Green Mohair Suits, Sydney's answer to Neil Young and Sufjan Stevens, are taking their dulcet tones to the City of Roundabouts, Canberra.
The four-piece have set their sights on the 2019 National Folk Festival (NFF) in April and will be supplementing that with an appearance at Taste of Tasmania over the new year.
“We're really excited to play the festival. We love playing folk festivals and this is one of the biggest ones of the year. They're always fun and wonderful experiences,” band member Richard Cuthbert says. “Personally, my family look forward to [NFF] every year.
“I've been three times. I actually go with my family: my mum and dad; my sister and her husband and two kids; and sometimes my brother-in-law's mum and dad come, and his aunts and uncles. It's a really nice festival. It's four or five days camping over Easter. It's a great escape with music everywhere.”
The NFF is one of the largest folk festivals in the country. Held in Canberra every Easter, 2019 marks its 53rd year and is shaping up to be a magical week. With their special brand of bluegrass, Green Mohair Suits slot right into the line-up; although Richard is quick to highlight a distinction.
“Our instrumentation is bluegrass, but we don't call ourselves bluegrass because we really can't play our instruments as well as those guys.”
NFF aims to expand and enrich people's understanding of folk culture, whether that be with entertainment (musicians, dancers, street and circus performers), activities or food.
This will be the first time the quartet find themselves performing at the event. “I've never been billed in the programme before as a performer, but music is everywhere and everyone can play, so I've taken a guitar each time and played a chalkboard session.”
Richard explains there are stations dotted around the grounds with a blackboard, where you can nominate yourself to play a session by writing your name. “I've done those before. Last year I went with my girlfriend and we did a bunch of blackboards and ended up playing a showcase at one of the bigger bars.”
But this will be the one of biggest crowds Richard has played to. “From past experience all the shows are pretty well attended,” he says.
As for whether crowds correlate with nerves, Richard admits there are always nerves but finds that “in terms of the bands I've played in over my life, I think I get less nervous with this one.
“There are four of us and we share the songs and the songwriting duties. Out of four songs, you might sing one of yours and then sit back and accompany the others. All those pressures are evenly distributed. It's very fun, and it's never really lost that feeling,” he laughs and then adds, “even though we're singing about sad things. So, nerves will be there but at a minimum.”
The majority of Green Mohair Suits' songs include these “sad things” and Richard attests that most of them come from personal experiences, except for Jason who just blindly draws it from the aether.
“He's been very happily married for 25 years. He complains he feels left out when we write songs about heartbreak. So his sad songs are just made up, but the rest of ours aren't.”
Songwriting is quite a vulnerable art that opens one up to the perceptions and critiques of others. At the same time, it can be overwhelmingly cathartic.
“I feel like that about some of the old sad songs we've written. At the time, you feel something and you probably still do, but maybe not as much as you used to. And the song becomes a snapshot of that feeling.”
As for 2019 plans, the lads are playing Taste of Tasmania over the new year. “That's another fun trip to look forward to. And we're actually writing our fifth album.”
The untitled album will follow up 2016's 'Evans Street'. There's no set date yet, but the band intend to release it before Easter along with “some new merch – something especially made for the festival like a tea towel or a stubbie holder, or a sleeping bag with our faces on it.”
