Georgia Fields chats about her album launch.
Imagine an indoor picnic within the classy ambience of the opulent and majestic Thornbury Theatre. Melbourne singer-songwriter Georgia Fields is bringing that dream-like prospect to her album launch next Friday, where she will be joined by over ten other musicians. “I’m so excited,” she exclaims with delight. “I’ve still gotta think about what I’m gonna cook for everyone… something yummy… but I want to put together a little picnic hamper pack with the album. There’ll be picnic rugs. I guess my music’s not super dance-y and kind of more ‘sit down and listen’, so I thought we’d lay out some picnic rugs and make it a little picnic inside.”
A child of musician parents, Fields discovered an early love of music and songwriting. “It was probably when I was about eight,” she recalls. “I started writing when I was little… I made up a song, annoyingly entitled I’m A Cowgirl. I started piano at about eight and I probably started teaching myself guitar at 13 or 14. I took a break from it in my early 20s and I didn’t really know what I was doing or what I wanted to do. I came back after living overseas where I was just kind of travelling, partying, generally being a mess.”
Fortunately, Fields rekindled that early passion; quit her day job as a corporate receptionist in London and returned to Melbourne to pursue music. Fields has drawn in many fans with her vintage-style folk-pop. “I guess I’ve always been a big fan of ‘song’, no matter what kind of genre it is – there’s the great melody and a story to be told,” Fields expresses. “Just before I went overseas, a friend lent me this DVD that had every Beatles song on it and I just rediscovered them. My parents had a large Beatles collection and they used to give me cassettes to listen to in my walkman. I knew all the parts and harmonies by heart, especially Rubber Soul – I loved that album when I was younger. I re-fell in love with them in my early 20s and I think that’s when I really started song writing again.”
Fields recruited a wonderful list of musicians for her self-titled debut album. “Judith [Hamann], who plays cello in my band and a million other things, has been a friend of mine since high school,” Fields relates. “When I came back, I remember having a coffee with her and she’s really talented… mind-blowing-ly,” she grins. “I remember asking her ‘do you think, ’cause you’re my friend, that you might be interested in playing in my band?’ And she said, ‘of course’; she’s just really lovely. We wanted to expand the group and put in some orchestral musicians for a special show we had going at Manchester Lane. She studied at VCA and knew some really incredible musicians, so it was really just a matter of asking them. Then I met some of the rhythm section through my studies at NMIT.”
Receiving funding support from Arts Victoria was vital in bringing Fields’ debut album to life. “I’m so grateful to them – I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” Fields affirms, “because there’s not only the cost of hiring the musicians but the space to do it in, ’cause I wanted to do the string quartet together live and I wanted to do the brass quartet together live and the woodwind trio live. And I’m grateful to the people who worked with me before the funding too.”
The songstress recorded the album in theatres, studios and lounge rooms. “It was much more drawn out than I initially wanted it to be,” Fields reflects, “because once I had most of the songs, I just wanted to get started but the wait for funding kind of forced us to be more imaginative. I was studying at NMIT at the time, which is where I met Greg Arnold, the producer, so we started tracking there in the theatre… but I didn’t know how much of a valuable experience that would be in really starting to understand how we wanted to record it and what sounds we wanted, and also honing the songs. If it happened as quickly as I initially wanted, I don’t think the product would’ve been as good… I don’t think I would’ve been as happy with the outcome, so it was a blessing in disguise.”
Fields’ songwriting has been praised for the way in which she tells adult narratives with a child-like innocence. “I used to start with an idea of what I wanted to write about and then I’d be thinking about that topic and collecting little phrases in a notebook that I wanted to weave together,” Fields relates. “And I would sit down at the piano or the guitar and start piecing it together. But more lately, I’ve just been singing melodies to myself on my bike or recently one of the songs for what I hope is going to be on the next album, I was just walking around and I could hear the chords and the melodies. I think if I had kept straining myself to think about it too much, they wouldn’t have come. I guess that’s the idea of letting the songs be themselves.”
There are beautiful string and brass arrangements complimenting many of the album’s songs – which songs surprised her most upon its completion? “I reckon Satellite – that’s the song that Judith wrote (‘she performs under the name, Paper Tiger’) but contributed to the album,” Fields enthuses. “I remember she played that to me and was like ‘I’ve written this song, but I don’t know if it’s a Judy song; I’ll play it to you – maybe you’ll like to sing it’. She played it to me and I was like ‘I’m having that song!’” she blurts with a burst of laughter. “I just fell in love with it. It was really fun to record that one.”
Fields has impressed with her live performances at various festivals including the Queenscliff Music Festival, Apollo Bay Music Festival and St Kilda Festival, as well as support gigs with her favourite songwriters including Angie Hart, Abby Dobson, and The Wilson Pickers. “I supported Angie Hart maybe a year or so ago and I played with a string quartet, and that was a very special night,” Fields recalls, fondly. “And Angie came and sang a duet with me. That was really fun that night… I fell over in front of her carrying my gear out and was so embarrassed… we became friends and still have a chuckle about it.”
GEORGIA FIELDS launches her self-titled debut album (out now through Popboomerang) with her mini Indie-Orchestra and special guests Angie Hart, Charles Jenkins and D. Rogers at The Thornbury Theatre on Friday November 12. Tickets from Polyester Records, Basement Discs or thethornburytheatre.com.
