It can never be said that Jindabyne local now Queensland resident Brad Cox has rested on his laurels. From his debut self-titled album, released in 2018, through second album My Mind’s Projection in 2020 and Acresin 2023, he has evolved his sound while building his audience, often through touring his own shows and playing festivals. His voice is big, and so are the stories and themes in his songs. 

Cox has never been an artist who has lived by the maxim ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. It may be fair to say that he is, indeed, an artist who sets out to break things, musically speaking, because that will create change, and he wants to pursue that change and see where it leads him.

That may well be how he arrived at his latest album, Endemic Intelligence in Multiple Dimensions. From the second track, ‘Sunset Psalm’, which is preceded by a short instrumental track, in which he sings ‘I saw the light and I’m running’, we are off and running towards the light he is holding up, leading us into and through that musical change he is pursuing. 

There are tracks on this album that are very much not country music and still also very much Brad Cox, as we discuss in this new interview. There are others that are country music but not in the way anyone else could make it. That’s because Cox has a clear sense of the songs he wants to write and record and release, and he has the talent to back that up. Which is not to say that he works alone – in one part of this interview he talks about the role A&R from his label, Warner Music Australia, played in the formation of the album. He also has a red-hot band (as anyone who has seen him play live can attest). But it all stems from him and the extent to which he is prepared to move through those multiple dimensions of potential, and of his artistry, to find not only what works but what is necessary and strong and right.

There is audacity in pursuing the creative path you want as opposed to what may work better for others, because you need to hold your nerve. And holding one’s nerve takes more courage than ever appears to the naked eye. When there’s an audience, and radio stations, and a record company waiting to see what you come up with, it would be normal to waver. But if Cox ever wavered in making this album, there’s no sign of it. This is a panoramic, brightly hued work, and we’re all the better for it. It was, therefore, wonderful to have the chance to talk to him about it. And as he says towards the end of the chat: ‘I’m very thankful for all of it – the ebbs, the flows, the highs, the lows. It’s all about experience.’

Endemic Intelligence in Multiple Dimensions is out now through Warner Music Australia.

Listen to Endemic Intelligence in Multiple Dimensions on Apple Music

https://apple.co/4nAzHz5

Listen to Endemic Intelligence in Multiple Dimensions on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/album/1N2LHCJgUEy8GzXItAuNKg?si=pXYX7Wm3QxmM3AhW-dbFyw

[PHOTO CREDIT: ROCKET WEIJERS]

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