead of EPs.”
Electronica, goth, new wave, ambient, synth, witch house, dance, and screamo; in this new release you’ll be able to hear all the experimental elements by which Asylum Sisters are known and have dabbled with in the past, but not without the introduction of a few new characteristics.
In particular, the music will be a representation of Cunningham’s continued personal evolution. Though the new track has been in the pipelines for over a year, Cunningham says it’s still a great representation of where Asylum Sisters are at today.
“It’s a more polished sound,” she says. “I wanted to write a song that was a more typical structure instead of journey music. A lot of our past songs switch and change, so I wanted to have something more radio friendly – it’s definitely a more mature sound for us, and definitely our least rushed song.”
The frantic energy, as heard in Asylum Sisters’ older material, isn’t something to be frowned on, it’s part of their identity – but ‘Hear, Taste, Trust, Believe’, Cunningham says, makes all that ferocious power a little neater. When Cunningham writes with bandmate Martin Pike, she says the sounds ignite a feeling.
“I could pull from experiences, from something happening in the world, I don’t go into a song and decide to write a love song. It pops into my head, a mood, a feeling, and I go with what first happens.
“The song is about everyone who goes in and out of relationships and is left lingering once it’s done – it’s about moving in and out of different relationships and different people over the many years of your lifetime.”
Asylum Sisters will launch the new single in conjunction with Leaps and Bounds Music Festival, and have curated an evening that will simulate an underground club, with dance sets from DJs Nenagh and Gian, and sensational visual installations from Ehzi Av, aka Genre Spanner.
“Genre and I are tight friends, and I knew he was getting more involved in his creative artwork,” Cunningham says of how the visual collaboration came about. “I know Genre loves techno, and I wanted to create a space that had a club-like atmosphere but was a bit eerie, a bit creepy, and he was perfect to jump on board.”
Combining the two creative mediums was a no brainer for Cunningham. “We’re on the same page with a lot of the things we think are obscure or dark, but still visually effective.
“I think the sound we create and Genre’s approach to how he likes to warp and twist things with dark colours and light, it’ll really complement each other.”
Asylum Sisters, in this second coming, continue to expand, develop, and experiment beyond its two original members, and that’s what’s giving them a greater power to break down traditional barriers.
“Over the last few years, two of my good friends have been playing live with us and they’ve added this really great depth, really tying everything nicely together,” says Cunningham. “It’s nice to have a bit of fresh new life and people excited to play the music, as well.”
Asylum Sisters launch their new single, ‘Hear, Taste, Trust, Believe’ at Bar Open on Friday July 5 as part of Leaps and Bounds Music Festival which takes over Melbourne from Friday July 5 to Sunday July 14. Head to leapsandboundsmusicfestival.com for tickets to the show and for more info on the festival.
