What’s My Scene: The Genevieves find their place between the waves
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, The Genevieves reflect on the cyclical nature of Adelaide’s music scene, where strangers quickly become new mates.
Where was your first Adelaide gig, and how did it go?
Our first gig was at Arthur Art Bar! We actually booked our first gig at the Metro and then a few weeks before we were set to play we got asked to join a lineup at Arthur’s. There weren’t many people there but that was probably for the best. We were all grateful to have a chance to test the songs we’d been writing before playing our first ever headline show. At that point we’d all played gigs with other bands, but it always felt for us that we were playing other people’s songs, and were super green and nervous about the whole experience. The show at the Metro was super fun, all our friends came out to support us and packed it out, it felt like a very successful launch of the band to us.
What is your artist origin story?
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, James and Baily were looking to start a band after their old one crashed and burned. At the time Finn, James and Lara were all studying together and when James asked about starting a band we jumped at the chance. Looking back on it, we barely knew each other when we started jamming, and only bonded over a little bit of shared music taste in Slowdive, Tame Impala, The Cure, etc. The first time the four of us were in a room together was our first rehearsal/writing day. Originally we wanted to find a fifth member to take on singing duties – but we eventually scratched that after finding that the dynamic between the four of us felt too specific and important to change up. We all stepped up into the singing roles.
What was your impression of the Adelaide creative scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
It seems to us that the Adelaide scene moves in cycles, we feel like we arrived in a bit of an interim between the post rock scene that bloomed a few years ago and what we have now. Bands like War Room, Gallery One, Twine and Swapmeet were our inspirations in the scene when we started playing shows and now three quarters of these bands have split or moved interstate. It feels like the next current wave of alt music is happening through bands like Ebop, Pearly Stars, Awnings and of course Swapmeet [are] still mainstays.
There are so many people that were strangers or people we knew of in the scene that we have since became mates with, as well as all the familiar faces who come support the local scene. It’s super special to be welcomed into the scene and find a place amongst these other bands and creatives we hold so much respect for.
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How has your own work evolved since you first started?
We’ve changed a lot both intentionally and unintentionally. The longer we’ve been writing, the more we’ve figured out both what we want to sound like, and what we ourselves sound like as individual musicians. We’ve also matured significantly as songwriters and are a lot more confident with writing melodies, hooks and having quiet moments in the set. There’s a comfort on stage we have slowly developed together after playing tonnes of sets where things go wrong.
Learning to adapt, trust each other and also remembering to have fun are things that didn’t always come naturally. Since the beginning we’ve strived to not put ourselves in a box, and allowing for a wide variety in our music tastes has now helped our output as a band feel unique to us, output that wouldn’t work if one member was absent.
What is it about your next release that you’re most excited or nervous to share with the world?
We just released a song called ‘Sprinkler’. We’ve been sitting on the recording for longer than we usually do with recorded music and it feels really good to have it out in the world. Our next body of work we’re working on will likely be a full length LP – we’ve been writing heaps of songs we’re truly proud of and feel like we’ve honed in our sound now. We have some time booked off in September to go away and record. We’re all super excited to move onto the next thing. It’s a bit scary building towards a debut album – after all you only get one – but we try and remind ourselves that it’s just the first of many we’ll make and to trust our gut/not overthink it.
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Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
Swapmeet are the goats obviously, the absolute loveliest crew and their new album and achievements are inspiring. Kurralta Park has been a more recent inspiration to us. Great music, and such a strong drive to be out there and make people feel something. Haven’t had the pleasure of hanging with Bindi a whole lot yet but was fun to play a show together early this year.
Favourite Adelaide venue to play?
We all love the Grace Emily – massive shout out to Sym, Chelsea, Ryan, Ben, John, Steve. An actual dream team and we hope the homeliness of the Grace carries through the changing of hands. We’re sure it will!
Dream artist to perform alongside?
Playing with the Osees would be pretty sick. Would probably be a great hang too. Maybe.
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
Black Eyed Peas would be great.
Where is your next Adelaide performance, and how do you hope it will go?
Our next show is our launch show for ‘Sprinkler’ at Jive on September 5. It’s with The Fuss, Jack Ray and Somewhere. It’ll be heaps of fun! We’re playing heaps of new songs and should be our biggest Adelaide headline to date. See you there!
The Genevieves play Jive on Saturday September 5
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