"Maybe we went to the same school?" says a confused Annie Hamilton while we're riding the elevator up to the roof for our interview. The four of us 20-something girls can't quite work out where we cross paths, and it keeps popping up intermittently during our chat. Suggestions range from the insular nature of Sydney's Northern Beaches and North Shore, where we're all from, to getting drunk at a local pub. We scour Facebook to exchange mutual friends.
Liz Drummond, Hannah Field and Annie Hamilton of 'ghost-folk' band Little May are bubbly, energetic and eager to shoot the breeze, so to speak, as we struggle not to eat our hair in the wind atop the office roof. They seem like the same laidback girls who played Eagle-Eye Cherry as teenagers: "We played open mic nights and just played Save Tonight every Thursday night, which was probably very traumatic for the people at the Greengate [Hotel]," admits Field. "We tried to do Tracy Chain… what, no, Tracy… Kasey Chambers?" Drummond looks horrified, "No! Chapman! Not Kasey Chambers… Kasey…" "Fast Car?" I offer. "Yes! Tracy Chapman's Fast Car," sighs Field with relief. "But never Wonderwall, thank God!"
"We were staying in an old house that had no Wi-Fi, and sometimes you just want to, you know, go on the internet or send a message to someone,"
A note on ghost-folk — it's not really their genre, despite becoming lumped under this banner for a while. "I think that popped up before we released the EP a few years ago and it kinda worked. It's not like we thought on it and went everywhere saying that we were 'ghost-folk' — I think someone wrote it in a review and it kinda just stuck for a while, but I don't think that's really us anymore," explains Hamilton. "Present day Little May," rhymes Field. "I'd say like we're... indie?," she furthers, uncertain. Drummond butts in. "But see, what even is indie?" to which Hamilton muses "I dunno… like slow-burning indie-rock-pop." "I like that… like a candle. Sexy," agrees Drummond. There, that's settled then.
Their latest album For The Company was created during a five-week cram session in New York, which was easier for the girls than finding Wi-Fi. "We were staying in an old house that had no Wi-Fi, and sometimes you just want to, you know, go on the internet or send a message to someone," says Field. So, where did they find it? "Maccas!" exclaims Drummond with a giggle. "Basically it was like a tour of trying to find Wi-Fi, is how you would describe it," concedes Hamilton.
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As you do when you're surrounded by three young, female musicians, we get onto the topic of their take on the future of women in the industry. They all have a lot to say, and it's more positive than many thoughts bouncing around behind the scenes.
"I was thinking about this change from when we first started — it's become less of a deal in the last couple of years. Maybe it was because we were a bit younger and a bit more self-conscious that it felt like more of a thing," says Drummond. "It feels like it's just really picking up in terms of women — bigger female presence in the music industry."
"It's good that the discussion is happening; it's sad that it has to be a discussion, but that's just how it is at the moment. I look forward to the time when we don't dwell on it and go 'Woah, you guys are girls,'" Hamilton flourishes.
"It'll be cool when it's not a thing. Like, when we don't have to talk about it anymore. I love talking about it now, because I think it's a very prominent discussion that's being had constantly, but I think that it'd be awesome to not have to talk about women — it's just music, it's just musicians, it's just artists," meditates Field, and we all agree.
