We caught up with the stunning vocalist Natalie Foster of Tully on Tully, to talk Ep titles, live art exhibitions at music shows, what the band are up to for the rest of the year and Natalie tell us why we shouldn’t miss their hometown EP Launch in Melbourne on Saturday 7th September.
Congratulations on the release of your EP Weightless, tell how the title of release came about.
We were actually trying to come up with a title for the track ‘Quiet Company’ that wasn’t ‘Uke Song’ and there’s a lyric in there that says, ‘Weightlessly I’ll tell you of my mind’. So Weightless got thrown into the mix and immediately we were like, ‘Na, not the track title… We should call the EP that though.’ So we did.
You’re currently on your Weightless tour, what has been your favourite show so far? Tell us why.
Canberra and Byron Bay have been the real highlights so far. In Canberra, we played to a sold out crowd at the White Eagle Club which has a traditional Polish restaurant attached to it so we were all chowing down these amazing meals that were three quarters meat. Not a good place for a vegetarian but a good place for us! And in Byron Bay, everything was pristine. The weather… the venue… the crowd… the drink price… perfect.
Tell us about the live art exhibition that took place at your Canberra show?
It was really amazing. Elisha Bones (playing at our Melbourne EP launch) organised a couple of local street artists to paint a 3m x 3m picture from the start of the night to the end. It’s not often that you see a painting progress from a blank canvas to the finished product so it was pretty special to see.
What are best and worst things about being the only girl in the band?
There are occasions when I sit with the guys while they’re talking and think, ‘Are you guys serious? You’re still going on about that girl that walked past an hour ago?’ But for the most part I’m probably more of a boy than all of the guys and I grew up with older brothers so it’s kind of like being back at home.
You’ve had over 30,000 views on the video for ‘Stay’, which is massive! Who is the brains and creative behind the concept for the video?
Josh Harris is the brain behind that clip. He’s an amazing up and coming music video maker from Melbourne with so many great ideas. We’re doing a new video with him pretty soon so keep an eye out for that!
How do you find new music to listen to?
I occasionally go through stages of scouring through blogs for new music but for the most part, I just take note of everything that the boys are listening to. We have pretty similar tastes so it makes it easy.
What’s the general before going onstage ritual for Tully on Tully? Any rituals you partake in, or is it just total chaos?
No rituals. If we had rituals, we’d forget to do them on a really important gig and our juju would be off and we’d fuck it all up. I tend to stand still for about 10 seconds but I’ve always put that down to getting distracted and forgetting what I was doing…
If you could curate your own festival, where would it be, who would be on the bill, how many people would you let in and what features would it have?
It’d be on my parents’ farm just outside of Ballarat (I’ve had it plotted out in my head for years). There’d be TV on the Radio, St Lucia, Lordes, Cloud Control, The Preatures, Playwrite (playing at our Melbourne EP launch) and Tully on Tully (obviously). I’d let in around 2500 people and there’d be the Ballarat Taco Van and The Brûlée Cart.
Because everyone is doing duets and as we know you’ve already had Hayden Calnin sing with you on a track, which living artist from anywhere in the world would you most like to collaborate with?
Matt Corby just so I see him shred.
What’s next for Tully on Tully for the rest of 2013 and the beginning of 2014?
We might put out another single or two. We might go on another tour or two. We might record some more. We might go overseas. The options are endless. But in all seriousness, we will probably do all of those things before the second half of next year.
Tell us why we shouldn’t miss Tully on Tully’s EP launch on Saturday 7th September at The Toff In Town in Melbourne.
If you’ve seen us play, hopefully you’ll know why. If you haven’t, you’ll want to find out. But yeah – great bands, great venue and great company. Come.
Watch ‘Stay’ here: