Award-winning and widely adored live performer Kerryn Fields debuts a fresh clip for her song 'Mamma', offering a story of hope that inspires us to never, ever, ever give up.
New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based solo artist Kerryn Fields is a bona fide master of the distinctive alt-country/folk sound that she’s made her bones with for nearly a decade. Since her debut album Rascal in 2015, Fields has continued to refine her artistic focus and has emerged as a ray of breathtaking musical introspection, heart-on-sleeve expression, and sheer vulnerability.
With her beautifully tranquillizing music, last year Fields dropped her sophomore album, Water, truly showing us the deepest depths of her mind and creativity this year. Recorded live to tape across three days, the tracks offer a warm, rich sound melding guitar, drums, vocals, and upright bass as Fields explores human emotion, prompted by the end of a relationship.
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Off of that 10-track release was the intoxicating ‘Mamma’. This song is as emotionally gutting as it is utterly irresistible. Across the three minute and 24-second track, Fields channels the love a mother has for her child, the unbreakable bond, in the most vulnerable, visceral, and devastatingly beautiful way possible.
“’Mamma’ is based on a true story, shared with me personally after a show one night,” Fields says.
“The song is about a child struggling with addiction, hearing from the mother’s point of view of how she was navigating the intense Love for her child and their long road to recovery.”
As raw as it is dynamic, Fields’ quintessentially country anthem rings out with aching conviction and utter passion: “Only your Mamma’s love can save ya, baby, when you’ve messed up your whole damn life; only your Mammas love can save ya baby, so Mammas gonna see you right baby, Mammas gonna see you right.”
A masterful depiction of love, relationships, and ‘better the devil you know’, ‘Mamma’ is where truly Fields’ knack for storytelling shines brightest. While based on a story from a mother and son she met on tour, Fields’ expressions are so raw they seem almost to ache.
“There’s always a personal narrative for me, the human experience is a fascinating ride and the more open I am about my own life, the deeper connection I create with the audience through music and storytelling.”
A poetic and emotional upheaval of arresting magnitude, musically the track features a jaunty upright bass-line, wistful vocal harmonies and a wonderfully fitting harmonica solo from multi-instrumentalist Fields herself. Each gentle strum, each note hit, each word sung – it all comes together in complete harmony to form a nonpareil splendour.
Deservingly the winner of New Zealand’s MLT Songwriting Award 2019, Fields arrives today with a fresh new music video to accompany the critically-acclaimed track.
Created on Wurundjeri Wathaurong Country, Victoria, the video is just as raw and powerful as the single alone, seeing Fields collecting rubbish as she strolls amongst the scenic countryside.
“I wanted to create a visual connection between our addictions, the environment and the fight for ourselves, ‘Only your Mamma’s love can save ya, baby’,” she says.
“The footage is taken from near where I live in the country, I spent many days during lockdown picking up rubbish and I wanted to offer a little hope to those feeling overwhelmed by the arduous process of getting clean. Just a little bit each day, one step at a time. That’s all it takes.”
A story of hope that inspires us to never, ever, ever give up, the music video is simple in nature yet contains a power and hold over listeners that feels incomparable.
To help achieve her vision in visually depicting the song’s theme of getting clean and the long road to recovery, Fields enlisted help from shape-shifting artist and Melbourne music mainstay Delsinki.
“Delsinki is a Wizard and I love everything he creates, he’s a really talented artist and a great friend to work with behind the lens,” she says.
“We were originally planning to create a background scene for an event I was playing, we realised the footage would make a great fit for ‘Mamma’ so I grabbed my guitar, ran the song and we made it happen. We only had a few hours booked for the shoot, it all came together so beautifully.”
Deserving of our undivided time and attention, the video arrives eight months since the release of her timeless album and coincides with Fields return to the stage this month with a run of shows in Healesville and Melbourne, as well as festival appearances at Port Fairy Folk Festival and Blue Mountains Music Festival.
“We’ve had a devastating amount of shows and festivals cancelled so it will be quite an emotional return to the stage for myself and the band, especially knowing our audiences are not the same as they were before the pandemic struck. It means so much to me that my original fanbase is ready to return to live music and that I get to meet a whole bunch of new legends who have discovered my record over the past year. I can’t wait to see you all.”
A storyteller at heart, Fields’ live shows is a not-to-be-missed experience as she delivers the full spectrum of the human experience, from immeasurable pain to incredible joy, decorated with hilarious anecdotes from her very colourful life.
“As a band, we’ve been working hard off-stage over the past two years to give these songs the love they deserve when we make our grand return to the stage so it’ll be truly something special when we all get to play at the official album launch/celebration party which is on 3rd April at The Northcote Social Club.”
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Having created a catalogue of deeply captivating tunes with DNA composed of equal parts humility, integrity, and a raw clarity of vision, Fields has truly found her niche in a heartrendingly beautiful assembly of lush instrumentals, lyrical genius, effortless vocals and a trademark warmth of character.
Listen to ‘Mamma’ and Fields’ album Water here.
Fields and her band will launch the album at Northcote Social Club on Sunday 3rd April with special guests Jess Parker and Great Aunt. You can purchase tickets here.
