How Kram Helped Stonefield Think "Outside The Box"

12 July 2016 | 1:21 pm | Bryget Chrisfield

"We’ve had experiences where we’ve had co-writing sessions set up for us and whatever and it’s just, like – really, we hate them."

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Two of the Findlay sisters, Amy (vocals, drums) and Sarah (keys, vocals), enter Breakfast Thieves where we've arranged to chat over lattes (one soy) right on time and make their way over to our table. Sarah wears a woolly jumper in a dark hue with fur trim and her hair is pulled back with a centre parting. Her older sister Amy wears trademark black felt floppy hat over flowing blonde locks, oozing gypsy-rocker spirit.

When you press play on Stonefield's second album As Above, So Below, you'll probably be struck by the set's dynamic variation. "Actually working with Kram definitely pushed us to do that," Amy shares, adding that he encouraged all of the sisters to sing a song (even if these "didn't make the record"). "It was something the other girls were really uncomfortable doing," Amy continues, "but it was good because we ended up writing, like, stylistically, really differently." While guitarist Hannah's song channelled a "Lou Reed kinda vibe", according to Amy, "Sarah's and [bassist] Holly's were really pretty piano ballads".

"It was nice to try something different... but it just wasn't right," Sarah laughs, recalling her 'experiment'.

Stonefield met Kram a couple of years back when they supported Dan Sultan and the Spiderbait drummer/singer was Sultan's special guest. They chatted after the show and made plans to "catch up for breakfast or something", Amy tells. "He did the score for an Australian film [Love Is Now] recently and he had this song left over... and he was like, 'Oh, I've got this song that I've been working on that I feel like is the direction that you girls are starting to take for this new record.' And we were like, 'Ok, cool.' And then we ended up going for a drive in his car and listening to it and we were like, 'Yeah, this is exactly what we wanna do.'

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"He spent a bunch of time at mum and dad's — like, staying up there — and we kinda turned our house into a studio, and we recorded, like, 25 songs."

"And then we were just like, 'Yeah, you should come over and we'll just jam and see what happens,' and, yeah! We just became really quick friends and we were on the same page immediately. And we've had experiences where we've had co-writing sessions set up for us and whatever and it's just, like — really, we hate them." On whether their sisterly bond makes it difficult to welcome anyone new into the fold, Sarah admits, "It's weird. Like, it takes a while to get used to."

"We've had some good experiences," Amy stresses, "like, working with Adalita was awesome... But, yeah! Writing with Kram was just such an organic, natural thing and we just got each other and we had the best time. Then it just kind of led into, like, 'Oh, we should work on this album together,' and, yeah! He spent a bunch of time at mum and dad's — like, staying up there — and we kinda turned our house into a studio, and we recorded, like, 25 songs or something like that. I think that's also why we ended up with such a dynamic album; we had so much to choose from and it was really important that we chose carefully."

Three of Stonefield's Findlay sisters still live at home with their parents in Darraweit Guim, but Amy has flown the coop. "I feel like I grew so much when I was like 18 to 21 kinda thing and that I feel like I completely changed as a person," she explains. Their second album marks a "coming of age" for the band and Amy points out this is particularly relevant for her two youngest sisters, Holly and Sarah who were 16 and 12 respectively when Stonefield took out Unearthed High in 2010.

Amy credits Kram with encouraging the sisters to think "outside the box". "For songs that we were kinda like, 'No way, that's so not Stonefield,' he was like, 'But it's a beautiful song! Who cares? Like, if it's a good song, why would you throw it away just because it's not Stonefield?'"

After admitting they're enjoying playing some of these new songs live, Amy confesses, "I think we used to be kind of scared to add in slower songs in our set." Sarah interjects, "We didn't wanna bore the audience or anything." 

"Yeah, but, I dunno," Amy considers. "As a rock band, you think people expect your set to just be, like, full blast, high energy for the whole set. So we used to always try and make it like that."

Stonefield showcased at South By Southwest earlier this year and Sarah was surprised to find "it wasn't as hectic as [she] thought it was gonna be". Amy agrees, "It wasn't as crazy as going and playing Glastonbury" (Stonefield were invited to play said festival way back in 2011).