What's Making Forevr Nervous

Sam George-Allen of quartet Forevr hasn't been enjoying the unusually warm Brisbane weather: "It's been like 30 degrees. I don't like it, it makes me feel very strange, it's the middle of July and I'm like, sweating and digging out summer clothes and stuff. It was weird, it was Twilight-Zoney." Well, she might be clinging to cosy nights, but it's perfect weather for the upcoming Maroochy Music & Visual Arts Festival — for which Forevr are billed — which will kick off on 10 Sep right in time for a hefty dose of Sunny Coast sunshine. "The launch party [for the festival], that's the first show that we're playing as a four-piece," she laughs nervously as she shares the bands back story.

Originally a two-piece (their triple j Unearthed profile still labels them a duo) the band now consists of George-Allen, co-founder Donnie Miller, Kate Mackenzie and Tom Roche. "As a small number of people working on [music] it's pretty easy to write the same thing over and over again. So we were like 'we should get some more people!' It has been a dream. Obviously we were like, 'we should hang out with our friends', you know. So we asked people who we liked a lot to join the band."

According to George-Allen, the booming Brissy scene is partly attributed to this friends-making-stuff-together attitude — "My theory is that there's not a whole bunch of other stuff you can do if you like music and you live in Brisbane. Like you can go and see bands… but there's not that many venues and there's only so many people. So if you like it and you wanna play it, you probably know someone who's in a band and who wants to start another band. The community is small enough and enthusiastic enough that it's really easy to start making music."

And even though new festivals like MMVAF are bringing world class music to the Sunshine Coast, the music scene is facing an upward battle with the lurgy that invaded Sydney. George-Allen is pretty nonchalant about the lock out laws, and optimistic about the new regulations having little effect on the live music community. "I honestly have kinda stuck my head in the sand about it. I'm just 'la la la, it's not happening'. I think the pattern at the moment is like a venue will have bands from eight to midnight, and then after that the venue has DJs. A couple of people [are there for the 8pm slot], it depends. The nice thing about - and I mean this is a bit of a Pollyanna thing to say - but people who care about music will come to your show. It's just a dedicated crowd I suppose."

And she's one of that crowd - she's excited to catch fellow Brissy artist Mallrat, who's headlining the MMVAF launch party on 11 Aug at the Woolly Mammoth, and despite being a self described "hermit", she's keen to "keep the hyperventilating to a minimum" before her set at the festival itself and head out to enjoy the day. "It just seems more like a relaxed vibe than a lot of the festivals I've been to. Believe it or not I'm not really a festivally sort of person… too many people… But everyone who's going is so excited as well, you look at the social media and people are like 'this is so cool, it's happening on the Sunshine Coast' and I'm like 'yeah, it is really cool!'"