Focus on folk for new duo of Levine and Field

“The concept came up at the beginning of last year when we decided to team up and create a bit of a side project,” says Field.

“It’s worked really well. We did two tours last year that were great successes. Our music is very acoustic and we sing each other’s songs. It’s an unusual thing – I don’t think any other South African female artists are doing this kind of thing.”

Is it a less risky enterprise this way, combining marketing power and having two sets of fans to draw from?

“It’s an unusual project and it won’t last forever,” muses Field, “and it makes sense the two of us going on the road together.

“It’s a completely different experience to watching either of us on our own – we amalgamate into something new. You can see glimmers of our individual performance styles in it, but it’s fresh, which is why we encourage people to come to the shows.”

Does preparing for a tour like this open up new avenues of creativity?

“It does,” confirms Field.

“All the songs of mine that we do are completely reworked in a beautiful way. There’s something that fans of mine would recognise and like, but it’s overhauled to suit the two of us singing together. The harmonies for two female voices are new: when I’m playing my stuff I usually have a male voice doing my harmonies, so changing it keeps it interesting.”

Side projects like this help to extend the shelf life of a set of songs, and Field is further adding to her music’s longevity by recording an album of acoustic versions of her well-known studio material. All of this allows for the potential to excite three or four different audiences with the same material.

“My feeling as a songwriter is that, if the song is good, it can be reworked in many different ways and it always remains strong. You can strip away all the layers of production and be left with a guitar and a vocal and that alone will make sense to a listener.”

The guitar-and-voice set-up is what many songwriters use when they’re composing.

“I write like that,” says Field.

“That’s why the acoustic album is so needed – and this album with Laurie Levine. It’s me alone, at home with a glass of wine. Fattening it up in the studio, you hope to highlight the things that are beautiful about the song – but it all starts very simply.”

There’s a noticeable growth in the live acoustic music scene throughout South Africa.

“I think so,” says Field.

“When I first started playing, all I wanted to do was write folk music, but record companies were saying: ‘That sort of stuff is just not in.’ But now, Mumford & Sons and all these bands are forging into folk and everyone is following. And when it comes down to it, a person playing a guitar as a means of creating music will always exist. Even if we wander off into electronic music and so on, it all comes back to that. It’s just a case of how many venues are open to hosting it at the time.

“There’s not much in the way of formal venues for it locally, unless you go into a theatre. But in the smaller venues, audiences get a much more intimate experience. And Laurie and I are quite down to earth, and being closer to the people in the room means we can interact more with them.”