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The Millers Tale.
The Millers Tale are possibly one of country's best-kept secrets - but as whispers about the band grow so will their inevitable popularity in the acoustic folk music scene. I caught up with one half of the duo, John Maclean while Rebecca Quade, the other half, listened in.
"We met at a party about six years ago," Maclean explains of the band's inception. "We got talking about music and figured we were on the same wavelength. Bec hadn't sung much before and I wanted to play more acoustic stuff."
The music is a sweet infusion of well blended harmonies with thoughtful lyrics. "When we're writing we try to find good melodies so I guess the structure of the songs is a bit more pop but presented in that acoustic way. It's a bit more folky, a bit more rootsy," Maclean explains.
"A lot of it is observational but some of it is just story. Bec always takes snippets from her friends' lives and a lot of her songs come out of that. I write more story-like but with Bec she writes more phrases capturing the emotion of what someone is going through."
The pair sing about a wide range of topics but concentrate on personal growth and healing. "The song that comes to mind there is Rolling Home which is about moving on. That's a healthy thing in life generally, if you have those experiences and push through regardless. It's an easy way out for people if they can avoid the tough work of growing as a person.
"Music generally is just a good way of making sense of things in my life. Sometimes I find a song that means something or connects in a certain way and it makes something in my life a bit easier to deal with or understand. So I guess it's nice to think that our songs were able to do that for people."
They are also currently enjoying their first taste of touring. "It's very bare bones and stripped back because as a duo, unless we start playing drums with our feet, there's not a lot we can do!" he laughs. "A lot of it is acoustic guitar and Bec does a bit of accordion and bass just to vary the tone of it a bit. It's just stripping back the songs as they are recorded and presenting them in that acoustic fashion. We just see what songs we come up with and see where that takes us."
After a break from their first album and two years in the studio for 'Wish It Away' The Millers Tale have produced one very fine album. Their easy-going attitude enabled them to get it 'just right' and perhaps allowed word to spread about the Melbourne duo?
"There was no point in rushing it because as a friend said to us about a year and a half ago 'who's waiting?'"
Kelly Parish
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The Millers Tale play at the Grace Emily on Thurs 9 Sept.
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