The Soorleys are Newcastle’s musical version of the Brady Bunch, and in late August they’ll be playing the Gympie Music Muster.
There won't be any sisterly hair pulling or stealing of each other’s clothes, but there will be a performance that will “make you want to dance”, or at least that's what lead vocalist Beth says. “Expect to be peer pressured into dancing. It's very not slick,” jokes Beth.
“[Our sound is] quite raw and just a bit of fun. We're calling it ‘fun folk’. We're kind of trying too create our own genre here.”
The seven-piece who comprise four sisters: Beth, Laura, Shelley, Millie along with husbands Sam and Christopher as well as honourary cousin Phil, are more than excited to be playing the Gympie Music Muster. “We're stoked actually. This is the first big festival that we've ever been able to do in Australia, so we're really excited.”
When quizzed about the challenges of working as a band when all the members are literally family, Beth laughs. “There are many challenges. It's pretty much everything you can expect from a family who work together, sing together and play together. It's really fun when it's fun and it's really hectic.
“There’s a totally family vibe. And we do fight, we just have to talk about it and we're pretty clear that when it comes to the band we have try to be as objective as we can because we really love it and we want it to work.”
In January The Soorleys recorded their self-titled EP, a process that Beth describes as an amazing experience. “We really wanted to generate the live sound through the recording; we were worried about it. We're really a live band and we wanted to generate that sound and we had a great producer so it was such a good experience.
“It's music that you can clap and stomp to and hum along to easily. I think it's generally quite poppy, lots of hooky things and just happy music. We want people to have fun and have a bit of a dance or at least some sort of foot tapping,” Beth says.
Written by Lexi McKee
The Soorleys play the Gympie Music Muster, which runs August 28-31. They also have two shows at the Beresford Hotel May 17 & 24.
