Amy: We finished our second album and moved to Melbourne!
Josh: Lastlings are intact, we haven't managed to kill each other yet!

Josh: Reconnecting. Reconnecting with my old instruments like piano and guitar more, and also reconnecting with my body. There were a few months last year I was out due to minor surgeries and then we were touring the US as well, but I’m feeling really healthy and staying quite active and feel great.
Amy: Fresh, exhilarating and I am learning a lot about myself and the world right now.

Josh: I think of home. Most of the instrumentals I started at our family house on the Gold Coast, and we live in Melbourne now, so totally different landscapes. Home then was in the hinterlands among the trees, and now it’s pretty centred amongst the hustle and bustle.
Amy: I would say that the first thing that comes to mind is that Josh and I have grown so much as people. We started First Contact about 5-6 years ago and since then we have learnt so much musically and personally.

Josh: I’d change a couple of things, but I like that they get to exist like that imperfect in nature. There’s a bit of a destructive cycle going back and changing things once you’ve gotten ‘better’. I feel like once you’re done ‘fixing’ it, you’ll find something else and then something else again. So it’s better just to move on and accept that that’s where you were skills-wise when you made it.
Amy: Maybe some little changes, but to be honest I would keep everything as it is. Our abilities, interests, music taste and skills have definitely changed over the years, but back then, that’s where we were at during that time in our lives and I am really proud of the music we made and our journey up until now.

Amy: My first real heartbreak. At the time I felt like everything was falling apart. As much as it sucked at the time, I learnt so much from it. I am in a much better place now mentally and I am the happiest I have ever been.

Amy: Noise is about reminiscing on an old relationship. I have this memory from when the last lockdown in Melbourne was just about to finish. I was dancing around my apartment listening to music. When I was done, I turned off the music and everything felt so quiet. Kind of like when silence is almost deafening. I felt really lonely. I think that is something that people don’t talk about enough, loneliness. That’s when I started to finish the lyrics to Noise. It’s about wanting to have someone around, someone to dance with and someone to chat with.
Josh: I started making the instrumental for the song about two years ago I think, and it was just sitting in a ‘maybe pile’ for a while and we got busy with touring and other songs to finish. We were adding and subtracting things from it for ages and going through different versions and finally ended up at this one. No Time, one of our singles from First Contact, had a lot of nice attention, so I wanted to recreate something similar with playful production with all the sounds playing off and reacting to one another. The chorus was the hardest part to crack because it felt almost too ‘minimal’ but in the end, we embraced it and it added a nice contrast to some of our other ‘maximal’ type choruses on our other songs.

Josh: We’re really excited about all the new music and hope it has the same effect on everyone when they listen to it too. It’s definitely a development from our previous album both in production and songwriting.
Amy: Hopefully a few songs that people can relate to. Everyone experiences love and heartbreak, so I hope that this album can comfort them in some way like it did for me when we were writing the record.

Josh: I have a few, and it’s usually when I’ve made something that I think is crazy and just stand up on my desk in a eureka moment. Those moments are really special for me because I think there’s a higher proportion of terrible songs I make to the great ones, so standing back, turning the volume up on the speakers, and having a little dance celebration in my room always feels good. I think I did this for every song on the album, so there were a minimum of eleven times I was dancing like an idiot on my own in my studio.
Amy: There’s one track on the record called Far From Falling that was the last track that we made. I remember writing it late at night in my last apartment. I recorded the piano and comped the demo vocals and listened back to it that night. I was so proud of how far I had come personally and mentally since we first started writing this record. I remember showing the final song to one of my best friends who had seen my growth as a person during the making of this record. She gave me a hug and said some really beautiful words, which was a really memorable moment for me. I am really lucky to have such great friends and family!

Amy: I think the main difference is that this album reflects on being in your 20s and the growth you experience during this time in your life. Falling in love, experiencing heartbreak, feeling lonely, steering through mental health, making new friends, losing friends, feeling lost, moving cities, dancing, laughing, crying… Just everything you experience during this time in your life. And it’s something we all experience. We want this album to remind people that they aren’t alone.
Josh: I think for me personally, I’m beginning to understand my tools more and feel more confident in using different techniques and instruments to get a desired sound. I still love the random and accidental things I find from just learning or stumbling upon certain things though. That's what keeps it exciting for me; it feels like an eternal search. Whether it be finding a new sample, a new lead to the song, or creating a new chord progression under Amy's existing vocals – there are so many different possibilities. I think I’ve learnt to be more patient as well and understand that I’m not going to write a hit every day, and that some days will be good and some days not so much. I used to get so frustrated that I’d close my laptop and do something else, but lately, I tend to move on to new ideas faster and come back to things with a fresh perspective later.

Amy: We will be touring our album Perfect World around Australia this June/July! Then we have some more tour dates coming up this year that we are yet to announce. It’s still a secret, we will let you in on it soon.

Josh: I want to take our parents on a holiday or do something nice for them. They sacrificed so much for us when we were growing up, so I want to do something nice for them one day.
Amy: Tour Europe!