In preparation for my interview with the FOURPLAY STRING QUARTET I'm overwhelmed within about two minutes of reading the band members' bios. The first member Peter (who I am set to interview) is a writer, composer, DJ, radio host and received first class honours in Philosophy and Pure Maths. Lara founded her own record label and is fluent in four languages. Tim is an active member of the Greens here in Canberra and a part-time theatre director and Shenzo is a full time composer, involved in other musical adventures and plays with artists like Natalie Cole and Katie Noonan. And they're all classically trained musicians. I start to think they must be those people from school that you heard the names of so often in award ceremonies. Those geniuses that are really difficult to talk to, let alone understand what they're trying to convey.
The quartet's mish-mash of classical, jazz, blues and indie favourites such as The Strokes' Reptilia, means FourPlay are one of the most diverse sounding bands in Australia. They've long been building a successful following with their classical covers; playing everything from the Velvet Underground to Radiohead to the Beastie Boys, and it becoming a signature staple of their live show. "We do covers we like," reveals Peter. "Being four people of different tastes, it can be fun. As classical musicians we play other people's music anyway. A lot of it is adaptation because of the instruments we use. In some ways it's conservative, but in some ways it's quite radical. We recreate a song using the instruments we do."
With the interview being interrupted midway for Tim to organise moving house, it's clear the quartet are always on the move. This is perhaps why Fourthcoming has taken three years to reach the shelves. "It was all recorded in a really short time in 2006, but it just took a long time to record and release because we've been so busy with other things," Peter admits. "We're a live band and we wanted to capture that." Which is why when it came time to recording Canberra's own Street Theatre was chosen.
"When we're recording and thinking of songs we listen to a lot of different stuff. We all have quite different tastes," says Peter. Fourthcoming, the band's eighth release since their establishment in the early '90s, is a blend of originally composed instrumentals and vocals to some being provided by Lara. They do what few bands can and that is to create a beautiful, original take on a classic - that is Leonard Cohen's Famous Blue Raincoat. Rudd-a-dub-dub was composed on the day of Kevin Rudd's ascendance in the Labor Party. The album is a true reflection of the quartet's different loves and interests and brings unity to the listener.
I get a little startled when I realise that the quartet are completely opposite to what I thought they will be. They're down to earth people with a lot of interests, but one big thing in common which is music. And really, isn't that the universal common theme between most people?
The FourPlay String Quartet will be in town for two shows at the Street Theatre on Friday July 17 and Saturday July 18. Tickets through the The Street Theatre's website.
