The Miller's Tale: Village People.

The Miller’s Tale play The Zoo on Thursday and Ric’s Café on Sunday.

Stripped back. Melodic. Harmonic. These are just some of the terms often used to describe the Sydney duo of Bec Quade and John Maclean, aka The Miller’s Tale.

Sharing their name with a Chaucer classic, The Miller’s Tale are far from “hey nonny nonny” minstrels with lutes and mad Jethro Tull-style jigging. On the contrary, their brand of folk is rich in pop sensibility, with influences that stray far from the trad folk formula.

Chatting with John Maclean confirms this.

“Yeah, we listen to everything from Nick Drake to Australian guitar pop (You Am I, Pollyanna) and as a result, you would never be able to just categorise what we do as folk,” he says. With a performance at The Zoo on Thursday with Gorgeous and a Sunday night gig at Ric’s, John says the band are looking forward to bringing their own brand of organic music to Brisbane audiences.

“We’ve played Woodford before and we got a great response there,” says John. “What struck me about Woodford, was that it is categorised as a folk festival, but there was music there that was far removed from what we’ve traditionally called folk.”

I see where you’re coming from. I’ve seen Midnight Oil, Powderfinger and george at Woodford.

“Exactly, and you wouldn’t term them as folk bands,” says John. “But it’s all folk music, in a sense. Because it’s definition is ‘music for the people’. Which is what we aim to do. So we’re folk, but we are pretty different from people’s perceptions of that kind of music.”

John and Bec both come from rural backgrounds, but both met in Sydney, where they discovered shared tastes in music. Before long, they formed The Miller’s Tale. One of the major events in the group’s career has been the release of their self-titled eight-track CD. Released early last year on Vitamin Records, the disc combined Bec and John’s acoustic-flavoured, harmony-rich music with hammond organ, low whistle, mandolin and violin.

“Live, we generally stick to a pretty stripped back approach,” says John. “When we did the CD, it was nice to use some extra instruments and make some arrangements that vary somewhat from our live show.”

The disc was recorded in three studios, including Bec’s brother’s set-up in New York. Glowing reviews resulted and intimate, memorable live shows have kept the band’s profile high in the Sydney music community.

The Miller’s Tale are also working on a follow-up disc, which John says will be a full-length album. In the meantime, check out the duo doing what they do best this weekend.