A Quick Chat with Little Quirks
CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR INSPIRATION FOR YOUR DEBUT ALBUM?
The songs for the album were written over a period of 3 years and lyrically deal with more personal themes which were quite new topics for us. The songwriting for the album was quite organic. Abbey and I based a lot of the lyrical concepts on challenging experiences from our 20’s, relationship break downs and our observations and perceptions of love. So this album in general is definitely coming from a place of a more introspective nature compared to our previous EP’s. A few songs also touch on the idea of escapism and storytelling through a fictional lense. Over the years 'escaping reality' has become a reoccurring theme in our song writing in general so this is still quite on brand for us.
WHAT ARE YOUR INFLUENCES AND HOW DO THEY AFFECT YOUR SONGWRITING? I
The album was inspired by a variety of musicians such as our main influences The Cranberries, The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons and Fleetwood Mac but also branched out to artists like Boy Genius/Pheobe Bridgers, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Radio Head. Our choice for production was mostly inspired by Led Zeppelin’s album ‘II’ where there is an even mix of folk and rock sounds - we thought it would create interest within the album to have variety where some songs sound more indie-rock and others completely folk. Having such a broad range of influences essentially meant each song took on a different flavour and sound which made the song writing process all the more interesting. Majority of our songs still at their core could be folk songs (and are almost always originally written on Ukulele or guitar) but through experimenting with electric guitar and bigger production we were able to have fun creating moods to suit each song individually. Working with Nick DiDia also helped us feel more comfortable delving into production choices that were quite different for us and helped capture more of our live sound.
WHAT’S THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU?
Abbey and Jaymi write the songs for Little Quirks and usually write separately (however they collaborated on the track ‘Caught in June’ for this album). Usually they will present a rough verse and chorus or a full demo of a song to show the band and from there everyone decides if a song is worth working on and will come together to map out different vocal and instrumental parts to add from each player. Once everyone has jammed on a song and knows what they’re playing we create a proper demo and then work with that to continue to add production and form the final result of a song. Song writing can be tricky and coming up with the final product is always a bit of a journey (We had to re-record a few tracks on the album and had to work together to come up with an end product that we felt captured the song the best). But otherwise the band in general really enjoy the creative process and for this album in particular we tried to ensure it represents how we play live, so we made sure to play a handful of the songs on the album at our shows to test them out on our audiences before committing them to being on the track list.
IF YOU COULD CHANGE SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
If we could change something about the music industry it would have to be the increase in social media platforms being so vital to being known or picked up. Although it can be fun and there’s definitely lots of benefits to promoting your music online (such as wider outreach and directing content to targeted audiences/fans) there’s just so many aspiring musicians posting content at the same time as you which can sometimes be a little overwhelming and makes it tricky to come up with original ideas that set you aside from all the great stuff out there.
WHAT DO YOU THINK LIFE WOULD BE LIKE FOR YOU IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE MUSIC AS AN OUTLET?
Because we have grown up with music in our family and have been playing together for 10 years, not being able to perform or write music would definitely make us all have an identity crisis! Playing shows and writing songs brings so much joy to our lives and being in such a tight-knit band in general has brought us all so much closer together as friends and has helped us all through our adolescent, teen and now adult years. Life would definitely be a lot more dull without it.
WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE A CAREER FOR THEMSELVES IN THE INDUSTRY?
Our advice for young people who are aspiring to start a career in music would be to practice as much as you can, especially in front of live audiences - we started off as buskers and playing in a low pressure environment like that was a great way to build confidence performing and helped develop our skills. We also started writing original music quite early on and sold them at the markets we busked at. Slowly we started getting picked up for our original work and then were able to play a few bigger shows and festivals as a result. Persistence is also key and try to make as many musician friends along the way by networking! Supporting other musicians is very important and will help you feel a part of the music world.
WHO’S THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON YOU’VE WORKED WITH/MET?
We have been lucky enough to have worked with/met many amazing musicians such as Boy and Bear, Mark Gable, Ian Moss, Alex the Astronaut, Budjerah, Stella Donnelly, DMA’s, Lisa Mitchell, Alex Lahey, The Paper Kites and The Teskey Brothers. However, during the making of this album we were lucky enough to meet Bernard Fanning from Powderfinger! He stopped by Nick DiDia’s studio in Byron Bay and was kind enough to chat to us about the album and take a group photo with us afterwards. We grew up listening to Powderfinger and our parent’s are big fans so it was a very cool and memorable meet and greet!
ANY UPCOMING SHOWS?
We are just about to go on our Australian tour for our album! Upcoming shows can all be found on our website but coming up for us next is Old Bar Beach festival, then we are heading off to a few shows in QLD, NSW, ACT, WA and ending the tour in VIC at the end of November.