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INTERVIEW: Gold Fields

24 October 2011 | 1:27 pm | Staff Writer

We had a quick chat with Gold Fields ahead of their massive National Tour this October/November.

GOLD FIELDS are a 5-piece hailing from little ol' Ballarat. They are a true story of success, from their home studio making tunes to attracting a fan-base in the UK thanks to their support slot on The Naked And Famous' tour. We asked them a few questions to get the down and dirty on their sound, their EP and their upcoming tour.

Has growing up in regional Victoria influenced your music in a large way?

Ah, well it’s hard to tell because I can’t compare it to anything else, but I would say it probably has. There wasn’t a great deal to do when we were younger other than go along to local all age shows and watch bands. That’s where me and Vin first decided to start making music. I think growing up in the country meant that we could love music and play music, without having to be involved in the whole wankery that seems to go along with the music scene in the city.

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I think a lot of ‘creative-type’ city kids believe that their concrete and tall buildings somehow make them far more cultured and wise than us country kids, when really most of them don’t know the first thing about culture and they’re not creative at all.

A lot of ‘music’ in the city is a big, long, hard, doors open, uninterrupted wank. And we got to miss out on that.

How do your feel about the tracks on your debut EP now that it has been out in the ether for a month or so?

The EP is the first four songs we ever wrote as a band and we wrote them over year ago. And honestly, that’s definitely what it feels like.

I like the EP and I like the idea of having our first release be the first stuff we ever did but the songs feel young because they were and we’ve learnt so much about writing since then. We’ve spent the past 12 months pretty much touring, travelling and writing non-stop, so I think we’ve learnt a lot and we recorded those songs before any of that ever happened. We never even knew if we were going to release those songs or ever play them live when we wrote and recorded them.

That being said, we’re all really happy it’s finally out and we love playing those songs live as well.

What’s going to be different about your next release?

I think a lot will be different on the album. We’ve changed how we write and we’ve definitely been focusing a lot more on getting the right sounds and using the right equipment and gear. We worked with a producer as well (Mickey Petralia – Dandy Warhols, Beck, Peaches) and we worked in a studio as apposed to doing it all ourselves in a bedroom. But to me it’s still sounding like what we’ve been doing over the past twelve months.

You guys are about to embark on a massive Australian tour, where are you the most excited to play and why?

Probably our home-town show. The tour finshes up at Karova, which we did on purpose because we love playing there. But we’re really excited and feel pretty lucky to be playing at the venues we’re playing at. The Corner Hotel in Melbourne is an amazing venue, we got to play there with Yacht Club and Bleeding Knees at a couple of our first shows and we can’t wait to get back in there.

In Sydney, we’ve GLOVES DJing after we play and The Holidays are doing a DJ set as well so that’s going to fun. Last time we went to Hobart, we absolutely loved it so we can’t wait to get back there. We’re pretty excited about all of the shows actually....

What can we expect from your live show?

Music and free beer.

What’s the shittiest and the best thing about being a musician in Australia?

The best thing is that it’s  proving to be lots of fun. But it’s lots of work at the same time.

I don’t think we’ve really encountered the worse thing yet, touch wood.

Gold Fields National Tour Dates:

Saturday 29th October

Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC

Tickets from Corner Box Office

Friday 4th November

Elsewhere, Gold Coast, QLD

Tickets from Oztix

Saturday 5th November

Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, QLD

Tickets from Oztix

Thursday 10th November

Transit Bar, Canberra, ACT

Tickets from Moshtix <?>

Friday 11th November

Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, NSW

Tickets from Moshtix

Saturday 12th November

Level One, Newcastle Leagues, NSW

Tickets from Bigtix

Friday 18th November

Jive, Adelaide, SA

Tickets from Moshtix

Saturday 19th November

Amplifier, Perth, WA

Tickets from Moshtix

Friday 25th November

Republic Bar, Hobart, TAS

Tickets from Moshtix

Saturday 26th November

Karova Lounge, Ballarat, VIC

Tickets from Oztix