Have you heard of local Canberran band Drawing North? Well if not, keep reading. And if so, keep reading…

The band is made up of five guys, Po, Ethan (a demi-god), Chad, Jake and Drew whom have all been busy over the past few years playing multiple gigs including the Vans Warped Tour Australia & Groovin The Moo, supporting international and homegrown artists such as Paul Kelly, Sheppard, Jessica Mauboy, Short Stack, Stan Walker, The Getaway Plan and more!

Most recently they just finished up recording their album, ‘El Dorado’ in Florida, USA with producer James Wisner (also produces for Paramore), so we caught up with Chad Barnier, 1/5 of the band, guitarist, graphic designer and all round cool dude to get to scoop on what we can expect from the new album and the future for Drawing North!

What are three words that best describe Drawing North?
Fun, catchy pop

What do you guys do for work/play when you’re not being ‘rockstars’?
Po is a sports fan and plays a lot of basketball, soccer and FIFA.
Jake recently got into collecting sneakers. He has a huge collection of Adidas kicks.
Ethan likes the outdoors, hiking and going on ‘neature’ walks.
Drew pretty much does everything you can think of and does it better than anyone. Like, literally everything. Dude is a freak.
And I’m a graphic designer and enjoy doing anything creative.

Who in the group is the biggest party animal?
Jake definitely likes to party – but that’s probably because he’s the only one in the band who can actually dance. If you get Ethan on a good day, though…

We are so excited to hear your album ‘El Dorado’. Tell us about the experience working with James Wisner!
Thank you! We’re excited to get it out there, it’s been hanging out on our iPods for a little while now. James is a real life wizard and working with him on El Dorado was life changing.

Will you guys go on tour with this album?
Definitely! We’ve been fortunate enough to start working with Australia’s best booking agent, Tony Grace at The Harbour Agency so you’ll being hearing a lot from us very soon. 😉

Your debut single ‘Forevermore’ was released on 22 June. Can you tell us a bit about the tune, the story and what we can expect?
Forevermore is a pretty straightforward song; it’s about waiting for someone no matter how far apart you are.

What has been the highlight for the band so far?
We’ve been fortunate to do a lot of great things! Playing Australia Day Celebrates Live! this year with Jess Mauboy, Sheppard and Paul Kelly was definitely a good time! 15,000 people was a little bigger than the usual crowd that we play to but it felt really comfortable and we loved every second of it!
Flying over to America to record El Dorado was a huge accomplishment for us. So much went into the planning, writing and making of this record and we’re so proud of what we’ve created. It is now so close to being released, it doesn’t feel real!
And, this might seem like a small one, but it’s important to us – meeting our long time manager, Jason, when we touched down in LA was a dream come true. He has been managing us from afar for several years and getting to finally meet him was incredible.

And the biggest achievement?
Definitely writing this record. It’s taken a little while to get the release rolling but through all of that we are still as proud of the work we’ve created as the day we left the studio.

And last but not least, what’s the big dream/goal for Drawing North? The ultimate place you guys are working to get to?
Our goal has always been to make an impact in people’s lives.

The bands we loved growing up shaped the way we view the world and ourselves. I often think about the ripple effect those things have – that one gig or one song can really change someone and they just haven’t experienced it yet.

Thanks Chad!

Click here to listen to FOREVERMORE – we hope you love it as much as we did!