Amy Findlay - Stonefield (03/04/2012)
The 59th Sound caught up with Amy Findlay, the eldest of four sisters in band Stonefield, to chat about their new single ‘Bad Reality’ and EP, their addition to the One Night Stand line up and how being able to fight like sisters is beneficial when on tour.
Hi Amy, where are you at the moment?
I’m just at home at my Aunty’s and Uncle’s in St Kilda.
The band have a 6 track mini album coming out soon, what was the recording process like for that and what can fans expect?
The recording process for this EP has probably been our best studio experience so far, we recorded it at Birdland Studios in Melbourne with Lindsay Gravina who’s done Magic Dirt, Jet, heaps of amazing Australian iconic bands. So yeah it was really good working with Lindsay because he just sort of works like an old school producer and was there actually producing for the whole time and not just in and out of the studio.
He was there working on everything and wanted everything to be as good as it could be and he sort of pushed us the just right amount to get the best out of us so we’re really really happy with how it turned out. We’re really excited about all the songs actually, they’re sort of all different in their own way, the single after ‘Bad Reality’ I’m particularly excited about releasing.
The band was on the bill at the Glastonbury Festival last year, what was the experience like and what were the highlights?
It was really, really exciting obviously probably our biggest gig that we’ve ever done and it was our first gig overseas so it was pretty incredible to just go overseas and have our first gig and the audience is thousands of people, so it’s really quite an overwhelming sort of feeling. The moment of walking onto the stage and seeing all the people and realising that moment had finally come that we had been waiting for it for so long. So yeah it was really good.
Awesome! So you must have been pinching yourself a little bit there.
Yeah definitely, it didn’t really feel too real
Everything’s happened quite quickly and Stonefield’s now toured both here and overseas, how do you all cope being on tour? Do you think the fact that you’re siblings makes it easier?
Yeah it definitely makes it easier, I think for people around us, it probably makes it harder for them, because you know we fight like sisters, but for us it’s good because it means there’s no awkward tension we just kind of say it as it is. It’s good because we’re all quite close and we’re like friends anyway so it’s good to have each other there for support and all that kind of thing and we’re getting so used to it (touring) now, that it feels sort of weird being home doing nothing!
What’s the song writing process like amongst the band? Do your sisters look to you to take the lead being the eldest?
Not really we all pretty much work together with everything, I guess I probably have more of a say with arrangement kind of things just because I probably have more experience than the other girls doing a music degree, but yeah we all put in our parts and it sort of works. Like one of us will come to band practice with an idea, so like sometimes I’ll come with a melody or lyrics or Hannah will come with a guitar riff or whatever and we all just kind of add different layers or try out a bunch of different things.
You’ve just released the new single ‘Bad Reality’ what was the inspiration behind the track?
That I one guess is just about bad reality sort of running away kind of thing, but that song came together really, really quickly. We wrote it after we’d recorded the first half of the EP and we were about to go back into the studio to do the second half and no one really felt like we had a single from the demos that we’d prepared for the EP. We were feeling a bit of pressure and stressing out quite a bit because no one felt like we had that song.
So we just kind of came to the realisation that there was no point stressing or putting any extra pressure on ourselves and we need to just kind of chill and do what we did initially with our other songs. It came so quickly, I got the idea for the melody and the whole overall feel of the song just in my head and then I got Hannah and her acoustic guitar and she played some chords to it and yeah it all fell together quite quickly and naturally.
How would you describe the style of music you play and what are your influences?
We grew up listening to a lot of 60’s / 70’s rock thanks to mum and dad, that’s what we’re inspired by quite heavily but I think with more of a modern sound added to that so yeah there’s definitely bits and pieces taken from that whole sort of sound that we added our modern touch to I guess.
Speaking of your parents how do they feel about everything’s that happened and are they involved in any way, do they come on tour or help you out on the business side of things?
They’re really happy for us and really supportive and have always said to us that we should make sure that we’re do something we love as a career as apposed to working in a factory or something to make money. They’re really happy we’re doing what we love and mum and dad are always either one or the other on the road with us, having young members in the band we legally have to. So yeah they’re always there and mum does our merchandise for us and helps us with what they call our banking stuff and bills and all that kind of thing, so yeah that’s really good but they don’t do any of the management side or anything like that. I think a lot people always think that our manager is our dad but he doesn’t have anything to do with that.
They sound like really awesome parents.
Yeah they’re really cool.
You’re all ambassadors for Mental Health Foundation Headspace, how did that come about?
We were being approached by a lot of charities and organisations and it got to the point where we realised that we had pick two to stick to because otherwise it was just getting way too much. So we wanted to pick something that was relevant to us and mental health amongst youth is quite relevant, especially with the whole bullying and cyber bullying. We felt like we wanted to be a part of something that was relevant and that we actually knew what we were talking about. So yeah it’s really good for us, we’re excited to start getting more involved and hopefully help people out.
Do you come across much scepticism in the industry, considering how young you all are and being an all female group?
It was more so at the start I think before anyone knew who we were, we’d walk into venues and it would be full of dudes that would just look down upon on us and we felt like we had to prove ourselves and play something before we got their respect. I think unfortunately there’s always a bit of a thing with females and young people, people are very quick to judge a lot of the time. We sort of just use it as an advantage and make sure we work really hard to prove to people that we’re not having all this success and doing all these amazing things just because we’re four sisters, we’re doing it because we can also play music and write our own music so it’s good to have that extra push to prove ourselves.
You’ve recently completed a Bachelor of Australian Popular Music at TAFE, will the rest of the family be following in your footsteps or do they have other plans?
Well Hannah actually applied for the exact same course and she got in and she had do defer because of everything that’s happening and Sarah’s doing year 12 at the moment so she’s kind of a little bit all over the place with knowing what she wants to do because she’s not sure if that she’s even gonna have time to do a Dip yet. But I think eventually everyone’s going to want to do something to do with music whether it be playing in the band or teaching or whatever, obviously the main goal is to be able to play in the band and make that as a career, but if that fails I’m sure everyone will be doing something to do with music.
The band’s been announced to play The One Night stand with 360, Temper Trap and Matt Corby, are you guys looking forward to that?
Yeah we’re really, really excited about that, it’s cool to be playing in a regional town because people just appreciate it so much more when they don’t get as much music as capital cities. So that’s really exciting and it’s a huge lineup and it’s going to be massive so we’re so excited about it.
What does the future hold for Stonefield? You have the ‘Bad Reality’ tour coming up, are you guy happy with the direction you’re heading in as a band?
We’re really excited with everything that’s happening at the moment, we’re really excited to release the EP and show everyone what we’ve been working on and now we’re writing and demoing for our album which will be out later this year. We shot a new video clip for ‘Bad Reality’ a few days ago, so really excited about that too because it was our fourth video that wasn’t performance based, so we got to do a bit of acting which was really fun and yeah just writing, playing see what happens.
Take care and enjoy One Night Stand!
Awesome, thanks so much!
Nazia Hafiz
Hi Amy, where are you at the moment?
I’m just at home at my Aunty’s and Uncle’s in St Kilda.
The band have a 6 track mini album coming out soon, what was the recording process like for that and what can fans expect?
The recording process for this EP has probably been our best studio experience so far, we recorded it at Birdland Studios in Melbourne with Lindsay Gravina who’s done Magic Dirt, Jet, heaps of amazing Australian iconic bands. So yeah it was really good working with Lindsay because he just sort of works like an old school producer and was there actually producing for the whole time and not just in and out of the studio.
He was there working on everything and wanted everything to be as good as it could be and he sort of pushed us the just right amount to get the best out of us so we’re really really happy with how it turned out. We’re really excited about all the songs actually, they’re sort of all different in their own way, the single after ‘Bad Reality’ I’m particularly excited about releasing.
The band was on the bill at the Glastonbury Festival last year, what was the experience like and what were the highlights?
It was really, really exciting obviously probably our biggest gig that we’ve ever done and it was our first gig overseas so it was pretty incredible to just go overseas and have our first gig and the audience is thousands of people, so it’s really quite an overwhelming sort of feeling. The moment of walking onto the stage and seeing all the people and realising that moment had finally come that we had been waiting for it for so long. So yeah it was really good.
Awesome! So you must have been pinching yourself a little bit there.
Yeah definitely, it didn’t really feel too real
Everything’s happened quite quickly and Stonefield’s now toured both here and overseas, how do you all cope being on tour? Do you think the fact that you’re siblings makes it easier?
Yeah it definitely makes it easier, I think for people around us, it probably makes it harder for them, because you know we fight like sisters, but for us it’s good because it means there’s no awkward tension we just kind of say it as it is. It’s good because we’re all quite close and we’re like friends anyway so it’s good to have each other there for support and all that kind of thing and we’re getting so used to it (touring) now, that it feels sort of weird being home doing nothing!
What’s the song writing process like amongst the band? Do your sisters look to you to take the lead being the eldest?
Not really we all pretty much work together with everything, I guess I probably have more of a say with arrangement kind of things just because I probably have more experience than the other girls doing a music degree, but yeah we all put in our parts and it sort of works. Like one of us will come to band practice with an idea, so like sometimes I’ll come with a melody or lyrics or Hannah will come with a guitar riff or whatever and we all just kind of add different layers or try out a bunch of different things.
You’ve just released the new single ‘Bad Reality’ what was the inspiration behind the track?
That I one guess is just about bad reality sort of running away kind of thing, but that song came together really, really quickly. We wrote it after we’d recorded the first half of the EP and we were about to go back into the studio to do the second half and no one really felt like we had a single from the demos that we’d prepared for the EP. We were feeling a bit of pressure and stressing out quite a bit because no one felt like we had that song.
So we just kind of came to the realisation that there was no point stressing or putting any extra pressure on ourselves and we need to just kind of chill and do what we did initially with our other songs. It came so quickly, I got the idea for the melody and the whole overall feel of the song just in my head and then I got Hannah and her acoustic guitar and she played some chords to it and yeah it all fell together quite quickly and naturally.
How would you describe the style of music you play and what are your influences?
We grew up listening to a lot of 60’s / 70’s rock thanks to mum and dad, that’s what we’re inspired by quite heavily but I think with more of a modern sound added to that so yeah there’s definitely bits and pieces taken from that whole sort of sound that we added our modern touch to I guess.
Speaking of your parents how do they feel about everything’s that happened and are they involved in any way, do they come on tour or help you out on the business side of things?
They’re really happy for us and really supportive and have always said to us that we should make sure that we’re do something we love as a career as apposed to working in a factory or something to make money. They’re really happy we’re doing what we love and mum and dad are always either one or the other on the road with us, having young members in the band we legally have to. So yeah they’re always there and mum does our merchandise for us and helps us with what they call our banking stuff and bills and all that kind of thing, so yeah that’s really good but they don’t do any of the management side or anything like that. I think a lot people always think that our manager is our dad but he doesn’t have anything to do with that.
They sound like really awesome parents.
Yeah they’re really cool.
You’re all ambassadors for Mental Health Foundation Headspace, how did that come about?
We were being approached by a lot of charities and organisations and it got to the point where we realised that we had pick two to stick to because otherwise it was just getting way too much. So we wanted to pick something that was relevant to us and mental health amongst youth is quite relevant, especially with the whole bullying and cyber bullying. We felt like we wanted to be a part of something that was relevant and that we actually knew what we were talking about. So yeah it’s really good for us, we’re excited to start getting more involved and hopefully help people out.
Do you come across much scepticism in the industry, considering how young you all are and being an all female group?
It was more so at the start I think before anyone knew who we were, we’d walk into venues and it would be full of dudes that would just look down upon on us and we felt like we had to prove ourselves and play something before we got their respect. I think unfortunately there’s always a bit of a thing with females and young people, people are very quick to judge a lot of the time. We sort of just use it as an advantage and make sure we work really hard to prove to people that we’re not having all this success and doing all these amazing things just because we’re four sisters, we’re doing it because we can also play music and write our own music so it’s good to have that extra push to prove ourselves.
You’ve recently completed a Bachelor of Australian Popular Music at TAFE, will the rest of the family be following in your footsteps or do they have other plans?
Well Hannah actually applied for the exact same course and she got in and she had do defer because of everything that’s happening and Sarah’s doing year 12 at the moment so she’s kind of a little bit all over the place with knowing what she wants to do because she’s not sure if that she’s even gonna have time to do a Dip yet. But I think eventually everyone’s going to want to do something to do with music whether it be playing in the band or teaching or whatever, obviously the main goal is to be able to play in the band and make that as a career, but if that fails I’m sure everyone will be doing something to do with music.
The band’s been announced to play The One Night stand with 360, Temper Trap and Matt Corby, are you guys looking forward to that?
Yeah we’re really, really excited about that, it’s cool to be playing in a regional town because people just appreciate it so much more when they don’t get as much music as capital cities. So that’s really exciting and it’s a huge lineup and it’s going to be massive so we’re so excited about it.
What does the future hold for Stonefield? You have the ‘Bad Reality’ tour coming up, are you guy happy with the direction you’re heading in as a band?
We’re really excited with everything that’s happening at the moment, we’re really excited to release the EP and show everyone what we’ve been working on and now we’re writing and demoing for our album which will be out later this year. We shot a new video clip for ‘Bad Reality’ a few days ago, so really excited about that too because it was our fourth video that wasn’t performance based, so we got to do a bit of acting which was really fun and yeah just writing, playing see what happens.
Take care and enjoy One Night Stand!
Awesome, thanks so much!
Nazia Hafiz