FOLK BITCH TRIO: This Wild Ride

MUSIC

Nov 7

Nestled around a coffee table, calling in from Naarm/Melbourne I am greeted by Heide, Jeanie and Gracie, who are amongst a moment's pause in their hectic tour schedule. A year post release of Now Would Be a Good Time they have been touring between the US, UK and Europe, invaluable to each other as they move through this surreal chapter. The trio cherish every moment of this wild ride as they sing relatable tales of overthinking, hopeless romanticism and fuck ups. Having recently announced their Spring ‘26 UK/Europe Tour as well as four Aria Award Nominations, they keep their head down and stand by the motto of being nice and working hard. With a good laugh, a dash of whimsy and an honest tone, I speak with Folk Bitch Trio about all the idiosyncrasies and learnings of being in your twenties and being in a young marriage with your bandmates.

Interviewees: Heide Peverelle (they/them), Jeanie Pilkington (she/her) and Gracie Sinclair (she/her) [Naarm-based]
Interviewer: Joella Marcus

JOELLA MARCUS Hello Heide, Jeanie and Gracie! Congratulations on your ARIA nominations and the announcement of your upcoming spring EU tour! So exciting.

As a new releasing artistic trio, how has the last couple years been moving from the periphery to the foreground of the music scene?

HEIDE PEVERELLE It's been a wild ride. We love it and we work hard. There have been lots of big surprises along the way, and we're shocked but really happy with where we are at now. Since the album was released the reception has been really special. It feels good.

GRACIE SINCLAIR We're pretty busy and we keep our eyes on the prize. We're barely at home, and when we are home, it's lovely and amazing that we get surprises like ARIA nominations. We just kind of keep our heads down.

JEANIE PILKINGTON We made this record a year ago, and a lot of the songs have existed for three or four years. Not much has changed between the three of us. We are still doing the same things, just some of the activities a little bit more wild.

JM How has the reception been from different demographics? Especially doing world tours and returning to the US, UK and Europe?

HP Totally. We just played the Australian tour, and it was so special to come home and play the Naarm/Melbourne Show, the hometown show. It sometimes feels crazy going overseas and having people know our songs and sing it back to us in London, New York and across America and Europe. It's pretty wild for us.

JM Have you had a favourite track, personally, when performing live?

GS I think it changes for all of us and it has to.

JP We've been playing these songs for a very long time.

JM You mention in your Tour Video that this ‘an important chapter of your lives’ that is ‘surreal’ and can leave you feeling as ‘passengers [in life] unsure of how to act’. How has it felt growing up together, especially in such a pivotal age of young life? Coming together as a band, creating this beautiful album on the impermanence of youth and touring together.

HP So special.

GS We're so lucky to have one another, because otherwise you'd lose the plot. To be candid it's a very strange experience that we're all going through spending so much time away from home and working so hard. We're really lucky to have each other, and we're really lucky to have our friends that we come home to that love us just as we are.

JM Have you been able to learn things like from each other that you don't think you would have come across yourselves?

HP I don’t think I could articulate all the things. Being on tour is a very weird thing to do, and it's quite isolating. Having the three of us do it together, we learn how to manage and how to be on the road, be constantly moving and then suddenly be home and be very still.

We talk about how we're in a young marriage; we are all going through the exact same experience together at the same time. If we were on our own, it would be really different but it's an asset to have three of us.

JM What you're going through is uniquely your own. Your lyrics are contemporary and candid, singing acutely through daydreams, breakups, sexual fantasies and media overload. Sometimes I feel like I’m reading part of my journal. The fact that you're kind of writing these beautiful, candid lyrics, but then sharing them with an audience creates this youthful safe space of creativity or possibility where it feels ok to engage in those fervent emotions that in adulthood we tend to suppress and don't allow ourselves to indulge into anymore.

GS Personally, I'm a big lover of petulant lyrics – pathetic teenage lyrics.

JP Pretty self indulgent and pathetic and bask in that songwriting, and a lot of people find that

relatable.

GS Being earnest about it because everybody feels those things, and not everybody says those things but everybody knows. Everybody knows. It's not like we're inventing the wheel because there are many other songwriters who have been incredibly candid about selfish, petulant, childish and embarrassing things. But to do it with a little flare that’s where the magic lies *laughs*.

To say petulant, silly things and make it relatable to everybody. If you can do that then that's the job that we're trying to do.

JM You're doing it very well. Are you the daydreamers, overthinkers and romantics your album paints you out to be?

GS, HP, JP. Oh yes.

GS All three of us; hopeless romantics, very sensitive and big hearts.

HP Can be embarrassing.

JP Overreactors, overthinkers, overdoers, over talkers. The short answer is yes.

HP Unfortunately. No, to our benefit.

JP Songwriting is a dramatic and self indulgent art form and obviously you put things in a song that you wouldn't straight up say. It's not as on the nose in terms of where it is in our personality.

GS We're palatable in real life.

HP Yeah, we're cool, right?

JM Even though you are these romantics, does it ever feel too intimate to put it all out there, especially as you might be re-experiencing these emotions on stage?

HP A couple of the songs on the record…well with one in particular I thought “Oh God, I don't think I want to put this out there” but there's a strength in that because you release it from yourself. Once it's out, it's out. It's not yours anymore so you can relinquish control and ownership over it.

GS If you're touching on something that's making you uncomfortable you've probably told the truth and that is a freeing feeling.

JM When you put yourselves out there, the idea of the audience's interpretations of your own emotions can be a very scary thing. Have you ever felt insecure or unsure of allowing others to interpret your own emotions?

HP It's none of our business.

JP You could drive yourself crazy trying to think about it because how are you to know what anybody else is thinking. It's just none of our business.

HP It feels like the equivalent of reading the comment section of a YouTube video.

GS It's nothing for the soul. It's nice that people have projections and have their own feelings about it but what we do, we do, and however anyone interprets that has nothing to do with us. I feel the same when I’m taking in art. How you interpret other people's behaviour is how you interpret the world. It's like, you're looking in the mirror. It's nice that people feel things but you can't worry about it too much. You can go out with the intention that, yes, I want to make someone feel something and probably bring a little bit of joy through this song and dance.

JM You've said before that coming to music felt right and it felt aligned. When you think about your own music, do you find yourself more in the joy of the process or with the outcome?

ALL Process.

HP That's why we do it. It's for us. To create something that others can enjoy is a part of it but it's for our own enjoyment and catharsis. It’s fun, play and it’s entertaining for us so hopefully entertaining for others.

JM When you're writing how do you get in the mindset to create?

JP You don't.

GS I like to sit on my bed and feel really lonely.

JP It's not something that can be achieved in the same way every time it just comes. Once you're there you might stay there for a few days but for the most part it’s something that we don't have full control over.

GS It's any emotional revelation with yourself, asking “Have I processed everything? Am I going to tell the truth? Is it going to come out right now?” Or am I just sitting having some fun right now to see if something good happens. Maybe something bad happens. Maybe I embarrass myself.

JP You have to write bad songs.

JM In creative flow it's not easy to structure writing, especially when it’s interwoven with emotions and vulnerability in hopes of turning that into your form of power.

The name Folk Bitch Trio came about situationally but does it feel intimidating to put a genre in the name? As if it might speak for you. Noting, however, that you are reigniting and redefining those expectations of folk in your own way.

JP We only did it once and nothing about that period of time felt intimidating in any way, shape or form. We have not really cared to care about what anybody has to say about that “non decision”.

HP People have expectations of what Folk is…

GS but they're not our expectations.

JM What is one thing for each of you that in the album or in your songs you wish people would pay more attention to?

JP I don't know if you can pinpoint a thing for somebody to feel a certain way about. I think like trying to pull focus to something in particular feels indulgent. It’s not part of our production or songwriting process to create some sort of moment. It's more about the big picture for us. Every moment and every song is just as important as everything else.

JM When talking about Folk Bitch Trio, your album Now Would Be A Good Time is described as a manual for modern living. If you had to write a manual for modern living, what’s one thing you’d include?

JP I don't think that we're trustworthy.

GS Should anyone ever listen to any of us as manual writers? No.

HP It's free to be kind.

JP Be nice and have fun. Nothing else really matters.

GS It takes strength to be gentle and kind.

JP It's also free.

JP That's really funny that people would think that we're trustworthy narrators to write some sort of manual because all of these songs are about our fuck ups.

JM You learn from failing.

HP Don't be afraid to fail.

JP Look at how many times we've failed.

GS Stretch your legs. Eat something green. Look at the sky.

JM Are you having fun? How do you keep the whimsy in writing, performing and making music? The Sex on fire Gag on Like a Version made me giggle.

ALL We are.

HP We just laugh. We make fun where we can. There's a lot of sadness in the world and a lot of hardship and you’ve got to laugh. We're having so much fun, we’re living the dream.

GS We get to do some crazy stuff.

HP We get to travel the world with each other, play music and share our art. We're very privileged and grateful.