1.Growing Up
KV: Growing up, music was everything at my house. My dad is a musician and our home was built around the jam room and the record player. I remember a lot of Beatles, Doobie Brothers, 10cc, Billy Joel, Chicago, Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac… I’m not sure how much of that has influenced the music I make though.
2.Inspirations
KV: I’m a big fan of women in rock. Stevie Nicks, Alison Mosshart, Lindsey Troy, Patience Hodgson… My list of favourite musicians changes all the time, but a frontwoman holding her own and demanding attention onstage has always been very inspirational for me.
TS: I think a lot of our inspiration also comes from places other than music – we’re both keen travellers and find a lot of our music comes from introspection, landscapes and stories from the road.
3.Your Band
KV: We met a few years through other Brisbane bands and just started sending demos back and forth. We each play a handful of instruments, so it was pretty easy to bounce ideas around. Pretty soon we had an EP’s worth of music and started playing some low-key shows around Brisbane.
TS: Just after our first show, I sent a mixtape of our rehearsals around to a few labels and was fortunate enough to hear back from Ian Haug (Powderfinger, Airlock Records) who really dug our stuff. Within a few weeks we were in the studio recording our first record.
4.The Music You Make
TS: Elko Fields is pure scuzz-rock. We’re an authentic two-piece in the vein of DFA1979, Deap Vally, et cetera… though we tend to weave in a few darker elements à la Nick Cave.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
KV: We’re a relatively fresh band and the local scene has accepted us with open arms. We’ve had some incredible opportunities in the first year of our existence and there’s even more exciting things planned for 2017. It’s killer to see so many Brisbane/Australian bands just dominating right now. There’s a lot of momentum.
Elko Fields play at Frankie’s Pizza onWednesday November 16.
