“If we sing, our mouths will be caught in funny positions!”
Laurie Levine points this out as she and Josie Field pose for photographer, Antoine de Ras. We’re inside Levine’s colourful home to talk to the two musicians about their collaboration project, Side by Side: Josie Field and Laurie Levine, which is going to Oppikoppi this year.
Levine’s father is in another room, fixing a cupboard. Except for Field and Levine giggling in front of the camera or strumming their instruments – Levine holds a banjo while Field wraps her hand around a ukulele – the house is quiet. Levine’s father pops his head out into the passage, where they’re posing, and smiles at them.
“Stop it, Dad,” Levine exclaims before she laughs till her face is red.
Last year, these singer-songwriters released a recorded version of Side by Side: Josie Field and Laurie Levine, a project they are considering simply calling Josie Field and Laurie Levine. They also scooped an Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. This year, they aim to show festival goers why they are worth the hype.
“When I’m singing one of her songs,” Levine points at Field, “it feels partly mine.”
Field agrees: “We’ve made it anew again. Of course, I’ve done my songs quite a lot, but Laurie brings a fresh energy to them. We respect each other hugely as artists and the veil is long gone because we’ve been working together for a while so there is openness there in terms of collaborating.”
Levine and Field decided to embark on this journey in 2013, when they were already forces to be reckoned in the folk and folk-rock worlds, respectively.
“Bill Botes was our agent separately,” Levine recalls. “He suggested we do a double bill tour and we decided we’d rather accompany each other instead of bringing other musicians onto the road. It ended up becoming a whole show when we realised our voices work really well together.”
In their show, they both play guitar, but also include the ukulele, harmonica, melodica and more. For Oppikoppi and possibly a new recorded project, Levine says they are “looking at bringing in synths which is a change in direction. We’re co-writing at the moment so hopefully, we’ll have one or two new songs for the Oppikoppi set.”
I ask them what kinds of themes have been coming up in the time that they’ve been writing together.
Field shares: “We haven’t done much of it, but the themes have been about travel. Our experience together has been around travelling. We’ve been on tour. So life on the road… it comes out in the songs.”
Levine adds that while they haven’t abandoned their solo endeavours, they are a team on this project. Field concurs and says when they are on the road, “we’re inseparable most of the time. We’re together a lot. More so than married couples,” they both giggle again.
The pair plan to go on tour again in November or December, with a new album in tow.
“This is a unique thing,” Field concludes. “People have this idea that women can’t get along on these things, but we can and we have. We’re at a point in our careers where we want to try new things.”
l Watch Side by Side: Josie Field and Laurie Levine at the Top Bar at Oppikoppi on Saturday, August 9.