Project Description

Interview with

FOURPLAY STRING QUARTET

Interviewer – Brianna Denmeade

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“Nothing short of magnificent.” The Scotsman

“Forget anything you ever thought about string quartets. This is the future.” The Music

“Just perfect… the rock band of string quartets.” Neil Gaiman (author)

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FOURPLAY STRING QUARTET

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Can you introduce readers to FourPlay String Quartet, who are the members and their roles?

Lara Goodridge – violin, vocals

Shenzo Gregorio – viola

Peter Hollo – cello, backing vocals

Tim Hollo – viola, vocals

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How long have you been creating music together and how did you come together?

FourPlay started when we were at Uni, and the original members were also playing in the Australian Youth Orchestra. It was a conscious move away from our classical training into contemporary genres, initially rock music, but with the punk-meets-hip-hop of the Beastie Boys and our interest in gypsy, klezmer, jazz and so on it branched out in all directions.

Tim & Peter are brothers, and Peter met Lara in a chamber pop band called Peccadillo very shortly after the first incarnation of FourPlay, and Lara joined within the first year. Shenzo on the other hand is the new member – he’s only been playing with us for 14 years now! We knew him from the folk/swing/flamenco music circuit, although he does a mean rap viola and loves his classic rock too.

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You recently released the track ‘Wish’ can you explain what the song means to you?

[Tim Hollo:] Wish started life when we were on an amazing writing retreat at Bundanon, on the NSW South Coast. We were supposed to be writing for a few days and, on the Sunday afternoon, play our new works at an intimate gig. Unfortunately, on the Saturday a huge storm arrived, developing into the ‘east coast low’ that caused flooding up the whole length of the country. The Bundanon folks called us on the Saturday night to say they were worried about the audience getting in and out so they were cancelling the gig. What none of us thought of, though, was that, if the audience couldn’t get in… we couldn’t get out. The Shoalhaven River rose 3 metres overnight, covering the road and trapping us! We were fine, but my older daughter, who was at home, kept calling to make sure we were ok, and not drowning. At one point, she said to me “I wish that I’d been born before climate change happened.” As someone who’s been working for climate action for 20 years, that hit me in the guts like nothing else. I said to her something about how we can’t wish for other times, we can only do what we can with the times we’ve been given. And then I wrote this song.

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Over your long career in music how do you feel your sound has progressed and changed?

We’ve just broadened & broadened our interests. We feel like no genre should be impossible to translate through electric string instruments.

The other big, gradual change, has been the move away from doing mostly covers, so that now we are predominantly writing together, in a methodical, improvisatory way. The latest singles are songs written by one member, but then workshopped in terms of music & arrangements. We’re very democratic and love throwing ideas around and jamming things into shape.

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What was the creative process for ‘Wish’, what were each of your contributions?

Tim wrote the initial ideas and workshopped the chord pattern with the others, then went away and wrote the lyrics. Then we developed the arrangement together, with each of us writing our own parts.

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How do you translate such beautiful, intricate sounds to a live show?

Generally, it’s the other way round: our music is developed for live performance, even if it’s live-in-rehearsal, and when we come to recording, we take the energy the songs have developed from live performance, and finesse and occasionally overdub.

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You will be touring around Australia soon, have you planned what songs will be included in your sets?

We’re terrible with this! Generally, we write the set list for the evening in a mad rush between dinner and the show! And not uncommonly workshop it onstage as we go…

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What kind of mood and atmosphere can an audience expect at one of your gigs?

Expect the unexpected! Expect to be taken on a trip around the world, visiting a whole lot of styles and genres and moods as you go. But you can definitely expect a lot of light-hearted fun along the way.

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Where is the best place for people to buy tickets and keep up to date with FourPlay String Quartet?

The FourPlay website will always have our gigs listed with links to buy tickets.

They’ll also be on our Facebook and the other way to keep up is to join our mailing list via the form here.

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After the tour what’s on the cards?

More music! We’ve got a mini album recorded that will be released sometime soon, and we’ll tour some more. We’ve also got an exciting album already in the bag that we recorded with the amazing author, Neil Gaiman – short stories that he reads with our accompaniment; poems we’ve set to music, pieces of ours that he’s written words to match. It’s an exciting collaboration. We’ve just got to find the time in all of our diaries to release it.

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Do you think you will ever stop making music together?

They’ll be wheeling us out onto the stage when we’re in our 90s!

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What has been one or two of the highlights of your music career?

Performing our multi-media work with Neil Gaiman and artist Eddie Campbell, The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains, at Carnegie Hall in New York and London’s Barbican Centre has got to be right up there! But equally, there have been some absolutely magic nights in little venues around Australia, and at festivals from Woodford to Port Fairy and more.

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What has been one of the most unique or interesting shows for you to play and why?

Not to blow our own trumpet (so to speak) but we’re often the unique thing about our shows. In the early days people didn’t know what to make of a string quartet getting up on rock lineups in rock venues playing rock music – e.g. we supported The Screaming Jets at the Newcastle Workers Club around 1999 and it went off!

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Who are your musical influences and inspirations?

What isn’t? We can – and do – find inspiration pretty much anywhere. Except Billy Ray Cyrus. And Coldplay. And… no, let’s stop that. Seriously, though, our inspiration is super wide, from classical to electronica, bluegrass to gypsy swing, Joni Mitchell to Rage Against the Machine.

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How do you guys find balance in the modern, electronic sounds and your organic, classical sound?

We… just do it. Really. We don’t try to balance. We don’t even really think about it very much. It’s just what comes out.

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What is the hardest part about working in the music industry?

The thing about FourPlay is that we’ve all got heaps of different interests, different strings to our bows, as it were. FourPlay keeps going because we love it and it seems like other people do, too. With those expectations, what comes comes.

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And, what are the BEST parts about creating music for your career?

It’s fun! And there’s nothing better than that feeling when you’re making music that you love and other people love it, too.

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Don’t miss FourPlay as they showcase ‘Wish’ along with tracks from their entire career at a venue near you.

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FourPlay String Quartet

Buy/Stream ‘Wish’ @ Bandcamp

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FourPlay

‘Wish’

Tour Dates 2018

All tickets on sale now

Friday 14 September
Smiths Alternative, Canberra ACT 
Tickets 

Sunday 16 September
The Toff In Town, Melbourne VIC
Tickets
 
Thursday 20 September
Waywards, Newtown NSW
Tickets

Friday 21 September
Bison Bar, Nambour QLD
Tickets

Saturday 22 September
Brunswick Picture House, Brunswick Heads NSW
 Tickets

Sunday 23 September
Brightside, Brisbane QLD
Tickets

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More information HERE

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‘Wish’
available exclusively now via
Bandcamp

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Fourplay String Quartet

 

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FOURPLAY STRING QUARTET

BIO 2018

FourPlay String Quartet defy convention and stereotyping. As much a band as a string quartet, they blur the boundaries between styles and genres while maintaining their own original and true sound. They joined forces with author/graphic novelist Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Coraline) and comics artist/cartoonist Eddie Campbell (Bacchus, From Hell) on a whirlwind international tour at some of the world’s greatest venues, including Carnegie Hall, The Barbican Centre in London, The Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, and Usher Hall in Edinburgh. They performed an opening set and also their collaborative work The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, which first premiered at the Graphic Festival at the Sydney Opera House. The book was released worldwide June 2015, with the e-book shortly after.

FourPlay write their own songs inspired by rock, pop, post-rock, jazz, klezmer, swing, folk-tronica, hip hop and more. They also perform covers by a diverse array of bands, from The Strokes and Radiohead to Leonard Cohen, Robert Johnson and many, many more… no musical stone is left unturned.

The foursome shot to prominence in Australia and Europe in the late 90’s as a unique musical phenomenon – an indie rock band that just happened to be a string quartet. They achieved fame and (somewhat) fortune with a DIY ethos and a rather punk attitude for people who had originally met through playing in orchestras. In the time since, FourPlay have toured internationally and released four studio albums, a remix album, and a trilogy of mini CDs. They have played many of the world’s great concert halls as well as gritty rock clubs. They have composed and performed live comic book scores, collaborated on live film scores with Plaid (UK/WARP) and have completed their first album and a new EP of 100% original material.

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Listen and buy Tunes HERE

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Follow FOURPLAY STRING QUARTET

Website   Twitter   Soundcloud   Bandcamp   Facebook

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AMNPLIFY – DB