Captives Walk Us Through Their Dynamic New Album, ‘Return To Mars’

Melbourne punk-rock band Captives have just dropped their sophomore album ‘Return To Mars’, and today we’ve got an exclusive run-through of the tracklist.

Their hard-rock sound, fit for fans of DZ Deathrays, Clowns and Karnivool, shines in all its energetic, dark, melodic and illustrious glory. The 5 piece will be touring Australia in April/May to take the album to the stage, and they’ve also just been announced on the local Wallapalooza Festival bill alongside hard rock legends: Grinspoon, The Butterfly Effect, British India and Bodyjar. (Find tickets here)

Recorded at The Alamo Studio in Melbourne, ‘Return To Mars’ was produced and mixed by Tyson Fish (Vance Joy, Mammal, Children Collide) and mastered by Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Cog, Shihad). 

Allow the band to take you through the album- read below for their exclusive insight into each track!

Rat Detective

The opening track to the album. We’ve never written a song like it. Guitars, vocals, raw and a cool track title to tie it all together.  

Gold

Made for loud listening. Turn up your corolla car speakers or your air pods to 11 and give it a go. We made a film clip that does the tune plenty of justice and we can’t wait to play this one live. 

Miles Away

A different angle for us. We wrote some lighter songs for this album and Miles Away stood out as a unanimous favourite within the band. The song itself is written around enduring a tough lockdown and having everything we loved, taken away.  

Baby’s Got A New Friend Called Baby

The working song title that stuck. A return to a more classic Captives sound and rips in hard. 

Into the Deep

An idea our guitarist came had originally, that we all added some spice too. The whole album process has been the most collaborative we’ve ever been and this one probably highlights that. 

Blue Bird

A brighter tune to lighten up the record. Naturally we wrote some upbeat riffs in the album process, we had just returned from an amazing tour of Taiwan and Japan and had some of these ideas floating around, this was one of them. 

Villain

Tommy (bass) wrote the lead guitar riff that opens the song. It’s probably one of the oldest ideas/songs we’ve had floating around for a few years too. Plenty of gang vocals to charge your beers to at a show on our upcoming tour in April. 

Early Grey

Picture yourself driving down a highway. Sunnies on with one arm on the wheel. You’ll know what we mean.

Deaf Ears

One of Tommy’s (bass) many tunes. Originally, we had to convince him to let us put it on the record, but it’s a ripper tune. Also, the first time we’ve handed the reigns over to let someone else have a sing on one of the tunes. 

Dylan

We were writing this song one night in our jam room and had a rare encounter with a friend of friend. Turns out his name was Dylan and had a heap of mutual mates with us. Naturally the working title became ‘Dylan’ and it just had to stay.

Buried & Bones

The first single we released from ‘Return to Mars’ and probably set the tone for what came next. It packs a punch and the film clip we made was so rewarding. 

Return to Mars

A fitting closer to the album. Some album closing songs get buried away because they have no place. But Return to Mars is one we’re all proud of and talks about how we are slowly destroying the world we live in. Overpopulated and overcapacity.

Stream ‘Return To Mars’ everywhere now!