A Quick Chat with The Stumblers

'Rhyolite' is your latest release. What inspired you to write the song?

We were on a trip to the States in 2017, we got married in Palm Springs and drove through the desert. I’d read about the ghost town and made a detour to visit, a strange and drastic example of boom and bust. I wrote the song when we returned and it sat in my songbook for years before finding its wings with The Stumblers.

The song has a real sense of movement, from the desert landscape to the ghosts of Rhyolite. Did the story come first, or the music? 

I usually start with a line, which I turn into a chorus and go from there. I had the images in my mind, and wanted to recreate the scene of arriving there at dusk, reflecting on why I seem to chase down these old places or old music or glimpses into a long dead world. With all that imagery coalescing, I spat out the line My Oh My Sing The Ghost of Rhyolite, with the tune, and backfilled the rest. The hardest bit is the narrative, what you want the song to really be about, beyond a tourism promotion.

'A Little Romance' is another recent release. What can you tell us about that song? 

This is the other end of our songwriting spectrum - a fun and humour driven duet, joyful and catchy. We wanted to release two songs to show the breadth of our sound, from light-hearted to more thoughtful. It’s a song dedicated to anyone who has been married a looong time, a lot of people can relate to the gentle teasing and general lack of romance in our lives.

The Stumblers bring together musicians from a range of genres. How did the six-piece come together? 

Funny enough, through a primary school! My husband and I had been performing as a duo for a few years, suddenly I found myself highly motivated to assemble the country band I’d always fantasized about. Kirsty, Fee and Beck were fellow school mums and highly skilled musos from classical and folk backgrounds, I had to convince them to give country music a try. Stevie is a rock drummer who also plays with Good News Now We Can Eat All The Vampires (Australian Music Prize Nominees), and had played drums in both Dan and my bands in the past, he was our first choice on this project. The timing has been so perfect for everyone, it feels like a gift from the heavens.

Your live shows are designed to get people dancing and smiling. What makes a great Stumblers gig? 

Our favourite piece of feedback from an audience member is “I really enjoyed that”. Not the usual “great gig” or “that was cool”. We bring a combination of fun music, on stage humour and chemistry, and a whole lot of rhinestones to make sure everyone has a great time, whether they’re fans of the genre or not. When I go to a gig, I want to be entertained, not wishing the band would hurry up and finish, so I take it upon myself to be the band I want to see. 

You can perform as a duo, trio or six-piece. How do you decide which format works best for a particular show? That all depends on how big the stage is! It can be tough to squeeze 6 people onto a small stage, but it’s definitely worth it when we can. It can also be hard to coordinate 6 calendars. A deep bench means we can adapt the performance if we’re down a player. But we are at our best with the full big band sound.