Melodic sounds at Lawler’s Hut

Melbourne folk-pop group The Wishing Well will perform at Lawler’s Hut this Saturday night.

In the melodic tradition of Ryan Adams, David Gray, Dave Matthews Band and The Waterboys, The Wishing Well combines orchestral music with evocative lyrics.

The bandis made up of (from left) Oscar Lopez on bass and vocals, drummer Rod McCleod, Sarah Busuttil on violin and vocals, violinist Rivkah Larkan, and Jai Larkan on vocals and acoustic guitar.

A deep, rich well of folk, pop and rock

Australian band The Wishing Well create spellbinding sounds which produce a rich tapestry of folk, pop and rock.

The band is excited to introduce to fans, new and old, their unique blend of violin-driven folk/rock and will perform at the Railway Hotel in Byron Bay tonight (Jan 21).

In the melodic tradition of Ryan Adams, David Gray, Dave Matthews

Band and The Waterboys, The Wishing Well appeals to lovers of emotive lyrics and memorable melodies.

Their inspiring live performances have generated a legion of dedicated fans.

The band has just returned from a successful tour of Ireland, The UK and Europe.

By Ben Hermann

Not for the faint-hearted:
The Wishing Well played 70 days straight in Europe

Melbourne folk-rock troubadours the Wishing Well are not a group that do anything by half measures. Since their inception in 2007, they’ve traversed not only our own brown land but also parts of North America and Europe, playing almost 700 shows and burning through 32 band members in the process. This month sees them launch yet another tour, bringing them through Canberra twice in two weeks.

”It’s really tiring, and certainly not for everybody. All the musicians we’ve played with have been world class, and absolutely beautiful people, but to maintain our lifestyle takes a lot of stamina and vision”, says Rivkah Larkan, the group’s violinist – a law graduate who worked for the UN before committing herself completely to music.

”When we were recently in Europe, we’d get up around 9am, go find a busking pitch, play for three hours, have a nap, then go to sound check. We did that every day for 70 days. As is the case in Australia as well, the busking is more profitable than the shows. We made back all our money from flights, food, accommodation and venue hiring, plus saved enough to record our next album.

” Such feats would normally have even the most hardened on-the-road musician quivering with a nervous chill, but Larkan brushes it off like nothing more than a hard day at work, digressing to discuss tales from when the group were once paid for their threehour show in wilted beetroots, to playing with Van Morrison, and busking for 500 people in front of Milan’s famous cathedral.

”The amazing thing about music is that if you truly love it, it gives you so much energy” says Larkan. ”You can play a particular chord or lyric and you can physically see how it moves people. It’s a true and deep feeling, and completely and utterly addictive” she says.

”And as the Dalai Lama is quoted, ‘You should judge life by what you’ve given up’. Now, we’re not successful by any stretch of the imagination, but we gave up security, jobs, and I was in huge debt at the beginning of our last tour. But we’re doing what we love to do, and that’s play music. We can do it all day every day and we don’t have to do anything else. There’s not much more we could ask for.”

In the context of such a masochistic touring lifestyle, it’s not surprising the group has only released one album – Life on the Border – thus far. Recording for their follow-up, Fire on the Hill, was scheduled for late last year, but as Larkan points out, time has slipped so easily through their fingers.

”The recording we’ve done so far has been more challenging than our first album. It’s more epic, and there’s a lot more production, which has taken up lots of time” she says. ”But we don’t really have much time to just sit down and work on the music. Jai [the group's vocalist and lyricist] has difficulty finishing his lyrics with such constant disruption. So we’re at a point now where a majority of the music is finished but things still need tidying up.”

But before then, there’s more touring to be done, including trips to both the Phoenix and the Front. Larkan suggests that seated venues dedicated to live music are the group’s ideal, but that every setting is entertaining in its own right. ”RSLs are entertaining every once in a while. Once a guy threw a bottle at us,” Larkan says. ”But it was actually because he liked us. He was just really excited.”

The Wishing Well With: Vamp When: Monday, January 18 Where: The Phoenix, Civic (& The Front on February 1) Tickets: Free

Define your genre in five words or less:

“Violin driven stadium folk rock.”

So, someone is walking past as you guys are playing, they then go get a beer and tell their friend about you… what do they say?

“Friend ‘I just saw this great band busking outside Flinders Street. They’ve got two chick violin players in corsets, another girl who plays mandolin and electric and the singer has a really expressive voice and writes great lyrics. They perform a cool mixture of lush ballads and rockin tunes with fierce violin solos.’ Other friend: ‘Oh yeah, The Wishing Well, I know them. They play constantly. I’ve got their CD and can’t wait for the new one. I first heard them outside Flinders Street too!”

How long have you been gigging and writing?

“Three years, eight days and four hours.”

What has been your favourite gig you’ve played to date?

“Blue Balls Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland – the downpour broke into sunshine when we struck the first chord of the first song and then a rainbow encircled us.

Which band would you most like to have a battle! showdown with?

“We don’t battle bands, we sit back and appreciate. Mumford and Sons are a new band we’ve discovered and like appreciating.”

What inspires or has influenced your music the most?

“The people who recognise beauty in uncommon placer.
As an independent self-managed band, we often play more gigs than concerts. The people who are moved by our music even in the most un-ambient of places, like that dreadful TAB in Port Macqoarie, encourage us to continue.

Those few killjoys out there who tried to tell us that we couldn’t do what we do, or that we should just be a little bit more ’something’ have also influenced us.. to stay true to the music we believe in and to keep on doing exactly what they said we couldn’t.”

What do you think a band has to do these days to succeed?

“Quit their day jobs, live, breathe, eat, fart their music. Stop waiting for perfection, build it yourself imperfectly.

Become a holistic musician, play the song not just your instrument, embrace the business side of music and incorporate all the arts into performances (theatre,visual art, story telling etc.) don’t dress on stage in the outfit you used to clean the toilet. Don’t let the music industry define your music, how or where you play it – they exist because of us, not us because of them.

Never underestimate where opportunities can come from, no matter how dodgy they first seem. We once played for a few beetroots. They were organic, but still. Someone saw us play at that daggy beetroot concert and booked us to play a festival a few months later. A true musician never turns down an opportunity to play.”

Do you have any record releases to date? What? Where can I get it?

“Life On The Border (2008 LP) is available straight from our little paws and off our website lifeontheborder, net which we also built with our own little paws. Over 5,000 people in the past year have purchased it this way – so can you. Fire In The Valley (2010 LP) is due out in January.”

Why should everyone come and see your band?

“We don’t want everyone to come and see our band. We want only the people who get it to come and see us play. The rest can go to the footy.”

When are you playing live/releasing your album/EP/ single/etc?

“The Beat Back Stage at Queen Victoria Market tonight, Wednesday December 16. Our next Melbourne show is at The Thornbury Theatres on Saturday, May 8, 2010 to launch Fire In The. Valley. Until then we are touring Oz heavily and then go back to Europe in July.’

The Wishing Welt play the Beat Back Stage at Suzuki Queen Victoria Night Market tonight, Wednesday December 16. Get along and also nail some freakin’ ace food and booze – it’s a rip snorter of a night out.

MELBOURNE band The Wishing Well bring their blend of violin-driven folk rock back to Tasmania this weekend.

The Wishing Well – Jai Larkan (vocals, guitar), Sarah Busuttil (violin, vocals), Rivkah Larkan (violin), Alex Rottier (bass, vocals) and Mikey Minten (drums) – have only been together for a few years but have already played more than 600 gigs on the international circuit, evoking a gamut of emotions with their rich tapestry of mesmerising folk. pop and rock music.

A cacophony of three-part harmonies released in March 2008, The Wishing Well’s debut album Life On The Border showcased Jai Larkan’s moving songwriting, haunting vocals and poetic lyrics.

The band’s captivating and inspiring live performances have helped them develop an enthusiastic and ever-growing fan base around the country. They have established themselves as one of Australia’s hardest working independent bands, booking all their own tours, organising all their own publicity and financing their own recordings.

The Wishing Well embarked on their maiden European tour earlier this year, which was a huge success. Now they are touring Tasmania before heading into the studio to record their second album.

“Tassie, we miss you!” Larkan said. “We always have a great time and are looking forward to seeing all you wild Tasmaniacs again.”

The Wishing Well play at Margate’s Brookifeld Vineyard from 7pm tomorrow, the Republic Bar in North Hobart from 10pm Saturday ($5 cover), and at The Bridge Hotel at Forth on Sunday Afternoon.

“…Music is everything to us: our work, our party, our meditation, our holiday, our inspiration, our frustration…”

It takes a bit to scroll through the numerous gigs lined up for The Wishing Well on their MySpace. If you’re wondering why they’re so popular, with consistent dates for (at least) the next six months, it might have something to do with the extremely passionate nature they play their S orchestral folk rock. If they had one wish, it would simply be that they continue playing music together, and it seems the Melbourne band have had this one granted – and then some. We caught up with violin player Rivkah, who really wishes you would come along to one of their shows this January!

If you could drop a coin in a wishing well and make one wish right now, what would it be?

We love coming to Tasmania, and it would be nice if it could float north to Port Phillip Bay like a lost child to its mother, so we could stroll across anytime we want for some fun gigs and cheap Cascade.

What’s one thing in your life you wish you hadn’t done?

That we hadn’t chopped up and buried that over-playing bass player who could never remember the chords.

What’s one thing you wish you had?

Found the current members of our band sooner. It’s a difficult combination to find – a group of six people that get each other personally and musically, are willing to live on the road andwith one another, and that accept that part of playing in a band that is establishing itself means not a lot of money and a whole lot of work. It’s taken enough people to fill a small orchestra to find these people.

Who’s one person you really wish you could meet and why?

Bruce Springsteen for his inspiring music, humble manner and amazing on stage presence.

You guys have a LOT of gigs lined up for the next six months, is it like your wishes have been granted?

It’s more like the fruits of our hard work have been granted. It’s a pretty intense lifestyle booking and publicising all our own gigs, organising the logistics for all our tours, writing new songs, rehearsing and playing live constantly.

We are used to living out of the van, driving 8 hours to a gig and then doing the same thing the next day. But we are getting better at it after doing it over 600 times in the past 3 years. With every gig we play, we learn more from each other musically and personally and from the audiences who either love us or play pool over the top of us.

Do you ever wish you could take a little break?

Music is everything to us: our work, our party, our meditation, our holiday, our inspiration, our frustration. It would be like taking a break from eating. We could do it but not for very long and we would just be thinking about it all the time anyway.

What’s one thing you wish to see when you make it to Tasmania in January?

The Army Reserve restraining thousands of fans at the airport. See you there!

MEEGAN MAY

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The Wishing Well produisent des textures luxuriantes amalgamant folk hypnotique, pop et rock. Une harmonie faite de trois ingrédients majeurs : un violon mélancolique, des rythmes majestueux.

Les Wishing Well produisent des textures luxuriantes amalgamant folk hypnotique, pop et rock. Nouveaux venus sur les scènes, ces australiens font état d’une maturité musicale impressionnante. Une harmonie faite de trois ingrédients majeurs : un violon mélancolique, des rythmes majestueux menés par les chants obsédants du lead vocal Jai Larkan. Cet été, ce sont 11 pays parcourus parmi lesquels notre hexagone et le choix exclusif de l’OPA.

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Présentation de la soirée The Wishing Well (australie)
The Wishing Well – (Australie)

Les Wishing Well produisent des textures luxuriantes amalgamant folk hypnotique, pop et rock. Nouveaux venus sur les scènes, ces australiens font état d’une maturité musicale impressionnante. Une harmonie faite de trois ingrédients majeurs : un violon mélancolique, des rythmes majestueux menés par les chants obsédants du lead vocal Jai Larkan. Cet été, ce sont 11 pays parcourus parmi lesquels notre hexagone et le choix exclusif de l’OPA.

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Les Wishing Well produisent des textures luxuriantes amalgamant folk hypnotique, pop et rock. Nouveaux venus sur les scènes, ces australiens font état d’une maturité musicale impressionnante. Une harmonie faite de trois ingrédients majeurs : un violon mélancolique, des rythmes majestueux menés par les chants obsédants du lead vocal Jai Larkan. Cet été, ce sont 11 pays parcourus parmi lesquels notre hexagone et le choix exclusif de l’OPA.