“Two is always better than one”: Victoria’s most exciting groups, Bones and Jones & Folk Bitch Trio, unite for live gig
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04.03.2022

“Two is always better than one”: Victoria’s most exciting groups, Bones and Jones & Folk Bitch Trio, unite for live gig

Words by Alex Callan

Over the past few years, Bones and Jones have well and truly cemented themselves as one of Victoria’s most impressive up and coming acts and it finally feels like the rest of Australia are taking note.

With the group starting to pop up on the majority of Victoria’s notable festival lineups; as well as their music being premiered by the revered Henry Wagons on Double J and scoring a nomination for ‘Best Regional Act’ in the Music Victoria awards, it seems that Bones are finally sitting at the forefront of the Melbourne scene – a position they’ve been pushing for over the course of three albums now. 

Folk Bitch Trio on the other hand, are the new kids on the block, but as a group, they have already been making incredible strides. Having featured in The Murlocs KEXP set from last year, FBT recently found their spot on stage as live backup vocalists for the group’s ‘Bittersweet Demons’ tour, seeing them play large scale arenas across the country.

Keep up with the latest music news, festivals, interviews and reviews here.

“It’s all been surreal,” states one-third of FBT, Heide Peverelle. 

“We have obviously watched a lot of KEXP videos with artists that we love, so to be involved in it was pretty amazing and unexpected.

“Let alone how surreal it was being at The Forum! The last time we were there was before lockdowns and we saw Aldous Harding, so coming back to realise, ‘oh, we are playing here’ was a pretty crazy feeling. It was so much fun though. People were crowd surfing! Which is something that they don’t do at our shows because we play folk music..but never say never.” 

“And now we have Reunion Park to look forward to as well, because that will be huge!”

And huge it will be, with this Saturday seeing both Bones and Jones and Folk Bitch Trio stepping on stage together as a uniform nine-piece in support of King Gizzard’s Timeland festival and considering both groups have recently recorded a split 7 inch together, it’s a live set that has come at the perfect time.

“That will be the first show that we have booked together as a set which will be really cool, two is always better than one,” laughs Jasper Jolley of Bones.

Having first debuted the group’s collaboration live to an intimate crowd in Northcote last week, Saturday will see many punters witnessing the group’s newest collaborative efforts live for the first time, with the band’s newest songs ‘Friendly Neighbour’ (written by Peverelle) and ‘If I Were A Man’ (written by Jolley) being a massive talking point of their set. 

Speaking of the collaboration’s origins Jasper said, “Connor (Bromley) sent a video of Folk Bitch doing a Dylan cover ages ago and we all thought it was really cool, because they were playing all the music that we love. We then played a show together in November of last year and then after that, I think Connor pitched the idea of teaming up. We then nervously emailed through and the Folkies were keen on it.”

“It’s been a fun avenue to go down,” adds Heide before continuing, 

“The singles with Bones and Jones are pretty different to Ede and HouseLights, which are the songs we had previously released.” 

“I think that our music is quite raw and simple instrumentally, but it can also be quite fun, which has been the best thing about having this outlet to jam with friends and make new songs.”

 

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Whilst the collaboration has now turned into an incredibly comfortable and fun process for both acts, they did admit that there was an initial fear about how the combination of nine musicians, who at the time barely knew each other, would go once they entered the studio.

“The first couple of practices that we had as a combined group was the first time a few of the guys from Bones played with a group that wasn’t us.” states Jasper. 

“Because we’ve all been best mates forever, some of the people may have been a bit nervous including others, but everything just clicked and we all got along really well.”

“It was quite intimidating to be honest,” says Heide. 

“As three female-presenting people; as I’m not binary and Jeanie and Gracie are both women, it can be really intimidating walking into a space with 6 male presenting people.” 

“It can be difficult in any context, but then adding the layer of singing our songs made it even more daunting.”

“But as soon as we started playing together it was just comfortable. But I did also know that Jasper was singing new songs and that would have been vulnerable for him as well. But it was great to share. When he first played ‘If I Were A Man’  to us we were all listening quite intensely to the lyrics and trying to unpack it without being too intrusive.” 

“It’s a beautiful song, I think it’s one of my favourites that he has ever written.”

With both groups having new material in the works, it seems like the Bones and Jones and Folk Bitch Trio collaboration at this point will stay as more of an intermittent speciality, which makes it all the more special for the crowds that get to witness it this weekend at Reunion Park.

Check out ‘Friendly Neighbour / If I Was A Man’ here