From shed to arena, Aussie sibling quartet Stonefield hone their classic-rock chops
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2020 19:00:47 +0000
When: Feb. 17 at 8 p.m.
Where: Astoria
Tickets: $16, at ticketweb.ca
The four Findlay sisters formed Stonefield in rural Australia (Darraweit Guim, about an hour outside of Melbourne) while still in their teens — and younger in the case of Sarah (keyboards) and Holly (bass).
In 2010 the quartet, including drummer/vocalist Amy and guitarist Hannah, caught the attention of the country’s Triple J radio network by winning a new talent contest.
The band has since released four albums marked by heavy riffs, stoner-rock tempos, and psychedelic flourishes. We talked to Amy about cows, Frank Zappa, and Fleetwood Mac.
Q: Three of you live in Melbourne and one still lives at home. Does that make it difficult to practice?
A: We always go home to practice. We’ve got a shed set up with all our gear. We can go there any time for as long as we want and not have to pay for it and not annoy any neighbours.
Q: Are there animals around, like sheep and kangaroos?
A: There’s kangaroos. We’ve got cows. I think they like our playing. They come up to the paddock that’s right near our shed and stand there while we’re playing. It’s really cute.
Q: Are you guys living out the rock ‘n’ roll dreams of your parents?
A: Both of our parents don’t play music. But they definitely love music. They’ve always been supportive of us playing. Both of their brothers play in a band together, which is how they met.
Q: Growing up, you were influenced by what your parents listened to, including the usual heavy classic-rock bands like Led Zeppelin but also Frank Zappa. It seems like Zappa attracts a particular type of fan.
A: You’re not wrong there. When Dad’s around Frank Zappa fans they’re instantly drawn to each other and it’s a conversation that never ends. It took us a long time for us to not think his music was really weird, and that was probably when we went to see Zappa Play Zappa, with his son (Dweezil) playing Frank’s music. Our minds were blown by how musically talented you have to be to play it, and how interesting it is, and funny at times. It covers all musical bases. That’s what got us into him a lot more.
Q: Bent, your album from last year, is your fourth record. Do you feel like you’re where you want to be in your career?
A: Yeah. I think it’s a good marking point of where we were at when we released it. Between every album everything’s going to change a bit. It sounds very us, as did the album before (Far From Earth, 2018). The first couple of albums (2013’s Stonefield and 2016’s As Above, So Below) I feel weren’t truly us, that there was outside influence from record labels and such.
Q: You opened up for Fleetwood Mac for a few shows in Australia. How did their audience react to an opening set of loud, psychedelic stoner-rock?
A: We definitely did feel like, in parts of our set, hmm, maybe this is a little too heavy for these guys. But it was amazing. We felt really emotional. They were one of the bands we listened to growing up. We were incredibly stoked to be sharing a stage with them, never mind watching them from the side of the stage.
Q: What can we expect from your upcoming Vancouver show? Are you gonna blow out some eardrums and melt some faces?
A: Hopefully. We do tend to be quite loud when we play. We put a lot of energy into our performance and try to slip away into the zone.
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