Brisbane/Meanjin indie-rock outfit Cedarsmoke return with their third album Under The Rainbow, out today. A concept record built around the emotional spectrum of colour, it finds the band blending folk-rooted storytelling with shimmering indie textures and electronic detail.
Each track on the album represents a distinct colour and emotional state, creating a vivid sequence of vignettes that map the full spectrum of human feeling. From black’s sardonic reflection on mortality to the red glow of devotion and the white calm of renewal, Cedarsmoke use colour as both metaphor and mood. Recorded with longtime collaborator Cam Smith at Incremental Studios, the band’s sonic palette expands and contracts like the colours themselves — moving fluidly between quiet introspection and lush, textural crescendos.
Now almost a decade into their journey, Cedarsmoke continue to find light in life’s darker corners. We caught up with frontman Jon Cloumassis for a track-by-track look at Under The Rainbow.
So – do press <play> and read on!
Cedar Smoke – Something Over Nothing – Track by Track
“Don’t Fear The Reaper”
This song is about death, and all the ways to die. Going with our album theme of each song representing a colour, this one is black, which suits its darker theme. Written in the style of Paul Simon’s, “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”, it’s a fun, albeit bleak, homage to the song. The other key theme to the album is never-ending cycles which is why it was decided to begin the album at the end of sorts with a song about death and finish it with a song about birth. Structurally, the song is made up of several verses differentiated with varied soundscapes used in each verse. With the cache of different sounds in this one, it’s one of our most experimental songs which felt like a good way to orientate the listener and take them into a new world at the start of the record.
“Kicking Drugs”
“Kicking Drugs” is orange – the colour symbolising vitality, stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing new experiences. Herein lies the scene of “Kicking Drugs” where meds are being left behind, unswallowed and characters rejoice in adventure. The song features electronic beats interspersed with effected acoustic drums, shakers and tambourines. Built upon this bedrock are an unorthodox mix of acoustic guitars, vertigo-synths and whirling keys. This song is as poppy as anything we’ve written but was also a fun opportunity to experiment with new and unconventional sounds.
“Picasso Blue”
This song travels in the world of all things blue: sky, ocean, melancholy, police, cerulean warblers – all of which appear in the lyrics. It was inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period and the goal was to mimic this monochromatic approach lyrically. It begins at the catalyst for this sombre period, with the suicide of Picasso’s friend, Carles Casagemas, which is also where the song begins. From there, subsequent verses travel to other worlds and mediums of art as they delve into prose, film and music, referencing the work of James Joyce, Stanley Kubrick and Miles Davis who also used heavy colour symbolism in their work, particularly linked to the colour blue. Musically, this song was another chance to experiment. As each verse was set in a different world lyrically, the aim was to pair the new setting with a new arrangement, dramatically shifting the sound from a gentle melancholy to an experimental psychosis.
“Shut Your Eyes And See”
The title comes from a line taken from ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce which I felt matched the psychedelic journey of the song. The first part of the song was written around the time the Let It Be doco came out on Disney and after being inspired by The Beatles, I felt emboldened to finish it with a 2-minute freak out. This song has green symbolism but having written a similar one, “Emerald City”, on our last album, The Great & The Terrible, I felt this one needed to be a bit more subtle lyrically.
“Madame Psychosis”
This is a reincarnation love song which fits into the album theme of cycles. Symbolising the colour red, it references love, communism, roses and blood. It’s also one of the tracks that features the cello played by the talented April Laczko. In its original form, it was written on acoustic guitar and was demoed in more of a country style before the decision was made to pare it back to a sparser arrangement with the focus back on the lyrics and vocals of Tamala Wright, whose voice appears throughout the album.
“Going Under”
“Going Under” is a song about belief and spirituality. It looks at the various things people worship and are slaves to whether it be religions, gods, politicians or pornography. On this one we mixed synths and distorted guitars in the vein of David Bowie and The National whose influences permeate the album. Emulating electronic drum loops, the drums and percussion played by Cam Smith were heavily effected and recorded across several tracks to give the unusual beat which powers the song.
“Under The Rainbow”
The title of this and the album was taken from a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Being the title track, the song is an amalgam of all the songs/colours of the album, featuring much of the common musical threads such as drum loops, sustained guitar notes and experimental synth sounds. Focused on the phenomenon of rainbows, it looks at the cycle of rain through the biblical story of Noah, the nursery rhyme of the itsy-bitsy spider and the scientific process of the light refraction.
“Something Over Nothing”
“Something Over Nothing” is about the extremes of life. It sits on the side that it’s better to live through the ups and downs of than to suffer a life of boredom. Keeping the album theme of each song representing a colour, “Something Over Nothing” is yellow, which symbolises liveliness, excitement, joy and adventure. Focused on joy and sadness and the cyclical nature of life and death, it contemplates the rising of the sun in the east (representing birth) and setting in the west (representing death). Musically, we stuck with the experimental approach mixing electronic, psychedelic and acoustic sounds. On this one, we used both electronic and acoustic drums, synth loops, as well as an eBow for the sustained guitar notes.
“Be Here Now”
“Be Here Now” is a 7-minute epic in the form of a medley that travels through the history of humanity and beyond into the realm of science fiction. Our most experimental song to date, it begins as sombre ballad built over a plaintive piano before shifting drastically with a grandiose chord progressed underneath layers of computerised voices in the vein of Radiohead’s OK Computer before coming back down with echoing vocals with a futuristic epilogue.
“Water”
To finish the cyclical themes of the album, Under The Rainbow closes with a song of birth/rebirth. This song is white and references the symbolism of this colour through, storks, virginity, birth, weddings, confetti and light. A Beatlesque power ballad, we borrowed elements from Dave Fridmann’s production with bands like Flaming Lips, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Sparklehorse. Aiming to end the album on a joyous note, it closes with an unapologetically Oasis-like guitar solo played by Matt Cloumassis.
Under the Rainbow from Cedarsmoke is out now – stream wherever you listen.
You can keep in touch with Cedarsmoke via their website, Facebook, Spotify and Instagram,
Header image credit: Thomas Oliver – www.thomasoliver.photo
