A new beach shack has been set up in Byron Bay, but instead of it being filled with sandy-toed surfer dudes and colour-sapped Combis, it's full to its wicker brim with artists and musicans.

La Casa Artist Residency is a think-tank set up by Corona for some of Australia's best artists to sit back, sip on a beer and let the inspiration sun seep into their tour-bus-pale skin. Covered in floor-to-celing memorbilia and providing its residents with loads of audio and art supplies to tinker with, they invite artists to make it their home away from home. So far the likes of Oh Mercy, David Bromley and Evan Hecox have pulled up a chair and so will many more over the coming months.

Alpine recently took a couple of days out of being awesome to do some song writing there while the waves lapped at their feet. Ahead of their nomination at the ARIA Awards tonight, we had a little chat to one half of their lead duo Lou James about freckles and fret boards.

What did you guys get up to at La Casa? The time there was unbelievably blissful! We were able to hang out as friends foremost and enjoyed the beautiful artist residency, which stepped straight onto the sea. We spent our time writing music and it was such a wonderful environment to feel inspired. We spent a lot of time swimming in the sea, playing soccer on the beach, cooking delicious meals (mostly Mexican), staying up late and waking up at dawn to watch the sunrise.

Could you describe the house and surrounding area to us a little? The house is magical. It has two levels, the living area is open with a kitchen, lounge room, dining room and a beautiful deck overlooking the sea. The house itself is decked out with so much character that I could sense the presence of all the other artists who have stayed there. You have the ocean as your back garden and views of Byron Bay from left to right when you follow your eye along the beach. If you're lucky, you can spot whales playing in the ocean at certain times of the day. Magic!

Being from Melbourne, how does your skin fare with the sun there? I managed to accumulate some lovely new freckles! Thank you, Byron!

Since we featured you as our fashion shoot nearly two years ago, a lot has happened! What's been the most profound thing that has happened to Alpine over that time? I honestly can't choose one, there are a few! We released an album, did a national album launch, we got nominated for an AIR award, an AMP award, a Triple J award and an ARIA, we got signed to our USA label Votiv and we're playing at Laneway Festival next year! Holy moly!

How did being in the La Casa environment affect the way you wrote and played? It was so zen - such a peaceful and inspiring enviroment. We've been touring so much over the year that it was so rewarding to finally have the time to jam again and we totally dug not having distractions.

Will we be able to hear anything you wrote there in future tunes? Definitely! We began writing new material, two new songs in fact. Both are in the very early stages of development which is exciting.

What is on Alpine's blueprint for next year? Laneway Festival in February and hopefully going over to the USA in March where we'll be releasing our album.

The ARIA Awards are tonight and you're up for best album - any hints you can give about what's going to happen? No idea! We still can't believe we won an EG Award last week!

Drinking and music writing: inspiration enabler or inebriate-r? BOTH!