Sara Tindley ready to openSplendour in the Grass

Wed 20th Jun, 2007 in Features

After her critically acclaimed album, Lucky the Sun, was released last year, Sara Tindley and her band The Kingfishers are preparing excitedly about their biggest gig: opening act at Splendour in the Grass festival in August.

“We’re very excited to be opening Splendour, which is a real big surprise that we could get that gig. I’m playing it with my band The Kingfishers and we’ve been working pretty hard to get a really cooking and diverse live set happening. So I think we hope that on the day, first and foremost, that we play a fantastic gig and that people get turned on to what we’re doing,” she said in an interview to Faster Louder.

This year the festival will bring talents like: Lily Allen, Artic Monkeys, The Cat Empire, Bloc Party and Dirty Three to the hordes of eager music fans. About 20,000 people will be expected to attend the event which sold out completely five hours after being released.

“I guess in a sense we’re the underdog-we’re the unknown of the bill. It’s exciting to come from that point actually, to see whether we can, you know, do it impressive enough that wins some more fans,” Tindley said.

About the act in the festival, Tindley said: “”We’ve got a couple of new songs that we’re going to try on Splendour that are not in the album. I think we’re gonna rock it a bit harder than we often do.”

When asked as to what will audiences shall expect, Tindley admitted it was a tough question. “What will they expect? “They’ll expect… that is a tough question (laughs)” What would they expect? Well, If I was going and I’d be checking out that, I would expect that, first and foremost, we play like champions and that we create a bit of magic in that tent to kind mark that particular venue to say something quite different and special,” she said.

Tindley, whose reviewers have compared her style and songwriting to popular country music singers like Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin who she also admits are inspirations for her, said that her music style is hard to categorise. “It’s a tricky question. Its essence is country music. I listen to lots of music that’s not country and so there’s a lot of other flavours that get into it. It’s probably a mix of country, roots and blues. I guess, if that’s a description (laughs),” she said.

During concerts she said that she gets positive feedback from fans, some who go to her and tell her how much they relate to her songs. “I’ve got one song Hot for You which is kind of a sexy love song and the girls, the chicks, love that song, they love it: ‘Ahhh it’s so good to hear, a real hard sexy love song,” she said. It was mandatory to ask her what song generated the most positive feedback for guys after the girls prefered the sexy love song. “Yeah (laughs), very sexy… there’s a couple of them actually. It’s funny. There’s a song called Rain Falls and on the album is recorded as a duet with a fella called Troy Loakes from the Huckleberry Swedes and blokes seem to really like that song, that’s one that the fella’s get into. There’s also a really kinda depressing dark song about love gone wrong called Heart it was a Desert and I think it might be the guitar that Bill Chambers plays on it that guys dig but a lot of blokes come and talk to me about that song.”

After her important showcase at Splendour, Sara said she would like to continue performing in festivals around the country and expand her music. “Just basically a lot more gigs, a lot more getting the music out there and trying to get it across the people and get people to come along,” she said about playing her music throughout the region.

She also told FasterLouder that she’s started writing for an upcoming CD for next year. “”Yeah, I’m not sure how far off it is. I’d be hoping that it will be possible to start it for the mid next year. I’ve already started writing for it so I’d like to think that by mid next year I’ll have a good collection of songs to choose from to get a new album out there,” she said.

She also said one final message for her upcoming concert in Splendour in the Grass: “I’d just say that if you’re coming along to Splendour come along nice and early so you can watch our show, so we can actually be playing to some excited people.”