Georgia Fields and her band, The Freeways, play a delightful cocktail of twee-pop acoustica. Balancing delicate melodies and catchy hooks on the shoulders of refreshingly honest lyricism, the quartet of multi-instrumentalists tread the treacherous tightrope between contemporary-folk and indie-pop. Georgia first took an interest in show business at the tender age of 8, drawing her musical education from her parents’ voluptuous vinyl collection of country, Motown, and 60s brit-pop. (Do a youtube search for ‘Ferrets Janie May’. Her mum’s wearing the aviator sunglasses, and her dad is playing the cherry red guitar.) With eclectic influences ranging from Cat Power and The Whitlams to Bjork and The Beatles, Ms Fields’ slightly left-of-centre pop sensibilities are augmented by organic (and at times quirky) instrumentation – such as cello, harp, guitar, bells, piano, glockenspiel, melodica, and even the humble lemonade can. Georgia assembled The Freeways in February 2007, after returning from an overseas adventure that included shows in London and Paris, and white-knuckle bus rides in Peru. In just under a year they have steadily saturated the Melbourne music scene, with weekly performances to a rapidly expanding fan base. It took less than 6 months for their Myspace profile views to triple in number. Word of her success at Queenscliff spread fast, and it wasn’t long before Geelong radio station Pulse 97.4 FM picked up the yet-to-be-released album’s title track. By the time of its release, "Drama on the High Seas of Emotion" had shot to #4 on the Triple J Unearthed Pop Charts, topping Gotye’s band, The Basics. Each unique album cover was handcrafted by Ms Fields from second-hand Little Golden Books, and includes a ‘colouring in style’ CD Booklet. She sold almost 100 units in one night at her album launch (Collector’s Corner sold out of their stock in a month), sparking hopes for a distribution deal and the re-release of a digipak version in 2008. With a debut album of expertly-crafted, refreshingly honest odes to life, love and drama on the high seas of emotion, Georgia Fields is carving out a reputation as one of Australia’s brightest rising stars.
@ Melbourne, Australia
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