The award-winning pop-rock duo, This Way North and their best mates and Ukulele wielding-folk duo Tuck Shop Ladies, take off in search of a good vegan, gluten-free Chiko roll. This tour will be like the Tour De France, but better because there are no bicycles, it’s not just for men and there will be lots of bloody great music. We chat to both bands ahead of the tour.
THIS WAY NORTH
Hi ladies, great to have you back in the mag! We’re super excited to see you take your music around Vic and SA. What have you got planned for punters?
We are super excited to play for everyone! We have some pretty fun new outfits and Leisha has a brand new guitar she’ll be looking at and playing lovingly. Plus we’ve got some new tunes we’ve been writing in Canada and hopefully some sweet new dance moves!
You’ve been super busy on the touring front this year, just recently finishing a three-month stint in Canada! What do you love about taking your music overseas, and to new places?
Overseas audiences are often curious if we all ride around in Kangaroos so that’s fun to make them believe it’s true! They also are super open to new music and happy to become fans after seeing your show and hearing your music for the first time. Plus apparently we have nice accents BAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Any particular highlights from the trip?
This year it felt like a Canadian wildlife tour! We canoed up to a moose, saw about 10 bears – one on its bum eating blueberries and within about 15mins saw a moose, bald eagle, and a Lynx! Lynx are super rare and this one just strolled across the road and sat down next to the van licking its lips! Leisha hid a bit cause she thought it might go for the smallest one!
You released your explosive and infectious single Night Terrors back in May. Can we expect any more tracks in the near future? Was this track pulled from an upcoming EP/album?
Thank you! It was a one-off single so far but we are in the midst of sorting out our next recording which we are pretty excited about! We’ll definitely have new music for you next year 🙂
Lastly, what do you love most about Tuck Shop Ladies?
They are so funny that I always get sore cheeks watching their show and generally hanging out with them. I guess the best thing is we get a free abs workout from laughing so much! But seriously they are two gems of humans who have been our biggest supporters as we’ve tried making music full time and they are wonderful people to be around!
TUCK SHOP LADIES
For those unaware, can you give our readers a little insight as to what the Tuck Shop Ladies are all about?
For sure! As the Tuck Shop Ladies, our mission in life is to bring good times and fun to all that we do. We play ukuleles because they’re basically the lightest instrument we could think of to play (apart from the tin whistle and nobody would come to see us if we played the tin whistle) and we sing harmonies and we just generally let ourselves go wherever the show takes us in the moment.
We understand your catalogue is filled with riotous and hilarious songs. Can you give us a little insight into the creative process?
We like to look at the everyday stuff and explore it until we uncover the funny side of it. Basically, if it makes us laugh, it becomes a song. For example, Sam became obsessed with the fact that she never saw baby pigeons anywhere and when we thought about it we realised that it was pretty funny so we wrote a song about it.
You’re heading out on the road with This Way North over the coming months. What have you got planned for punters?
Well, our favourite thing to do with audiences is sing with them, so there will definitely be some sing a longs, we’ll probably talk a lot, tell stories about what we’ve been up to on the road, share way too much personal information and then get amongst the crowd and dance our arses off to This Way North.
Are you more at home with your music live on stage, or jamming in the studio?
We love sharing music with people, so probably we’re most at home live on stage, although, we have our own studio at home which pretty much spills out into the kitchen and the lounge room and any other room we happen to be in at the time, so that is pretty comfy too.
Lastly, what do you love most about This Way North?
This Way North embodies everything we love about music and people. They play hard, they work hard, they love hard and they bring every ounce of themselves to the stage. We absolutely love dancing to their music and their songs get stuck in our heads for days.
When & Where: Old Church on the Hill, Bendigo – October 11, Portland Arts Centre, Portland – October 25, Birregurra Hall, Birregurra – October 26 & Glenlyon Shire Hall, Glenlyon – October 27. Tickets available via www.thiswaynorth.com