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Highroad No. 28 – “Ache”: Endurance, Emotion, and the Power of Feeling Something Real

Interviste

With “Ache,” Highroad No. 28 step back into the spotlight with a song that doesn’t shy away from emotional weight, yet never collapses under it. Released on November 1, 2025 via The Orchard (Sony Music), the single marks the beginning of a new chapter for the long-running Australian alternative rock project and serves as the first glimpse into their third album, The Will to Endure.

Blending alternative and indie rock with a darker, cinematic edge, “Ache” is built on brooding bass lines, textured guitars, and vocals that feel both intimate and resolute. It’s a track shaped by memory and longing, capturing the quiet pain that lingers after love and loss, while still leaving space for strength and clarity. Recorded at Sing Sing Recording Studios in Melbourne and mixed by producer James Taplin, the song refines the band’s heavy alt-rock roots into something more layered, moody, and emotionally direct.

Highroad No. 28’s story stretches back to the late 1990s, when the project first emerged within Australia’s heavy rock scene, quickly gaining recognition for its unflinching exploration of anguish, resilience, and inner struggle. Across early EPs, a debut album, relentless touring, and a second full-length release in 2008, endurance has remained a defining thread — not as a slogan, but as a lived experience woven into the music itself.

After a long period of creative hibernation, the project returned in 2025 with renewed focus. Now operating as a deliberate solo studio endeavor, frontman Andrew JC performs all instruments and vocals, reconnecting Highroad No. 28 with its core identity while laying the foundation for a future live incarnation. The Will to Endure, released on December 29, 2025, expands on this vision with darker tones, emotional vulnerability, and an unfiltered honesty that runs through tracks like “Ache,” positioning the song as both a personal statement and a thematic cornerstone of the album.

Rather than offering easy answers, “Ache” invites listeners to sit with their emotions — to acknowledge the pain, the beauty, and the strange empowerment that comes from still feeling deeply. It’s a reminder that endurance isn’t about denial, but about continuing forward with honesty and intent.

“‘Ache’ captures Highroad No. 28 at their most focused and emotionally direct — a dark, atmospheric alternative rock track that embraces pain without surrendering to it. Cinematic guitars, brooding bass lines, and raw vocals turn memory and longing into something quietly empowering, marking a confident new chapter for a project built on endurance and honesty.”

— Musicalive.net

“Ache” feels emotionally heavy but still strangely uplifting. When writing the song, how did you balance vulnerability with a sense of empowerment rather than despair?

I wouldn’t describe it as uplifting so much as cathartic — though it’s interesting that it came across that way to you. For me, “Ache” is about releasing something rather than supressing it. I don’t consciously try to balance vulnerability and empowerment when writing; that process happens instinctively. The album as a whole, The Will to Endure, carries a more forward-moving emotional arc, but individual songs simply land where they land.

This single introduces The Will to Endure. In what ways does “Ache” set the emotional and sonic tone for the rest of the album?

In some ways “Ache” sets the emotional core of The Will to Endure. Sonically, it has a darker, restrained sound where tension and weight come from atmosphere rather than excess, flashy effects, etc. Emotionally, it introduces the idea that endurance isn’t necessarily always about resolution or triumph, but about remaining present with discomfort. The rest of the album, to an extent, grows outward from that point in different ways.

Highroad No. 28 has always explored themes of resilience and inner struggle. How has your understanding of endurance changed from the early EPs to this current era?

It hasn’t a great deal. Yet, in the band’s early years, endurance was expressed as obstinant “pushing through” — intensity, agression, urgency, heavy and raw riffs as a way of surviving. Now it’s a tad more internal and measured. Endurance has also become about acceptance and continuing without needing to dramatise the struggle. I think that shift naturally shaped both the writing and the sound of The Will to Endure.

For this release, you handled all instruments and vocals yourself. How did working as a solo studio project influence the songwriting and emotional honesty of “Ache”?

James, the mixer, helped me with some additional guitars, but, yeah I pretty much did it all myself. So working that way removed any filter between the initial idea and the final result. There was no need to translate emotions or negotiate direction, which kept the songwriting close to its original intent. It also meant pretty much taking full responsibility for almost every choice, making the emotional honesty of “Ache” more direct and unguarded. Nevertheless, Highroad No. 28 is a band, not a solo project, so I am looking forward to playing the song live with the new members.

After such a long hibernation period, what does releasing new music in 2025 mean to you personally, and how do you hope listeners connect with this new chapter of Highroad No. 28?

Well in the “hibernation period”, I was still releasing demos and some other stuff, but not doing a great deal. I just did enough to sustain some continuity. All in all, releasing The Will to Endure in 2025 feels less like a comeback and more like continuation — returning to a thread that was always there. I hope listeners connect with the honesty of this chapter and recognise something of their own experience within it.

Follow Highroad No. 28:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HighroadNo.28/