The Wolfe Brothers have earned themselves a solid reputation for their catchy singles and dynamic live shows. They constantly push the envelope with their songwriting, and delight fans with their honest approach. Now, the band are gearing up for the release of their fifth studio album – their first international release through music juggernaut BBR / BMG – and it is a party from start to finish. Harking back to their origins, way back to the 80’s, and 90’s, the boys have embraced the vibe of the music they grew up with, and it is a pure delight for the listener.
Brothers Nick and Tom Wolfe have strong memories of playing the music they loved on cassette as youngsters. This passion is something they have carried throughout the new release. For lead singer Nick, while the album was three years in the recording process, he says it has essentially been their whole lives in the making, and that all started on cassette.
“Those sounds that first set us off on the journey and got us hooked on music came from tapes,” he says. “We had boomboxes as kids that we’d make mixtapes on, we had cassette players in our first cars. There’s some elements on this record from all our favourite sounds from the 80s right up to the now. Whether it be country, Aussie pub rock, which has always been a huge part of our musical-DNA, right up to new sounds and ideas that excite us at this moment. It’s all there in some way, but it all started for us, on cassette.”
Kids On Cassette features a swag of impressive collaborations, from LOCASH who appear on the latest single, to Amy Sheppard and Jack Jones. For the brothers, it has been an honour that their musical peers were so keen to be part of the album. “It absolutely blows our minds the calibre of the talented folks who’ve joined forces with us on the record,” says Nick. “From LOCASH on Startin’ Something who just brought such an incredible energy to it, to Amy Sheppard who we have the utmost respect for and what Sheppard have achieved as an Aussie act on the global stage, and to collaborate with our musical hero Jack Jones on Downtime is just bucket list stuff. We’re still pinching ourselves that it all happened, and they’ve leant their incredible talent to our music.”
The Wolfe Brothers had a plan from the outset for the album – make a record jam-packed with songs that would work anywhere, anytime, and most importantly, on any live stage. As Nick refers to it, ‘all killer, no filler’. “We wanted a bunch of songs that you could play live, play back-to-back as a concert set list in itself,” he says. “Truly the best part is yet to come when we get to tour and play these songs live. More so that any other previous album, we’ve kept the live show as the major guiding factor in the arrangements and production choices that we made at every step.”
The singles released from Kids On Cassette so far have already garnered the band acclaim. In May 2020, The Wolfe Brothers released the first single from album, No Brakes, a bold track which saw the duo moving full speed ahead into their forthcoming album. It hit #1 on the Country Charts, making it the band’s 13th consecutive Country Number One. The follow-up single, Anybody Ever, an anthemic 80’s style jam – released in October 2020 – saw the band achieve their 14th #1. In May this year, The Wolfe Brothers teamed up with mates LOCASH for a duet single Startin’ Something, a joyful fusion of country, rock and pop and the single has already hit the Top 10, landing this week at #7 on the Country Airplay Charts.
Kids On Cassette was predominantly recorded at Nick’s studio, Wolfe’s Lair, and was produced by Nick Wolfe. The album also features the band’s ‘dream team’ of producers with Matt Fell (Shane Nicholson, John Williamson, Travis Collins, Graeme Connors), Johnny Gaspsric (Gord Bamford, Renegade Station, George Canyon) and Linsday Rimes (Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Kylie Minogue). Matt Fell also produced the band’s last album Country Heart. All four of the band’s studio albums have debuted at #2 on the ARIA charts and #1 on the Australian Country Music Album Charts. The band have been nominated for 16 Country Music Awards of Australia, and they took home three Golden Guitars in 2019 for Group Of The Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year.
The Wolfe Brothers release their fifth album, Kids On Cassette, internationally through BBR Music Group / BMG on Friday 30th July 2021. For more information, please visit www.thewolfebrothers.com
