An emerging indie folk-pop band from Adelaide, Axe & The Ivory are a quartet of mates who've morphed from simply hanging out on weekends to forming a musical collective creating stunning harmonies alongside mesmerising instrumentation.
The nucleus of Rosie Roberts (keys, vocals) and her long-time best mate Ben Lovell (guitar, vocals) – who connected via a shared love of influences including Bonnie Raitt, Third Eye Blind, Paul Kelly, Traveling Wilburys and Paul Simon – soon roped in Ben's brother James Lovell on drums and percussion, plus the one they call 'an enigma' – Paul Cooper on banjo and mandolin.Axe & The Ivory are also quickly becoming regulars on the local festival circuit with performances at Gorgeous Festival (with John Butler Trio), Chilled Out and Fired Up Festival (with Ash Grunwald); they've also played Tamworth County Music Festival and 500 Miles Of Music Festival.
Now the quartet are ready to showcase their debut single, 'Find It', that will instantly capture your attention with its irresistible charm that lands somewhere between a mix of Alabama Shakes, Taylor Swift, Vera Blue, and The Paper Kites.
With intricate guitar/ banjo melodies paired with gorgeous piano tones and driving drums, 'Find It' is completed by the incredibly phenomenal vocals of Rosie.
A voice so rich in soul and character it's goosebump-inducing, the feels are that real from Rosie's amazing pipes; her vocal mannerisms impart so much energy, it genuinely seems like she's singing directly to you.
Ahead of the songs's release tomorrow (18 November), scenestr is thrilled to premiere 'Find It' today. Enjoy.
"In terms of lyrical inspiration, the song is about parting ways with someone after a decade of making a life together and the kind of slow disentangling of two lives (not just emotionally but physically leaving the home you built)," shares Rosie.
"It's actually weird to have the song out in the world because when I started writing it, we were still living together and I wasn't consciously sitting down to write a song about that or ever thinking it would be heard by other people.
"I was just writing things down that only made sense afterwards. I remember him walking past the music room one day and being like 'you know I know that song is about me'. I didn't even know it was at the time – I was in complete denial. We laugh about that now."
Given the group's normal work schedules, the recording of 'Find It' was somewhat disjointed.
"The recording was a way less rock & roll experience than we expected, because we all work full-time in other industries so recording became almost like shift work and we were rarely all in the studio at the same time," Rosie says.
"Probably not something we want to mention!? Definitely something we want to do differently in the future."
Axe & The Ivory 2022-2023 Tour Dates
Sat 3 Dec - The Barn (Wombat Flat)* supporting Kings & AssociatesSun 1 Jan - The Wheatsheaf Hotel (Adelaide)
