Indie-pop chameleon Georgia Fields is hitting the road for her Sky and Sea Tour alongside live-looping wunderkind Phia, as they re-imagine songs from their recent albums. We chat to Georgia in the midst of her tour.
Hey Georgia, thanks for chatting to Forte. Your ‘Sky and Sea Tour’ with Phia is set to happen in July and August, what kind of experience do you expect your audiences to have?
We’ve been rehearsing for the past month and I’m so excited with how it’s sounding! Rather than do the “headline” and “support” thing, for this tour Phia and I decided to put on a fully collaborative show: we’ll share the stage and each other’s songs for the entire set. We’re both multi-instrumentalists and producers, so it’s quite a dynamic show – we sing harmonies and play “musical chairs” a bit. But most of all, Phia and I are great mates and we’re going to be having a really fun time. We think you will too.
Your voice is quite different to Phia’s voice, how did you guys even come to work together?
Phia and I met in a Paris open mic night about six years ago, of all places! She had just relocated to Berlin (where she subsequently lived for five years), and I was on a working holiday, gallivanting across Europe… It was a completely random happen-stance but a very fortunate one! As it turned out, we knew a lot of the same people back here in Melbourne, but had never met in our hometown. After that chance encounter we stayed in touch. When she moved back to Melbourne permanently last year we did a co-headline show, which planted the seed for this collaborative tour.
How did you actually find the process of getting into Phia’s head (and allowing her into yours) to play on each others already established tracks?
It has been so much fun! I was already a huge fan of her album ‘The Ocean of Everything’ before we started working on the collaborative set, so I knew the songs and already had some harmonies on the go. Phia has an incredible live show where she puts her vocals and kalimba through loop and effects pedals, building these amazing soundscapes right there on the spot. For me, it’s been super exciting to access those sounds and bring my songs into her world. Likewise, I’ve had a lot of fun taking a couple of Phia’s songs away from the loop pedal, stripping them right back to their bones, and getting into the essence of the song. I think the ‘Sky and Sea’ set showcases our strengths as unique artists, as well as pushing us out of our comfort zones a little bit.
Describe your Astral Debris album, is there a reoccurring theme among the songs?
The album title is a reference to the moon, who is herself a piece of astral debris. It’s also a reference to the notion that we are all made up of the elements of the stars. When writing ‘Astral Debris’ I was inspired by fables and archetypes – I was reading Greek myths and revisiting fairytales, trying to understand how artists like Robyn and Bat For Lashes and David Bowie distil archetypal human stories into catchy parcels of pop. The track ‘Open Orange’ is about that delicious feeling of being unwrapped and discovered by somebody new. ‘Hood and the Hunter’ is my feminist re-telling of the Red Riding Hood fable, and ‘A Sisyphean Grail’ is my interpretation of the Greek myth of Sisyphus. On ‘Moon’ (co-written with John Palmer), I’m singing from the point-of-view of our lonely Satellite. So with this album, I had my gaze skyward.
What’s next for Georgia Fields?
I’m heading back into the studio! I have a very exciting collaboration pegged for later in the year, with an astounding ensemble… I can’t say much more because the details haven’t been announced yet – but people can stay up to date with my wheelings and dealings at georgiafields.com.
When & Where: Old Castlemaine Gaol, Castlemaine – August 6
