Just before they took over our Instagram account on Friday, I caught up with Amy Findlay from Victoria’s Stonefield, while she was enjoying some time at home, to talk about their long awaited (and recently released) debut self-titled album, the subsequent tour (which they’re on as we speak) and we look towards Meredith and Festival of the Sun next month.
You’ve kicked off a fairly massive tour, it must be nice to get a bit of time at home…
Yeah, it’s good. We’re doing things a bit different this time than I think we have in the past. We’ve tried (in the past) to squeeze more shows into a shorter amount of time, but this one we’re doing three or four shows a week through to December, so it’s nice to come home in between and have a bit of rest before heading off again.
When I went into this interview I had sworn I’d seen you at Big Day Out at the start of this year – but indeed that was at the start of 2012!
Yeah it’s gone by so quickly!
So I imagine, rather, you spent much of the start of this year working on your debut record?
Yeah that’s definitely been the big focus of this year, so we haven’t been playing as many shows as usual. It’s kind of been weird! When we did the first shows on our single tour, it felt so fresh and exciting, so new again. So that was good. But it was good to focus on writing. I think it was something that got left behind once we were Unearthed (on triple j). We were doing too many crazy things and travelling all over the place. So we needed to step back.
You started going into studios pretty early in your careers as musicians – can you talk about what it was like going into the studio, comparatively, knowing you were recording your debut album?
I guess we’d just written a lot more music, first of all. We experimented with a lot of different approaches in terms of writing this time. When we’d done it in the past, we wrote while jamming, pretty much exclusively, but this time we learnt to use our time a bit better – something important, too, with the younger sisters still in school. So Hannah (guitarist) and I would work on things acoustically, and then have that to take to the band when we were all together. So we could have something to work off of. And we did a little bit of co-writing as well. It was a bit more of an intense focus on it, than just jamming and coming up with a few songs and then that would be the EP.
The result is something with a lot more depth, and it pushes you to look into sub-genres of our style and explore slower songs and different tempos, which is different for us.
Another aspect that’s changed for you with this album, is that you have a new drummer on the road! (Manny Bourakis)
Yeah, I’m now switching between being behind the drum kit and being up front which is nice. I like being able to do both. It’s certainly a lot easier. I guess I didn’t realise how much hard work it was (to play drums and sing lead vocals), until I started having to do full sets. But it’s also good to feel like I can get closer to the audience, and interact. It’s easier to rev the crowd up. I feel a lot more free, and I enjoy my time on drums a lot more, too. I think it’s improved our live show; made it a bit more interesting.
And when it comes to the new material live, how are fans responding to the new record?
It’s really interesting, because we actually did play a lot of the album songs on our single tour… and obviously at that point no one had heard any of those tracks. It was hard for us to do that, knowing no one would know what we’re doing. But it’s really nice now to know that some people are singing along, and getting excited when they hear the start of one of our (new) album tracks.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the tour is like, and seeing what all the different reactions are in all the different cities we’re playing… it’s a lot of fun!
And you’ll be ending this run of your own headline shows with appearances at Meredith Music Festival and Festival of the Sun… are you looking forward to getting back onto the festival stages?
Yeah definitely, it’s such a different vibe than playing your own shows… it’s great being outdoors and soaking in the festival vibe. So it should be really fun. It’s a shame they’re on the same weekend, which means we can’t fully enjoy both of them, but it will be an exciting weekend.
Yeah! They’re both on a Friday and a Saturday! What’s up with that!
I know! And we have been wanting to go to Meredith for such a long time… we haven’t even been as punters. We’ve always had something on. So we finally get to go, and play it, and we have to scoot off to the next one! Oh… but it’s a good reason to be leaving. I can’t complain!
It could be a lot worse! So as you run out the year with all these shows, is there anywhere you’re looking forward to playing in particular?
It’s always good to go back to places you’ve been before, but it’s always more exciting to go to new places… there’s such a mystery to it. You don’t know how it’s going to go, and it’s exciting to explore a new place. So I’m looking forward to playing on North Stradbroke Island in Queensland… we have to get a boat to get to that show! So that should be fun. And we haven’t played in Mildura before, so that will be interesting as well. Two new places!
And looking into 2014, what do you have in store?
Well we’re looking towards playing at The Great Escape in the UK (in May)… we were billed to play this year but it clashed with recording, so we’re hoping to get back over there next year and do a bit of a UK tour. Maybe even Glastonbury again. It’s all a bit unpredictable. We’re just really hoping to get overseas again and get something going properly. In the past it’s just been a short trip… it feels like you have to put in a lot of time and energy to do it properly.
Other than Glastonbury, what have you had the opportunity to do over in the UK?
Yeah well when we did Glastonbury we just did two other showcases in London. And it was really interesting when we did them because it was like going back to square one. Starting all fresh, playing at a dingy bar with a sound guy who was so drunk he didn’t know how to function…
Yeah that’s pretty rock and roll though!
Yeah, it’s pretty rock and roll. We did have fun. But it will be good to try and get back over there and have a good crack at it.
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Stonefield play the sold out Meredith Music Festival on December 13th and Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie on the 14th. They are currently touring their debut album Stonefield, which is in stores now. For all the dates, head to their official website.
More details about Festival of the Sun, as well as tickets, can be found here: http://www.fotsun.com/
