Design a new folk-pop sensation? Oh wait, it already exists

Meeting Folk Bitch Trio on a rainy Northcote afternoon is a bit like entering a gothic pop video. The dark stone church is lit like a spooky movie. Against the far wall, a candle glows in a carved wooden booth, illuminating three striking figures in an enchanted circle.

Jeanie Pilkington is golden blonde. Gracie Sinclair is a raven brunette. Heide Peverelle is the curly-haired redhead. If you asked a marketing team to design a hot new folk-pop sensation to conquer the world, this would do nicely. And that’s before you hear them harmonise.

Heide Peverelle, left, Gracie Sinclair, and Jeanie Pilkington are Folk Bitch Trio.Credit: Justin McManus

“I don’t think you can design this,” Sinclair says, meeting her friends’ eyes across the table. “Like, anything that ends up being really good is probably not going to feel designed at the start … but I can look back now and say it’s definitely all I’ve ever wanted my whole life.”

Her friends agree. They’re tight, these three. Besties since Princes Hill Secondary, class of 2019. Jeanie’s parents are musicians Craig Pilkington (the Killjoys) and Barb Waters. Raised By Eagles’ Luke Sinclair is Gracie’s uncle. Peverelle’s family is arty too. Entwined creative paths were almost predestined.

“We’re very connected as people,” Peverelle says. “I feel like we’re kind of siblings. Everyone talks about the sibling connection with harmony singers. I definitely feel that with you guys, which is a bit cheesy, but...” The others laugh. Cheesy like the Bee Gees? Like the Andrews Sisters and the Carter Family? Sounds good.

Folk Bitch Trio arrived like a change in the weather at last year’s Port Fairy Folk Festival. A splash of fresh colour in the grey-flecked ocean, they almost seemed to embody the green shoots emerging from our long pandemic funk. They’ve since opened for the Murlocs and King Gizzard, been praised by American visitors M Ward and Phoebe Bridgers. Sinclair reckons they’ve played “something like 36 gigs already this year”.

“It all seemed to happen pretty quickly,” Pilkington confirms. “A lot of firsts got jammed into last year. Even though we’d been technically playing for a couple of years, we’d never toured, we’d never gotten on a plane as a band. We’d never played a festival – all this stuff that was completely new to us as a post-COVID band.”

The lockdown years meant time to hone nascent songwriting chops to a fine edge. Analogue and I Heard comprise their latest two-song drop — a new normal for the streaming age which weirdly mirrors the double A-sided single of old.

Both songs are spare and acoustic, dipped in that trademark harmony and ringing with emotional truth. The lyrics hold tender teenaged thoughts and emotions to the fast-changing light of adulthood. The writers talk about the process with contagious wonder.

“I remember feeling really confused about what it meant to be a songwriter and how people did that,” Pilkington says. “I felt kind of stumped by the concept of writing a song and releasing it.

The trio arrived like a change in the weather at last year’s Port Fairy Folk FestivalCredit: Justin McManus

“And then when we started singing together, it was like, ‘Oh, that’s how you do it’. You’ve got to bring it to other people and have them love it as well, to make it into something that feels complete and worth sharing ... It’s like a validation thing, to make these songs together.”

Peverelle, more of a visual artist at school, “didn’t see the music thing at first. But I had a gut feeling from a really young age that I would be doing something like this. Not knowing how but, yeah, this kind of fell in our laps.”

“I don’t think you can get there without being a little bit crazy or obsessed,” says Sinclair. “I remember Heide saying, ‘You’ve got to write bad songs’. You said it as a throwaway. ‘You’ve got to write bad songs, but you have to finish them.’ That was the best advice I ever got. I was just like, OK … and the next one’s gonna be better, and the next one’s gonna be better.”

An album is accumulating but right now it’s all about process. Pilkington has a story about the trio sitting at the APRA songwriting awards in April, feeling like imposters but soaking up the inspiration of their older peers, knowing they were on the right track.

“Colin Hay gave a speech for his lifetime achievement award, and oh my God, I was bawling my eyes out,” she says. “He has the most beautiful way with words and he was talking about rising to the top really quick with his best friends ... and here I was, like, sitting at the APRA Awards with my two best friends.

“He was talking about songwriting. He’s like, ‘I’m so blessed… because all these years down the track, it’s still my favourite thing to do after breakfast’. I think that is just the most beautiful sentiment.”

Folk Bitch Trio launch Analogue and I Heard with full band at Northcote Social Club on Saturday, July 15.

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