Returned home to their native Adelaide, South Australia, to prepare for their forthcoming national tour, Wolf & Cub are in the quiet before the storm – but soon there’ll be a rush of wind and they’ll be straight into it.

There’s a sense of isolation to Adelaide. Removed from the eastern seaboard, but not so far away as Perth in Western Australia to make it feel like its own little community and to feel like it exists within its own bubble, there’s always a certain amount of pressure on bands from ‘the big country town’ to move to the east coast. It was the same for Wolf & Cub, but there’s was compounded – with a deal in place with venerable English label 4AD giving Wolf & Cub the sort of overseas exposure that only a handful of Australian acts attain, there was a further option to head directly abroad. “It’s more realistic for us to go overseas than go to Melbourne,” confirms frontman Joel Byrne.

“I think because there is such a expectation that we would go to Melbourne that that’s why we wouldn’t – everyone is questioning why we’re in Adelaide, but for us it’s never been that big a deal. Our family are here and our friends are here, and it’s like a big country town – there’s no rush. It doesn’t effect our creativity.”

For the creation of Vessels, the four-piece teamed once more with local producer Matt Hills. Recording overseas was initially discussed with 4AD, but the sheer logistics and cost of doing so made it untenable. “It was one reason, but it wasn’t THE reason,” Joel clarifies. “Matt was important to us in the early stages of our career, and we owed him the opportunity to help us on the record. I stand by that and I’m happy with what happened.”

The key to Vessels is that it moves the band onwards from their debut self-titled EP – it’s resulted a quite deliberately plotted album, with three extra tracks left off the album as they detracted from the impact that the band wanted to create on their debut effort. Surprisingly, those are vocal tracks, with several of the cuts on Vessels being instrumental, they’ve been used deliberately to create a feeling or a mood throughout the album. “We wanted to challenge the listener, or what people’s perceptions of us were, or what people expected of an album,” he explains. “Sometimes it comes down to it that words don’t really work.”

What’s most exiting about Vessels is how instinctual Joel’s guitar playing appears – it doesn’t feel like it’s come from many takes, but has instead been left as a freeform instrument underneath the rhythmic pinning of the double-drum sound of the band. “There is that element on there,” Joel says. “When it comes down to recording right down to the last minute I’m not sure what’s going to happen, and I was never set on what I was going to do.”

It sounds deliberate in terms of the creation of the record – it gives it a genuinely fresh sound that can go in any given direction at any time. “Sometimes I’m looking for structure but sometimes I’m trying to get the very antithesis of structure,” Joel wagers. “If I spend too much time on it it’s not going to go how I want to go anyway. Having said that, it takes a long time to get to that point.”

The initial impression that many had of Wolf & Cub drew early comparisons with the likes of Television and Echo and the Bunnymen, but on songs like “Hammond” and “Kingdom” Vessels is far removed from that, and instead looks to the likes of the Stone Roses for inspiration, or perhaps Happy Mondays. “John Squire’s use of the wah was over excessive, and I probably have a tendency to go to that point,” Joel surmises. “For people to draw comparisons between us and the Stone Roses is fantastic – all that shoe-gazer stuff, and early Verve stuff, I’m really into that. I can’t imagine it’s too unconscious of us to have those comparisons.”

Vessels is the sort of debut album that’s not a complete masterpiece – it’s too abstract for that, too disjointed in terms of its sound. But it shows the potential for what the next step is for the band, and it’s the sort of album that draws the listener back time and again, simply as there’s layers and depth to it. “I don’t think it’s the type of thing you can get in one listen,” he agrees. “In hindsight, I would have loved to have spent more time experimenting with amp sounds, but that’s something for the future.”

After suffering a severe case of writer’s block in the wake of writing and recording Vessels, Joel has rediscovered his muse, and is settling in to come up with something utterly different again for the band’s future sophomore album. “I really want to work on my abilities as a songwriter, and I want to be able to write ‘songs’ – I’m really working on my pop sensibilities,” he confirms. “All my favourite bands, like T. Rex or Supergrass, and all those bands from the 1970s had a pop sensibility but were able to balance it with elements of psychedelica. If I can get a combination like that it would be cool.”

Wolf & Cub’s Vessels is out now, with the band on tour with fellow rising stars, Sydney’s Mercy Arms. Dates:
Fri 22 Sep - Brisbane, The Zoo
Fri 29 Sep - Sydney, The Annandale
Sat 30 Sep - Newcastle, Strikeback Festival
Fri 6 Oct - Adelaide, Rocket Bar
Sat 7 Oct - Adelaide, Rocket Bar
Sat 14 Oct - Perth, Amplifier
Sun 15 Oct - Fremantle, Norfolk Hotel