Radio Free Alice look to capture the restless spirit of a generation on What’s In Between, writing the soundtrack to its own evolving story and letting listeners find pieces of their own lives in the songs.
Radio Free Alice have the kind of ambition that can turn a promising post-punk band into something much bigger. On their debut album, What’s In Between, the Australian four-piece summon driving rhythms, serrated guitars and introspective songwriting into a record that walks a tightrope of restless ambition with a keen sense of humor and down-to-earth nuance. Frontman Noah Learmonth and his bandmates are dreaming big, and they also seem honest about keeping those dreams grounded in reality.
Learmonth, a wryly funny frontman with a clear vision for the group's identity, leads a band that thrives on paradoxes. Radio Free Alice make hook-heavy music without losing their self-awareness, pairing angular post-punk with a weird and infectious joy. Their songs speak to those who feel slightly out of place at the party, even as the band themselves increasingly find themselves headlining those parties.
The group began with Learmonth and guitarist Jules Paradiso, who started playing together as schoolmates in Sydney before moving to Melbourne at 18 to pursue music seriously. When their original bandmates stayed behind, the pair recruited bassist Michael Phillips and drummer Lochie Dowd at Melbourne University, completing the lineup that would propel Radio Free Alice beyond Australia's borders.
That international reach is in the DNA of What's In Between, a record made across three continents. The band initially worked with producer Ewan Pearson, known for his work with Depeche Mode and Franz Ferdinand, during sessions north of Sydney. They subsequently revisited and reshaped songs with Peter Katis, whose production credits include Interpol and the National, at his Connecticut studio. Final touches came during a week in northwest London, where UK producer Finn Billingham helped bring it all together.
The result is a coming-of-age album fueled by the uncertainty and thrill of figuring out the way as the road unfurls in front of you. Learmonth has a particular affection for those kinds of stories, and What's In Between turns that fascination inward, sharing the experiences of a band discovering who they are in real time while the world around them grows larger. For Radio Free Alice, the space between adolescence and adulthood, outsider status and belonging, modest beginnings and enormous possibilities, is fertile ground.