Green Man Q&A: Field Music

Published on August 16th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

In celebration of this weekend’s Green Man Festival, so excellent of line-up, Rocksucker had a topical natter with David Brewis of Field Music, whose Plumb LP has to be a strong contender for album of the year. They’re playing the Far Out stage on Saturday just before headliner The Tallest Man on Earth, be sure to catch them as they are phenomenal: here’s evidence…

Hello! How are you?

Hi. Not too bad, thanks.

If you’ve been to Green Man before, what were your most memorable experiences of it?

We’ve played twice before. The last time was with Field Music in 2010, most notable for good weather, some classic audience banter and attempting to use Joanna Newsom’s grand piano, which was probably a little bit foolish given how much louder we play compred to Joanna Newsom and how difficult it is to mic up a piano on stage.

The most memorable Green Man adventure was as School of Language on the main stage in 2008. It absolutely bucketed down. A little girl sat on the edge of the stage to get out of the rain and blew bubbles all the way through our set. That was great, despite the weather.

Which other acts are you looking forward to seeing? Will you be there for the duration or just stopping through?

We’ll only be there for the Saturday so I’m going to miss Stealing Sheep which is a little bit disappointing. I’m curious to see Van Morrison but I think I’m going to have to compartmentalise my love of his late 60s and early 70s albums and not expect something too specific. I’m also looking forward to Scritti Politti, partly because I don’t have a clue what they’ll do. I’m a fan of some of their very early scratchy dub-y, post-punk stuff and I’ve got a soft spot for their super-smooth mid-80s hits but again, I think it’s best not to go in with too many expectations.

Are you a fan of festival food? Any particular favourites? And will you be sampling the delights of one of the real ale tents?

Festival food is so much better now than when I first started going to festivals in the late 90s, especially for veggies. We’re quite lucky that most of the festivals we get invited to are cool, boutique affairs and the selection of food tends to be really good. I’ve got a soft spot for Pieminister, though my favourite spicy bean pie seems to have been a special one-off.

I’ll be driving so there won’t be much booze-sampling going on for me. Hopefully I’ll have time to have a half of some delicious beer.

Will you be taking any of the following with you: hand sanitizer, baby wipes, earplugs, a bum bag, a flashlight, a miniature fan, a pop-up tent, an inflatable mattress and/or pillow, a fold-up chair, or other (please specify)?

I’ll have hand sanitizer, earplugs, a torch, wellington boots, a sturdy pen-knife, paracetamol, ibuprofen, antihistamines, a few sachets of supermarket own-brand lemsip and a box of tools and Kev (guitar/synth player) tends to bring baby-wipes but other than the wellies, we bring all of that stuff to every gig.

Do you have any helpful, practical advice for our readers (Green Man-related or otherwise?)

I’m a festival wimp these days so it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to give advice to the hardcore festival-goers of these rainy isles.

What else have you got lined up for 2012?

We’ll be playing festivals right through until the end of September, finishing up with a hometown festival in Sunderland. In October we’re doing another UK tour and then I’ll be putting away my baby wipes and earplugs for a good long while.

David Brewis, thank you.

Field Music - Plumb

Field Music will play the Far Out Stage at Green Man this weekend. The band’s brilliant fourth album Plumb is out now on Memphis Industries Records. For more information please visit www.field-music.co.uk

Click here to read our May interview with David Brewis!

Artists: field music

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.