Acfield siblings Dan and Hannah build bridges between cities with their music.
“We just instantly noticed that people responded to us performing together,” explains Dan. “I think we've got certain advantages and of course we harmonise with each other well and are familiar with each other's styles and stuff. It was a really intuitive process. We've had the idea for a while but didn't really commit to it initially because we didn't get along that well.
“Then Hannah moved to Melbourne, and still lives in Melbourne. So I thought, you know, we can't do it until we live in the same city. But then we thought, 'Why don't we just try?' and so we did and it seems to work. I mean, it's challenging living in a different city but it’s fun.”
Hannah believes that working with Dan has changed the way she makes music.
“I guess in the past I've been quite relaxed about song writing. I might do, you know, one a month or something. Dan's a lot more disciplined and that's sort of rubbed off, for me anyways. He'll be like, 'We have to get this done now' or something so it’s really quite good. And the song writing as well, it's good to bounce ideas off each other. It's fun.”
For Dan and Hannah, as fun as working together is, it also means compromise.
“In the studio I have been known as the 'Rock Nazi' so I guess we try to meet half way,” says Hannah. However, being well versed in each other's bickering; conflict resolution is also a well-practised process.
“We tend not to get really upset about things and we tend to get over it. As opposed to a typical band situation where you might have to be a bit more sensitive, we're a bit blunter with each other.”
Dan and Hannah are very conscious of making music the audience can enjoy, so they will be performing the songs they have written for their new album before it's even recorded — an album which they will be self-producing for the first time.
Dan explains: “We're kind of just putting [our new songs] out there for the audience to engage in. I think we have an idea of what we want, but we want the audience response to finalise that. So that's part of it. We're also thinking of doing a live survey. We can give it out so we can get some actual feedback. That's something that's really hard to get. If we can get an idea of people's favourite songs, we can obviously out them in the album.
"Every song I've ever recorded, I've always played it live first. I've always known that. Some of these songs, we've never played live. That's the thing; it's nice that we can play them before we record so we can be certain in our choices.”
The sibling's song writing processes stem from personal experiences. Dan thinks that it's “the singer song writer tradition to pack in as influences from as many places as you can and covey through story your message.”
Hannah elaborates: “There's personal experience and then there's people's stories to write about or one-liners. I heard my grandmother say the other day, 'Oh, poor Mrs. Such and Such, she had nappies on the line for twenty five years.' You can take that away and build a whole story around that.”
Dan and Hannah Acfield play the following shows on their 'Next Chapter' tour:
Thu June 27 — Treehouse On Belongil (Byron Bay)Fri June 28 — The Loft Chevron Island (Gold Coast)
Sat June 29 — Solbar (Maroocydoore)
Sun June 30 — Powerhouse (Brisbane)
Thu July 4 — The Loft (Warrnambool)
Fri July 5 — Ararat Live (Ararat)
Sun July 7 — Bar 303 (Melbourne)
