Sam See // The Fringe Adelaide 2018

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Field, See & Mason, is the latest collaboration between music veterans, Sam See, Lindsay Field, and Glyn Mason. Together, the trio have created ‘Down Under the Covers’, a brand new show of which revisits Australian anthems through the group’s unique delivery.

Sam See recently chatted with AMNplify about the show’s Adelaide Fringe debut and how it all came to be.

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So you’ve got your Field, See & Mason: Down Under the Covers Fringe show, how did this project come about? 

So it’s Lindsay Field, I’m Sam See, and Glyn Mason. The three of us have been singing together since the mid 80’s which is when we started playing in Brian Cadd’s band, and from day one pretty much it just felt right. We sang so well together and we’ve all gone on and done separate things. I mean Lindsay’s probably best known as John Farnham’s backing singer: He’s been with him for 30 years. Glyn and I have been working together as a duo called The Pardoners for 12 years, and we’ve got two albums out but it’s very hard to sort of attract new audiences when they don’t know the material. So I suggested, why don’t we do an album or a show based on Australian songs that everyone already knows, but we’ll arrange them and sing them our way. So that’s what we do.

So a nice unique take on it then? 

We think so, and I think its been quite an eye opener for us because playing songs that are familiar and yet different, people have really enjoyed it. So it’s like they’re our songs but of course they’re not.

For your audiences here, what can be expected from your show? 

Okay, well, as I’ve said it’s three acoustic guitars, with three voices on the top. Glyn plays a stomp box so we rock out a bit, so it’s not a folk act by any means and I think people can sort of look forward to hearing songs that they know and love as we do. We’ve picked the best of the best and we’ve probably attacked about three shows worth  of songs and this is probably the best of those. It covers an incredibly wide range from Country Radio’s Gypsy Queen, which is sort of more a countryish theme, to Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning, to The Angels’ Take a Long Line, so it’s really that sort of wide variety.

So how did you cut down that list then? 

Well, we’re still cutting it down the list, yeah, I’m the main arranger so I sort of basically know where our voices will sit and who’s voice might suit which song. Lindsay’s got a fabulous rich baritone and Glyn is one of the best tenors in the country, he’s just got an incredible rock voice, and I’m kind of the comic relief I suppose in the middle! Yeah so that was the start, it was just finding songs that we liked, well we had to like them but it was also picking ones that suited our voices.

Well the Adelaide Fringe is such a dynamic festival environment, have you played in such an environment before?

No, and I think we’re really looking forward to it from that point of view. We’ve done some shows interstate where we’ve played to a totally cold audience who never heard us before. I think, that in itself will be a thrill, because I lived in Adelaide for a while in the early 70’s, I was in a band called Fraternity here and I haven’t really been back here that often since so coming back here and playing to an audience that hasn’t heard us its always a challenge to A, win them over, then B, to be able to be fresh too.
I feel like Fringe time in Adelaide is the perfect time for that.

Is it?

Yeah,  I notice anyway during the Fringe, Adelaide seems a bit more alive.

Does it?

Yeah yeah… And everyone’s willing to kind of give everything a go ..

I had a look at the program and its incredibly diverse!

There’s so much going on!!

So what has been a stand out moment of your career?

I don’t really know if there’s one. I think the biggest success I’ve had was when I wrote a song for John Farnham from Whispering Jack called Reasons. But I mean that was not a moment, that was a journey I suppose. Oh look I’ve had lots of incredible experience like playing on the steps of the Opera House to 150,000 people and playing and touring in America, I was in this Canadian band called Lighthouse and they were very popular in parts of America to the superstar level you know which was totally alien to anything I’d experienced before but it wasn’t so much the superstar level, it was just the aspect of being able to do a show with a great budget and a really great back up of staging and lighting. So those things are what I remember the most.

Was that ever overwhelming? Or did you just get used to it? 

It’s always overwhelming before we go on. It doesn’t matter if it’s playing to 5 or 500,000 people because, I think I’m not alone in this, for most performers you kind of psych yourself up to go; you’re tuned up you’ve ironed your shirt, spat on your shoes or whatever’s your routine and then just before you go on, you go what if it stiff? So you know it doesn’t really matter the size I think, its more about just getting that condition and being ready. Adrenaline I think it is!

So what have you go planned for the rest of the year in regards to your music?

Well after the Fringe, regrettably for us, Lindsay’s doing some touring with John Farnham, then we’re going to England and we’re doing a rock cruise out of South Hampton. We’ve got a couple of cruises this year, we’re going to do a bit of touring around Australia, so it’s going to be pretty full on.

Nice and busy!

Yeah, it’ll be great!

Just for our last question and for a bit of fun, if you could only listen to one artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?

I think that’s easy for me, it would be The Band. The Band were Bob Dylan’s backing band and then they put out in my mind, two and a half of the best albums that were ever made. So that would be unquestionable for me.

Thank you so much for chatting with me and it was lovely meeting you! 

You’re welcome Chelsea, and hope to see you around the Fringe!

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The Fringe Adelaide 2018

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