The Quills Rock The Zoo
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Musicadium faves the Quills have experienced some great successes since their conception, but show no evidence of rock star arrogance or a complacent attitude toward their fans. Their humble approach to creating brilliantly crafted music belies their talent, as they could afford to put on rock star airs but thankfully choose not to.
Long time Musicadium friends, we believe the Quills have an exciting future ahead of them due to their talent and also to their intelligent use of online marketing tools. They played at the infamous Brisbane venue The Zoo this week to kick of their South East QLD tour. Check out their myspace here and their debut EP ‘Some New Place’ which debuted at the # 1 position on the 4ZZZ charts when it was released.
How did the Quills come about? Was it a shared love of music or possibly a beer-fuelled university conversation? How did the magic begin?
The Quills as it is today has been a little while in the making. It started when I was introduced to drummer John Pickering a couple of years ago. At the time we were both studying at uni and neither one of us was really searching for a band, but after our first jam together we decided then and there that we were starting one. I guess we were inspired by one another. From there we saw a couple of different guys come and go from the band. It took us twelve months to find Andrew Stone on keys and twice that time for bassist Fergus Scott. We really needed to experience the chemistry that we had when we first started, with all the band members. When each of those guys came along we knew instantly that they were the right guys for the band. So our initial idea, which was born out of inspiration, I guess, took two years to finally materialise.
What would be your ideal gig to play in terms of venues and collaborations with any artists?
That’s such a tough question and I think all of us would have different answers. For me personally, I’m such a massive John Mayer fan that any sort of collaboration with him would be indescribable. I wouldn’t want it to happen for quite a few years though; I’ve got a long way to go as a musician and performer before I’d feel even close to comfortable to collaborating with him. If you could raise the dead I’m pretty sure Fergus would want to jam alongside Jimi Hendrix, Andrew would want to play with The Who and John would be in his element on stage with Metallica.
As for venue, we played the Woodford Folk Festival last year and there’s something about the amphitheatre there that’s just magic. I think it can fit about 30,000 people and it’s surrounded by hills. There’s something really special about that place. So if we can one day play to a packed crowd at the amphi at Woodford that’d be great.
But I think we’d all agree that playing the main stage at Glastonbury would be our Mecca.
What Aussie acts are you excited about at the moment?
Definitely Sparkadia. We played a show with them a few months ago and they’re a brilliant band. They have such a cool sound and have put together a great first album. You can tell they’re just about to explode as well. We’d definitely like to follow along the same sort of path as those guys.
Have you had any disastrous on-stage scenarios or embarrassing moments while under the spotlight?
I started playing a song without plugging my guitar in once. The worst part was I didn’t realise I hadn’t plugged in so that was pretty embarrassing. You might wonder how you could possibly not realise you hadn’t plugged your guitar in but it was my acoustic guitar and my fold back wasn’t great so don’t judge me please. Andrew once had a guy ask him if he could come on stage and flash the audience. I’m pretty sure Andrew told him no, but sure enough a little bit later there he was flashing the audience. John doesn’t think anyone saw him do this, but I nearly killed myself laughing before I went on stage when I saw him slip on a towel and nearly go head first through his drum kit. He wouldn’t admit it though. As for Fergus, I don’t think that guy can make a mistake.
Have you got any fanatical fans in really obscure places that you’ve discovered via myspace or itunes sales?
We’ve got a small legion of French fans who really dig our stuff. In fact a couple of them actually travelled over here recently. I’m pretty sure the reason for their trip was 100% in order to see us play and not because they just wanted to visit Australia or anything. But they’ve come to our shows so that’s cool.
Finally, tell us about all of your exciting news of late. Tour dates? What should punters expect when they go to a Quills show?
We’re in the midst of a mini-tour around South-East Queensland at the moment. In a couple of months we’ll be setting out on an East Coast of Australia tour. Next year we’ll be doing more Australian touring and we hope to record our first album in the first half of 2009. We’ve got a massive wish list of producers together. We’re then planning on getting over to the UK for their summer sometime around May.
We really try to give fans an entire experience when they come to a show rather than just stringing songs together one after the other. So punters should expect a whole spectrum of sounds and emotions throughout the set.
Thanks so much guys, and we promise only positive judgements from us. Check out the Quills’ EP ‘Some New Place’ at the itunes store.