Music News - The Little Stevies in NZ
04 December 2014 - 0 Comments
The Little Stevies
New Zealand Tour
New Album Diamonds For Your Tea out now
Since their humble beginnings a decade ago, sisters Sibylla and Bethany have built up a reputation as a must see live act; attracting loyal, Little Stevie-loving fans wherever they go. And now they're bringing their sister-act to New Zealand for the first of many tours across the ditch.
“With its symphonically inspired arrangements, when incredibly well-honed, gorgeous songs rip out of the speakers with a deep, warmly polished sound that is better than just about anything I have heard in recent history, you take notice.” Sydney Morning Herald
“The Little Stevies and producer Jono Steer should stand up and take a bow. What has just landed on these ears is a welcome respite from the daily rough and tumble, made possible by the sisters’ song-writing and confident, sweet, layered roots harmonies.” The Age (Melbourne)
“A honed, confident album of folk-influenced pop that ornaments the vocal and compositional flair of Sibylla & Bethany Stephen. Here the Melbourne duo are like a rootsier, more down home version of Azure Ray, with their atmospheric harmonies & ethereal sense of romance.” Rolling Stone
“Recorded in nothing but a spare room, it’s no surprise that nearly every bleating instrument you hear on this record is being played by one of these lovely ladies themselves.” Rip It Up Magazine
New Zealand Tour Dates
Dec 30th – Jan 3rd – Whare Flat Festival, Waiora Valley, Dunedin
January 4th – The Taste Merchants, Dunedin
January 5th – Hill Top Tavern, Akaroa
January 6th – Wunderbar, Christchurch
January 8th – The Free House, Nelson
January 10th – Dharma Bums Club, Wairau Valley, Blenheim
January 11th – Le Café, Picton
January 13th – The Mussel Inn, Onekaka, Golden Bay
Since releasing their debut album Love Your Band as a three piece in 2009, The Little Stevies have released three albums (their debut, its 2011 follow up Attention Shoppers and 2013’s Diamonds For Your Tea) and performed over 300 shows across Australia and North America, including performances at the prestigious CMJ Music Marathon in New York and Canada’s highly regarded Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference (OCFF).
By 2012 – still aged in their mid-20’s – the Stephen sisters had worked damn hard to achieve more than they’d ever dreamed and were proud to call themselves songwriters and performers by trade.
So for album number three they opted to slow things down. Juggling new motherhood, full-time study and part-time work between them, the girls decided that giving themselves more time for being creative with their writing and experimental with sounds was the best way to approach their new material. They built a low budget, low maintenance home studio in the spare room of Sibylla’s house and went to work, taking the time to fully contemplate and realize their new ideas and direction. Together the sisters played the majority of the instruments themselves and the album came together gradually over a 12-month period.
The result is Diamonds For Your Tea: a deeply personal album inspired by new life and death and an album which presents a more mature and thoughtful outlook from the Stephen sisters. The album opener (and title track) is a joyous-sounding tune that references the relentlessness of new-parenthood. Written by Sibylla, the song inspired Beth to write I Hold My Breath. “When one of us writes a song on our own it sparks a combination of admiration and envy,” says Beth. “That’s why the creative partnership works so well; there’s a healthy amount of competition and respect that exists between us so when one of us writes something great a normal response is for the other to try and outdo it.” I Hold My Breath is an equally personal number about “the challenges and insecurities that develop when you are single for a long period of time.”
Since releasing Diamonds For Your Tea in Australia late last year, the Stephen sisters have enjoyed National praise and recognition for their most acclaimed album. Sibylla and Beth’s trademark harmonies are present throughout the record, imbued and buoyed by all that life has presented to the sisters over the last two years. The extra time, love & labour invested in the album has produced The Little Stevies’ most daring and impressive collection of work to date. But nothing compares with seeing them live…
With their unpredictable on-stage banter, exquisite sibling harmonies, irresistible pop melodies & songs that are akin to your favourite stories put to music, and for the first time this January 2015, The Little Stevies are landing on New Zealand soil to give Kiwis a taste of why these ladies have evolved to become such loved festival favourites in Australia and abroad.
Be sure to book a babysitter and come along for an evening with two superb storytellers you’d probably rather not miss. They’ll send you home winning, grinning and probably even singing.
Diamonds For Your Tea is available now through The Little Stevies’ label Love Your Records.
More information available from the website:
http://www.thelittlestevies.com/
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