Members:
Melanie
Forbes & Nicci Heffernan.
Roots: In the early '90's, Forbes who comes
from new Zealand's Te Awamutu ("Finn Country") was playing in Mango
a rock swing combo, backing bluesman Midge Marsden. The roadshow made its way
to Queenstown when she lost her voice. Enter Heffernan. "I'm a farmers daughter
(from Central Otago, 'the high country'), so I'd just finished agricultural college.
I'd started to work in a duo with this Maori guy called 'Charlie Marley'. Then
mango came to town; all of a sud-den I was in this band, in front of big crowds. |
|
We
did that for eight, maybe 10 months, before Mel shifted to Sydney in 1994".
Heffernan followed soon after. Releases: Zephyrtown
(EP 1999)
Influences: According to Forbes: "I never used to like pop music.
I grew up on Ry Cooder and Rickie Lee Jones, as a 14-15 year-old. My mother was
a folkie, you see." As for Heffernan: "I used used to put the headphones
on as a kid and sing along to my parents' Elvis, Bill Haley and Abba records.
Then I used to dash down to the shearing sheds and do my own concerts to an audience
of thousands." |
|
File
under: Grown up,
melancholic pop; Natalie Merchant, with just a hint of the Indigo Girls. Forbes:
"It's definitely the music of abondon-ment, it's a lot about coming here
(to Australia) Natalie Merchant is kind of our area, although we'd like to be
a bit edgier that that."
- JEFF APTER
OUT NOW
sistermadly
"Zephyrtown"
Elastic/BMG |
