The Sunken Sea are a Melbourne act who specialise in soaring and anthemic art-rock paired with angsty social commentary, and their latest single 'Rattle the Cage' finds them in strong form. The track bursts open with a tight brass section, which is quickly replaced by frontman Dougal James' soulful baritone vocals, which smoothly weaves over the track's crisp instrumentation. However as the song flows on things begin to get darker, more intense and almost eerie. As the final chorus hits it's almost impossible not to share Dougal's anxious frustration as he begs for someone to "rattle the cage" for him. We caught up with Dougal to find out about the new track and more.

What's the story behind the Sunken Sea?

The Sunken Sea started as a high school band comprised of a bunch of mates from the music office shredding some cooked art rock ballads about vague teenage heartbreak and other really grey and gloomy topics. Now that we're older we play similar off-kilter tunes but with more existential dread and frenetic post-teen panic mixed in.

Tell us a bit about the new single.

‘Rattle The Cage’ began life as a directionless frustration jam, but the more I refined it, it evolved into a song that also delves into the complacency and hypocrisy of the "white male saviour" ego in turbulent social and political moments in history.

You guys are pretty involved in the local music scene - any favourites at the moment?

Tough question! There are so many incredible bands around at the moment. I'm loving the angular post-punk resurgence evident in bands like Cracker La Touf, and the frank, wry post-rock singer songwriter jams of our pals Ioda Rosa have really been tickling my fancy recently - so much so that I enlisted one of their frontmen Jack Skender to lend his vocals to Rattle The Cage.

What's coming up next for the Sunken Sea?

We'll be playing some smaller duo and trio shows as our drummer is going overseas for a while, and we'll get working on a run of three EPs over the next year and a bit!