Love and The Weather: “It’s a great time to be a folk artist”
When was the last time a song really moved you to the point where a tear ran down your face? Well, this was more or less the case as soon as I played the single “Tornado”, which is part of the first album (ep) of a trilogy, within the collaborative music project Love and The Weather, based on the Surf Coast in Victoria, Australia. The band formed in 2019 to record a collection of original songs by the great Natisha Sands, whose gloomy timbre reminds, and a lot, of Margo Timmins, lead singer of the superb Cowboy Junkies.
Like The Weather Station, another awesome band with similar folk-new-age sounds, Love and The Weather’s greatest merit is its focus on a great singer-songwriter, Natisha Sands, that manages to mold all the expertise of bandmates into accessible songs, but above all, sensitive, almost spiritual. For Natisha, an artist who has contemporary Brazilian artists as influences, the time couldn’t be better to promote their work. “It’s a great time to be a folk artist”, she says.
The fab four
- Natisha Sands – acoustic and electric guitars, vocals;
- George Sands – bass;
- Casey Hartnett – electric guitar, resonator guitar, organ, synthesiser;
- Monty Hartnett – drums, percussion; Stephen Elsom – tenor sax.
Love and The Weather: the ep
With six round songs that explore the whole folk atmosphere while flirting with jazz, this is the first of 3 planned albums. Quite the family affair, the band members have a special connection and have long enjoyed each other’s work, but this is the first collaboration of this line up. Casey and Monty are in several bands together (Sleep Decade, Sagamore, Swazi Gold), Casey has filled in and mixed for George’s band (Golden Age), Surfdad remixed Sleep Decade’s tune ‘Mexico’, Natisha did some guest vocals on Surfdad.
2 3 Things about Love and The Weather with Natisha Sands
RC – Just a name: Cowboy Junkies. Love and Weather seems like a tribute to this great band. What other bands have influenced yours?
NS – Other artists that have influenced us include: Bright Black Morning Light, Grouper, Bill Callahan, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Nick Cave and Yo La Tengo to name a few! We also listen to a lot of jazz, many great artists but I really love Ray Charles.
RC – With pop divas like Taylor Swift promoting folk music around the globe, do you think it’s the right time to spread the word about Love and The Weather?
NS – Yes, I absolutely do! Its so great to see the renaissance of folk music right now, with a whole generation of new artists producing some great music that draws on the past, but also includes modern influences and stylings. It’s a great time to be a folk artist.
RC – Do you know any Brazilian music? What comes to your mind when we say Brazil?
NS – We have a fantastic public radio station (3 PBS FM) in my home state (Victoria, Australia) that has an amazing show on Saturdays called ‘Fiesta Jazz’, where they play heaps of Brazilian music from old school Bossa Nova right through to modern jazz. Some of my favourite artists are: Egberto Gismonti, Hermeto Pascoal, João Gilberto, dancehall artists like Iconili, Nomade Orquestra and more modern artists like Fernando Moura and Tassia Reis and Azymuth.
