A single song kept Australian indie rock band The Preatures from completing their sophomore album on schedule. “Yanada” is about Isabella Manfredi, Jack Moffitt, Thomas Champion and Luke Davison reconnecting with their home and culture, but it’s also about a lot more than that.

The name means “moon” in Darug, an aboriginal language in the area of Sydney, where the band is from. Manfredi sings part of the song in the original aboriginal. While the track is an upbeat, dancey, ‘80s-infused number that could pass as a Heart or The Pretenders song, it’s the beating heart of the The Preatures’ Girlhood, out Aug. 11.

“[Yanada]” is about getting out of your comfort zone and connecting to something bigger than you: a sense of place,” Manfredi said in a phone call early on a recent morning at her home, alongside guitarist Moffitt.

“Our place is Sydney. It’s about the place we come from. It’s history and language that we really didn’t know much about. When we came back from all that touring overseas, we realized how little we actually knew about where we live.”

The idea for the track began to germinate after Manfredi saw a theater production of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, a work very significant to Australia that deals with the first contact between aboriginal Australians and settlers. Oftentimes, colonization of the indigenous population resulted in massacre, she said matter-of-factly. At the same time, she often went to see public art by aboriginal artists, such as “Skin and Bones” by Jonathan Jones.

“We realized the song had an indigenous voice, and we just had to follow that and figure out what that might mean for the community,” she said.

Manfredi, Moffitt, bassist Champion and drummer Davison consulted with Sydney’s indigenous community to write the song in a way to honor its culture and history. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, though the band did edit the lyrics and change the song title by request.

“There was definitely a protocol here in Australia,” she said. “Not everybody approaches using the language or elements of the culture in the same way, but we were very conscious of really consulting with the community and making sure that we understood the context that we were pulling the language from.”

The Preatures began to reconnect with their home after three years on the road promoting their debut LP, Blue Planet Eyes, which came following the breakout of EP Is This How You Feel? The four members (original member Gideon Bensen left the band on good terms in March 2016) enjoyed spending time with the families and friends. Manfredi began reading more than ever, mostly fantasy novels and feminist literature, such as the Neapolitan Quartet series by Elena Ferante, The Second Sex, The Female Eunuch, The Feminine Mystique and The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

“I guess I was trying to find my own voice in the context of the band, especially after Gideon [left]. I was really writing from my own perspective, but I think at the end of the process … it’s not really about me and my ‘girlhood.’ It’s actually about my relationship with these three guys that I’ve spent seven years with, now.”

The delay gave The Preatures something that most young bands do not have: time to perfect a second album. Girlhood is not a one-sex, one-directional piece of art. To Manfredi, it is reflection on the messiness of growing up. She had spent years on the road with her bandmates and crew—all men. She said she began to lose sight of her individuality on this touring machine. Unconsciously, she began trying to fit in rather than voicing her opinions.

On the title track, a garage rock anthem, she sings: “Give me heroism, give me what is mine.” It’s one of several assertions made on the album.

To Moffitt, the album is about growing into a sense of maturity.

“It’s the coming to terms with all the different aspects of growing into adulthood—and not necessarily just womanhood—and becoming more aware of yourself and reflecting on all the things that make you what you are,” he said. “Izzi being the kind of writer that she is, it’s always intensely personal in search for a kind of honesty, a truth of expression.”

Moffitt meant that Manfredi often writes about him and his bandmates. He enjoys discussing songwriting and lyricism with her or helping her interpret the words she comes up with.

“You have to write from your own truth, and if Izzi wasn’t doing that, I don’t think we would connect with the songs this much,” he said.

The album is a mix of rock and pop spanning decades. While “Girlhood” is fierce, and “Yanada” danceable, “Cherry Ripe” and “Your Fan” are pleading ballads. “First Night” could score a high school dance film scene, and “Nite Machine” is a driving song, with Manfredi’s declaration that she’s “just another runaway.” There’s some Abba influence in there as well.

Any attempt at variety on the album was subconscious, Moffitt said. In his head, and in Manfredi’s, are all pieces of the same puzzle. The two use another metaphor: a wall decorated with various imperfect memories, pictures and postcards.

“I feel like it’s quite consistent, but that’s because I placed all those things in a single room,” Moffitt said.

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