Four Play

Four Play violinist Lara Goodridge calls me from 'workstation central'; which is that part of her home devoted to getting business done, since she is not only a member of the highly regarded quartet but also runs a record label for women singer songwriters in what night count as spare time.

"Yep, it's in my bedroom because I run the record label from home," she confirms, and points out her lifestyle isn't unique in the band. Since they've been around for over eleven years now. All band members need other pursuits, creative and otherwise. When the time comes to reconvene, they answer the call.

"Everyone's very busy doing stuff round the world. For us a good time of the week is sort of getting together for something like three hours a week nowadays; but we're all, very happy. We got together at the beginning of the year and wrote a full album's worth of material..." Most of which, she tells me, doesn't fit that easily into the Four Play canon, since she feels this time around they wrote differently, "using looping pedals and a little bit electronics sounding. We got together in a house in Tasmania and just got straight down to work. It really was a great session and a great release."

In any event, there;s not going to be a new album until sometime next year, and with the last album being released in June 2006 that'll make it near enough to two years between drinks... 'Now To The Future' was launched with a gig at the Gov and was heavily played on ABC radio. "We love that album," Goodridge says matter-of-factly. Such a release schdule does nothing to cramp the Four Play style however, since they're on their way back to Adelaide for a one night exclusive performance at the Festival Centre.

"We're coming especially because we were invited to be part of a performance series, and we've been rehearsing up on some jazz arrangements especially for it. And, we'll be back at the end of the year for the guitar festival... it's very exciting, we'll be performing some Hendrix, but I guess we don't want to talk too much about that now."

Maybe not, but Goodridge makes the point most eloquently that Four Play have more versatility and cover more styls of music than your average quartet.

"We feel we've got quite a lot in our repertoire, especially when we lean towards jazz and things like that," she agrees. "Things such as Mingus.

"And I have o say we're so much looking forward to it. We'll be convening very, very soon, with piece of paper with songs written down on it so we can decide what to play for this show. Sometimes its mutual, sometimes we argue, but I doubt we'll come to fisticuffs over it. It does take time to get them together, though."

About all she'll nominate for me are the obvious choices: a couple of the classics like Cry Me A River and My Baby Just Cares For Me and a bit of Mingus and Miles Davis...

"There's not really a Four Play sound, is there, but is there a style? I think so, and it's determined by who we are as players. The guys are really good at doing rhythm parts, and some of the music we get to do becomes just a process of experimenting; its quite a journey but it's always really fun. More often than not it takes some real hard work to bring it all together, but that's part of the fun. We'll also do some swing and some later jazz, and some originals, so it should be a great night."

Alex Wheaton

Four Play perform one show only - in the Space Theatre on Fri 14 Sept. To win a double pass see the Prize Frenzy(tm)