English folk singer-songwriter Grace Petrie is returning to Australia this festive season for a four-week stint down under.
Last here as the pandemic first shut down the world – Grace was at the tail end of her tour in Sydney with her band when they rushed home to beat border closures – this tour commences with a week-long stay at Woodford Folk Festival.
Then Petrie, known for her polemical folk anthems, acerbic lyricism and open-hearted performance style, will venture down the east coast including criss-crossing to Adelaide as well as jumping across to Tassie (for two shows).
Active since the mid 2000s, Grace began to make waves on the indie circuit in 2010 after Billy Bragg invited her to play the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury (she has played the festival annually ever since).
Petrie has garnered mainstream support since her 2018 album 'Queer As Folk', while her 2021 album 'Connectivity' cemented her reputation as one of folk music's more compelling modern voices.
Grace answers some questions ahead of her Australian tour dates.
You'll be spending your Christmas/ New Year period touring Australia; given everything the last three years, is it extra special to return to the other side of the world to play music (especially as you were in Sydney touring in March 2020 when the world changed)?
It definitely feels surreal to be heading back to Sydney – the last time I was there we had the most incredible show at the Marrickville Bowlo and the next day it felt like the whole world stopped so I hope that we have slightly better results this time! It’s amazing to be able to travel again though and Australia is really close to my heart. We spent a long time before the vaccine wondering if we’d ever be able to travel and play music in beautiful, far off places again so it’s very special to be coming back, it feels way overdue.
You'll be starting off at Woodford Folk Festival on this tour spending a week there; are you looking forward to that, and do you enjoy watching others perform, integrating yourself into the daily happenings of a festival?
Playing festivals is my favourite part of the job, hands down, and I’ve heard amazing things about Woodford – it’s always been an ambition of mine to play there so I’m really stoked to have got on the bill this year. The best thing about festivals is meeting and seeing other musicians – touring can be quite a lonely endeavour because you don’t get to mix with colleagues much and that’s why you can’t beat a folk festival atmosphere; the sharing and collaborating and inter-artist inspiration is something that you just can’t replicate anywhere else. I’ll be honest and say that it doesn’t hurt to know that we’ve left the winter behind to land in the middle of the Australian summer – that feels like dream-levels of cheating!
The rest of the tour sees you criss-cross the east coast as well as get to Tasmania and skipping across to Adelaide; do you enjoy the travel aspect of tour life, particularly when you've got an extended stay in a country?
We’ve been really lucky with the routing this time, so we’ll be able to see a bit of the places we’re playing in and around. It’s definitely a really fortunate and fun element of the job to get to see so much of the world, and the first time I came to Australia I just fell in love with it – I was already planning my return journey before we’d even finished the last tour, then obviously COVID has delayed me coming back much longer than I wanted so I can’t wait to get stuck in and explore some new places. I’m really excited to get to do a headline show in Adelaide which I’ve never done before, and can’t wait to get my first taste of Tassie!
Are you ready for the Aussie heat/ humidity as well?
Almost certainly not! I get my fighting spirit from my Irish grandmother but unfortunately I get my skin from her too!
What have you learnt about yourself/ your music/ life in general during the pandemic/ lockdowns that's been a positive/ something you've integrated into your regular life?
Hopefully I’ve mellowed a bit and I try to keep things in perspective maybe more than I did before; I think lockdown was a reminder for all of us to hold the people we love close and make time for what’s important, because you can spend your life chasing arbitrary goals but when everything is stripped away all you really care about is making sure your loved ones are safe and well. Musically I think it was incredibly formative for me, as an artist who has always been very focused on the live performance aspect, to have the dopamine and adrenaline of a live crowd taken away was unbelievably challenging, but I think writing songs under those circumstances probably allowed me to be a bit more honest than I would have been if the idea of the listener didn’t feel like such a far away concept in those locked down months. I think that’s taught me a lot because I’m really proud of those songs so I’m trying to carry that honest approach forward beyond the pandemic.
More importantly, what TV shows (even older series) or books did you discover/ consume during the lockdowns?
I loved Mae Martin’s 'Feel Good', which I binged in about half a day! To be honest I spend a lot of time arranging and posting pop songs with my accompanist Ben Moss who is joining me for this tour – last time we were in Oz and had to race home, he accidentally got locked down in my house for six months! So we passed the time doing an alphabet of covers of pop songs and posting them online. Between that and my millionth re-watch of 'Buffy' I think I just about stayed almost sane!
What did it mean to you for your 2021 album 'Connectivity' to debut in the UK album charts; and what sort of effort was required to manage such a feat for an indie artist especially with your decision to not place it on major streaming platforms initially?
I’ve never had any kind of label interest so the idea of getting in the chart at all was something I had long ago accepted was an impossibility – so to not only chart but top the download chart was just. . . Hard to describe how special that was. I started playing as a teenager with an acoustic guitar and a bored 8-track from my school so to come all the way from there to the number one spot was unbelievable and required an enormous team effort from my incredibly supportive audience, to whom I obviously owe everything. I made the decision not to put it on streaming platforms not out of any great political statement really, but because due to the pandemic I hadn’t worked in a year and a half and I desperately needed to recover the costs I’d fronted for the record. I think in general we’re really losing sight of how independent artists won’t be able to find their way to careers and audiences if people don’t keep buying music in some form, and I’m extremely lucky that the people who listen to my music seemed to really get that and take it to heart.
The community of supporters you do have; their commitment to you must be the glue that keeps everything stuck together/ keeps the faith?
Absolutely. I just did my annual Christmas show here in London, and my friend the comic Deborah Frances-White was hosting the night and she said to me ‘your fans are the nicest people’! I think the fact that I talk about issues that are really close to my heart in my songs, especially I suppose the ones that deal with queer identity and social justice, the people who enjoy those things tend to be folks who feel in many ways that a lot of the world isn’t on their side. The idea that they can feel a bit less alone and a bit more empowered, and part of a team, if they come to a show and find a group of people singing the same things they think and feel is definitely more than I ever hoped I would achieve with music; and for me, to get to go to those rooms and see people reflecting what I think and feel, that puts gas back in my tank to carry on and keep the faith and the fight alive.
Where are you at with new music? Will 2023 see a new Grace Petrie album arrive?
Well making 'Connectivity' nearly killed me! I find recording very difficult, I’m not a natural guitar player really and I’m far better in front of a live audience than a microphone, so I tend to need a year or two to recover from making a record. But I have been writing tonnes while on the road this year, so I think new songs are on the cards pretty soon – or maybe even a live record.
Some fun questions. . .
If you had to live in a city abroad, where would you choose and why?
It’s between Sydney and Vancouver for me – both stunningly beautiful places with incredible food and access to the sea. I’m from the Midlands of England so the ocean is a rare treat for me. But I think Sydney might just win it for Mary’s Burgers!
If we were coming over to your place, what would you cook us?
Tandoori chicken is what I do best, according to my girlfriend.
What's the one chore you dislike the most?
I find doing laundry for some reason unbearably boring and terrible. My avoidance of doing it when I have a day off from tour always ends up with me running around the house rotating pairs of pants on radiators but I still can’t make myself do it until things are completely desperate.
Do you have any phobias. . . Please explain?
I’m extremely afraid of heights, which I think is because I’m very small and therefore was made to be close to the ground; and I’m utterly terrified of spiders, which I don’t have to tell you are far less of a big deal in the UK, and we’re camping at Woodford so – wish me luck on that one...
Which fictional character best describes your personality (why)?
I have a lot in common with Garfield. Pro-lasagne, anti-morning – these are politics I can get behind.
Grace Petrie 2022-2023 Tour Dates
27 Dec - 1 Jan - Woodford Folk Festival (Sunshine Coast)Tue 3 Jan - Brunswick Picture House (Northern Rivers)
Wed 4 Jan - The Outpost Bar (Brisbane)
Thu 5 Jan - Mo's Desert Clubhouse (Gold Coast)
Sat 7 Jan - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 8 Jan - The Baroque Room (Blue Mountains)
Tue 10 Jan - Smith's Alternative (Canberra)* sold out
Thu 12 Jan - Trinity Sessions (Adelaide)
Tue 17 Jan - Palais Theatre (Franklin, TAS)
Wed 18 Jan - The Barn at Rosny Farm (Hobart)
Thu 19 Jan - Northcote Social Club (Melbourne)* selling fast
Fri 20 Jan - The Barwon Club Hotel (Geelong)
