What’s My Scene: Gilly & Bede are one folk duo that won’t end up hating each other
In our regular Q&A column What’s My Scene, InReview speaks to emerging and established local artists to get their take on the South Australian creative scene and their place within it. This week, sisters Gilly & Bede discuss playing on a boat and adding their own contribution to “this gorgeous Adelaide patchwork”.
Where was your first gig, and how did it go?
The first time we ever performed together was back in 2019, on fellow Adelaide musician Anya Anastasia’s property in the Adelaide hills. We played First Aid Kit and Gregory Alan Isakov covers, alongside some Clara (Gilly) originals. Miranda (Bede) was only 14 and a little shaky on the tambourine – but it went pretty well! Or at least well enough to keep trying.
Our second performance was for our high school assembly, with our wonderful friend and violinist Daisy Elliot. Slightly less fond memories of that one… I don’t know how receptive the general cohort – or the PA system – was to folk music.
What is your artist origin story?
We’re sisters, so we’ve made music together since we were children. Clara started teaching Miranda about guitar, vocal harmony and a love of folk music when we were teenagers. We saw First Aid Kit play at WOMADelaide in probably 2016 and Clara decided, “We’re gonna do that”. Our first band was four-piece folk group Eyrie, with violinist Thea Martin and bass player Allan McBean. We played a lot around Adelaide, and I reckon that group was pretty formative to all our artistic sensibilities. A couple years ago we did a few duo shows, and that grew into making Gilly & Bede: a classic folk duo iteration of our music – like Simon & Garfunkel, except we’ll never hate each other (sisters forever!).
What was your impression of the Adelaide creative scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
When we first started playing pub gigs in early 2020, the Adelaide scene seemed pretty terrifying. Everyone was older than us, and knew so much about music, and tech, and how to get gigs and record and all the rest of it. Sometimes we’d get that deer-in-headlights feeling when more established musicians would come up after a set and give us some words of encouragement. Though it felt a bit intimidating at the time, in retrospect I can see just how encouraging the musicians around us were. We got to play a lot of gigs and meet so many fantastic players. In a way, we’ve ducked in and out of that scene – we’ve both been studying full time for the past few years, playing gigs when we can. But it’s nice now to feel a real part of it – woven in almost, adding our own ideas to this gorgeous Adelaide patchwork. I really think we have a special music scene here, with so many class acts, and so many wonderful and generous people. Now that we’re getting older, we can see how important it is to fight for that.
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How has your own work evolved since you first started?
Hopefully it’s gotten better! Haha. And also, I think our songwriting perspective has shifted. When we were younger we wrote a lot about love (teenage-love, with all its confusion and naivety), and also about things we hadn’t yet experienced. It was selfish writing, in that it was all about expressing how we felt, never mind who heard it or how it made the audience feel. In some ways that’s still true, but also we think a lot more about what kind of songs we want the world to sing – what kind of songs we want people to hear. I think that changes the way we write. We write to say something to the world. Sometimes that’s still as simple as “I love you!”, and sometimes it’s more complex, but either way I think it’s more about looking out to what’s around us, as well as looking in.
What is it about your next release that you’re most excited/nervous to share with the world?
We’ve just recorded our first EP, which will be out in the world later this year. We can’t wait. We recorded live at Jack Willsmore’s gorgeous home studio, and I think being in the room together, in such a familiar and cosy space, enabled us to capture the warm mystery we feel when we sing together. Hopefully our listeners get to feel that too. We got local drummer Harry Blight on snare for our first track, and we’re soon recording local string ensemble, Torrens Quartet, into our fourth and most sublime song. Then the EP will be all done! Definitely stay tuned for our release announcement. To be honest, we have so much we want to record and share that I get the feeling this EP will be one of many.
Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
There are a million, but here’s a couple at least:
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Ella Ion writes the most beautiful, poignant songs in Adelaide. She’s a uniquely stunning lyricist, singer, guitarist, and she has a radiant soul. Check her out if you haven’t already – thank us later!
Swapmeet are a fab local alt four-piece. They have this magnetic energy that is impossible to replicate. They’ve put their everything into their upcoming album, ‘Mount Zero’, and it sounds WICKED. They’re gonna be stars.
Short Snarl [the project of former bandmate Thea Martin]: incredibly intelligent, tender, intricate song writing and arrangements. They are holy to us.
Favourite venue to play?
The Grace Emily Hotel – probably the centre of Adelaide folk, and we always adore playing there as a part of Folk ‘n’ Words.
Dream artist to perform alongside?
Joan Baez. We joke that instead of Bob and Joan we’re Joan and Joan, so if we could play with the real Joan Baez that would really round off what we like to call the “Joan Zone.”
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
Jack Ray.
Where is your next performance, and how do you hope it will go?
Our next gig is at an upcoming music festival in Port Adelaide, New Found Sound. It’s May 9, and it’s free! We’re playing in the evening at Port River Cruises (on a boat!), which may be one of the most magical things ever. Stay tuned. The line-up is absolutely stacked with excellent SA acts, so we hope people come from all over to check it out.
Gilly & Bede play New Found Sound‘s Port River Cruises stage on Saturday May 9 at 9.20pm. Their latest release appears on the compilation Sitting In The Same Chairs Vol II (capslock records).
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