The Phoncurves
Dancing against the backdrop of garage doors and random walls around your city is guaranteed to entice mixed reactions from passersby. Just ask Naomi Hodges, one half of Brisbane duo The Phoncurves, about when they filmed their video for latest single Lover.
“We shot really early in the morning and there were a few people around,” Hodges explains. “Then one dude on a bike rode past us and gave us the finger. I don’t know why, we weren’t even being loud. So we just waved. But other people just stared, or made comments like, ‘Oh, good dancing’ we were like, ‘Just keep walking’.”
Oozing affable melodies and soulful simplicity, The Phoncurves and their delicate sounds are charming. Hodges and her partner in crime Abbie Roberts first met on the orientation day of university, immediately finding a connection in their love of Brian Eno, The Beatles and Kimbra.
“I sat next to Abbie and we became great friends,” Naomi says with a smile. “In our last year we were both like ‘We really wanted to play in a band’, so we just made a band.”
A band that has just released their second EP Heartstrings.
Hodges describes the process as, “The perfect combination of two heads together”, with the two in sync on almost every note and harmony.
“We’ve been really lucky, somehow we’re always on the same page, even when our pace changes,” she chuckles. “[Heartstrings] was more about experimentation with vocals because we both liked to sing. One of us would think of a melody and the other person would add to that. It’s a progression that comes naturally.”
Experimentation can be seen most evidently on the latest single. It’s a far cry from the days of YouTube clips with just Hodges, Roberts and an acoustic guitar.
“We really experimented on Lover with the instrumentation and distorting vocals. It used to be on guitar when we first started playing it, then one day in the studio we just changed everything about it,” she says.
Hitting Sydney at the end of May, The Phoncurves are having a blast performing their latest creations to crowds of admirers.
“Heaps of people ask when they meet us if we are twins or sisters but we’re not related at all!” Hodges laughs. (CD)
May 30, Brighton Up Bar, 1/77 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, $10, thephoncurves.com
