James Draper and Jordan Brady aka Winterbourne, have been lifelong friends, beginning their music journey busking together, a skill which has set them up well to impress music fans all over the world. The band has played to packed theatre venues across Australia, selling out numerous National Tours, toured multiple times the UK and Europe and appeared on the stage at notable international festivals including Reeperbahn Festival in Germany and Break Out West Festival in Canada. During 2021, Winterbourne launched into their first venture in the world of cinema, with ‘Revolutionary, Film’. The movie, based upon Winterbourne’s 2019 Sydney Metro Theatre Sold Out show for their Double J Featured and Debut album Echo Of Youth, premiered to sold out vintage cinemas along the East Coast of Australia. The 90 min movie was written, directed, edited and produced by James and Jordan and grappled questions of ambition, nostalgia, reflection and of course, revolution, along the way. The film precluded the release of a live album entitled A Brand New November (2021).
Today (Friday November 17th), Winterbourne release their new album Act Of Disappearing (Island Records Australia). Act Of Disappearing has been a mighty few years-in-the-making. With songs and ideas bouncing between trusted friends, producers and laptops since 2018, a firm groundwork was laid for the duo to self-produce the album, which they then recorded over a period of two years between their home studio, Damien Gerard Studios and The Grove Studios.
Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips sat down with Winterbourne’s James Draper and Jordan Brady to discuss the creation of their new album Act Of Disappearing.
MORE ABOUT WINTERBOURNE AND ACT OF DISAPPEARING
With friend and mixing engineer Jackson Barclay only a text message away, his skill and expertise played a huge part in the creation of the album, and helped to turn Winterbourne’s demos into genuine recordings, while maintaining the essence of the song that originally brought the demo to life. For Winterbourne, aka James Draper and Jordan Brady, there are songs on Act Of Disappearing they never expected to write, and songs they feel they’ve been on the edge of writing for a long time.
“There’s more synth but also more acoustic guitar,” the duo share, “there’s more shiny pop elements but also more unashamedly live instrument bashing than we’ve ever shared. The lyrics are stranger but also makes more sense. It’s red and yellow instead of green.
The album has a sound but we’re not sure what that is. It feels separate to everything else we’ve done but in a perfectly familiar way, which is the target we usually set ourselves. It’s been a funny old few years and for a while there it was difficult to imagine a body of work that would make sense to us and at the same time feel like a worthwhile contribution to the universe. But as we went along these songs slowly revealed themselves and gave us direction. “
Joining the stream of album singles, ‘Long Distance Runner’ ‘Forevermore’ and ‘Velvet, Honey & Wine‘, Winterbourne’s euphonious new single ‘Do Nothing’ has already been making its way onto their past Velvet, Honey & Wine Tour set list.
“Do Nothing is unique for us in that almost every element of the song was recorded within a few hours of it being written and never once altered. James played the bass line of the song in its entirety over the drum loop and then recorded a bunch of verses and a chorus idea while sitting back lazily in an office chair. The only thing we ended up adding later were harmonies and a synth part in the chorus, everything else remains from the original demo, even the parts that weren’t finished.
The song is a bouncing and bumbling contemplation of the infinite and the inevitable. It’s a stream of consciousness and a self-reflection. It’s a satirical and sometimes cynical exploration of the existential and the trivial and a pondering of the insane and the mundane.”
With a growing 44.9 million global streams to their name, Winterbourne, not only have a hands-on approach to writing, recording and producing but they also drive the creative and execution of their videos and artwork.
Act Of Disappearing Tracklisting
1. Dandelions
2. Long Distance Runner
3. A Very Excellent Day
4. A Glass Of Lemonade
5. Paint, Or The Act Of Disappearing
6. Walks Along The Avenue
7. Do Nothing
8. Velvet, Honey & Wine
9. Don’t Forget Me
10. Long Distance Runner
11. Apple Tree
12. Bird On The Breeze
13. Forevermore
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