Pierce Brothers aren’t strangers to momentum. After years of nonstop touring, from Europe to arena shows with James Blunt to a 10th anniversary run, the Melbourne twins found themselves once again writing on the move.
The result is Moonrise, their fourth studio album, a record that captures chaos, change, and a surprising amount of catharsis.
“This album definitely has a lot more love songs,” says Patrick Pierce. “Less melodramatic, and more just talking about things that were going on being in our mid-thirties — family, loss. In the past, a big theme was anxiety and pressure and trepidation. I feel like there’s maybe less of those themes this time. We’ve kind of found a bit of a track that we can sit in.”
Twin brother Jack agrees. “There’s definitely some tracks that reflect the relentlessness of our schedule,” he says, pointing to the album’s focus track, “On & On”. “It’s a real snapshot of exactly where we were when so much is going on. There’s catharsis in that.”
It’s part of a shift that feels less like mellowing out and more like growing up — a recognition that the most meaningful things are sometimes right in front of you. “There are dramatic songs as well in ‘Losing Friends When You’re Older’,” Jack says. “But then, like Pat said, there’s a lot of love songs.”
One of those love songs wasn’t even intended for the album. “Moonrise”, the closing track and eventual title, began as a Mother’s Day gift, written for Jack’s wife on a family camping trip.
“We finished up for the day in the studio, had a glass of wine and I was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this thing,’” Jack recalls. “We just put it down. Then it was like, yeah, that’s not so bad. Let’s explore that a bit more.”
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Patrick laughs when he thinks back to that moment. “Jack and [co-producer] Phil [Threlfall] were like, ‘Nah, leave it as is,’ and I said, ‘Go to lunch — let me cook.’” It’s a motto they’ve learned to stick to. “We have to remind ourselves to let each other cook,” Jack says. “Even if you’re not vibing it, you have to yes-and. Because good things will come out of it.”
That “yes-and” energy is all over Moonrise. Rather than operating from fear of sounding too much like someone else, the brothers decided to write what felt right.
“Jack and I are very much meat-and-potatoes in the way we write,” Patrick says. “Working more with people like Dara [Munnis], who are a little more accomplished, definitely led us to push the envelope creatively.”
Jack agrees. “Having a studio at my house, I was putting more time into pre-production than I’d ever done. We came in more prepared.”
And more willing to experiment. “Catastrophe” — the only track not produced by the brothers — became “the most different” on the album. “That was with Jan Skubiszewski,” Jack says. “We started completely different: a sick bassline, banjo. It already felt so cool and different, and we just went with it.”
Then there’s “Meet Me at the Border”, co-written with Munnis — a sprawling love song that became the emotional centre of the record. “That one took us the longest,” Jack says. “Dara had written it a long time ago, and half of it’s in 7/8, half of it’s in 9/8, then it jumps. We’d keep coming back, trying to nail a top line. We wrote some of that in different hotel rooms.”
It’s the kind of challenge that might have defeated a younger version of the band. Instead, they kept carving away until the picture appeared. They even called in The Frames’ drummer Dave Hingerty.
Credit: Dara Munnis
“We were blown away,” Jack says. “I emailed him to thank him and he wrote back, ‘I really had to have a lie down after that one.’”
It’s also a record of stories — some playful, some heavy. On “Losing Friends When You’re Older”, Jack admits he had to unlearn his instinct to avoid sounding “too Mumford-y.”
“As soon as I unshackled myself from the burden of trying to be just myself, creativity came quicker,” he says. “I was thinking, alright, I’ll speak to a millennial audience about the friends you lose along the way. Relationships change. And the first thing you do is save the demo, and I didn’t know what to call it. So I wrote ‘Losing Friends When You’re Older’ — and that became the guiding light for the lyrics.”
It also sparked one of the album’s most charming running jokes.
“We realised the line ‘there and back again’ was our second Tolkien reference,” Jack says. “We’d already used ‘not all those who wander are lost’ in ‘Juno’.” Patrick chimes in: “On the next album we’ve got to put in, ‘You Shall Not Pass’,” Jack laughs, “That’s a great idea — I’m writing that down. It could be about anything, but that’s the title.”
Elsewhere on this record, “Black Gold” digs deeper. The origin was casual — another jam in a hotel room — until life demanded honesty.
“There was a storm at home and a tree fell down on my back fence,” Jack says. “I was feeling pretty down at the time. I just spent a few days not feeling myself. It was a black wattle tree that had fallen, and the bark was covering the rot. It became a narrative exploring depression and not realising I’d pushed myself a little too far.”
That willingness to sit with reality — good, difficult, and everywhere in between — gives Moonrise its depth. But it isn’t interested in dwelling in darkness. The record begins with the surging “I Will Love You”, written for the Outback Mind Foundation’s men’s mental health documentary When the Dust Settles.
“It’s such a simple line, ‘I will love you,’ and it could come across as cheesy,” Jack says. “But what if we reframe it so it’s about yourself? As soon as we did that, we went, yep — that’s the direction.”
Now, the album’s themes — connection, vulnerability, the relief of support — are headed back into rooms full of people. But not in the usual format.
“This is a completely new show for us,” Patrick says. “We’re going to be talking about each track individually with an MC and then exploring the performances one by one. And in smaller rooms than we’ve done in a while — we get to meet everyone there and talk about the new album.”
They’re also bringing new toys to the stage. “We’ve got some looping ideas and banjo on stage,” Patrick says. “I remember when we got the banjo, I was like, ‘Let’s get a banjo.’ And Jack’s like, ‘You can’t play banjo.’ And I’m like, ‘We can’t play mandolin!’ We still play that on stage.”
He’s not done. “I’ve still got this idea… I want to learn trumpet just for one part of one song,” he says. “You only need to learn what you need to know. Pull it out, play a solo — it might be the simplest thing ever — then put it down and everyone will be like, oh wow, they do all sorts of stuff!” He pauses. “We don’t,” he adds, laughing. “It’s like smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand.”
Jack, meanwhile, has his attention on the pressure of debuting new material. “With the older songs, you’ve played them so many times that you’re performing the audience,” he says. “With new ones, you’re learning the songs and the show at the same time. So I’ve been playing a lot just so I can get into the state where I’m just doing the songs and performing for the audience.”
Eight shows in a week — a high-pressure trial by fire — but also a chance to hard-wire the album into muscle memory.
“By the end of the week, we’ll know exactly what works, what doesn’t,” Patrick says. “We can go into next year with a really strong understanding of every song so we can actually make dynamic setlists. That’s something we’ve always wanted to get better at.”
2026 is already mapped out, starting with a UK and European run with multiple shows sold out. And Jack has one very specific goal.
“We beat Beyoncé in physical sales last time,” he laughs. “We got the Australian number one — but they didn’t give trophies back then. They started three weeks later. So hopefully we get another number one. I want the trophy.”
For a band always running, Moonrise feels less like a break and more like a breath — the moment you look up and realise what all the rushing has been for. And after all the miles behind them, that clarity might be the biggest milestone yet.
Pierce Brothers’ Moonrise is out now.
