Skills for days and vibe that pays, Aluna Francis and George Reid melt together with an uncanny unison. The dynamic duo are brazenly putting a spin of their own on incandescent electro pop. Over the years, AlunaGeorge have steadily ascended with their standout R&B laced electronica, teaming catchy melodies with simple, but incredible production.
Gracing our shores for the second time, AlunaGeorge are returning for Beyond The Valley over New Years. I caught up with them to chat Beyonce, Melbourne music and the key to brewing the perfect cup of tea.
Hey guys, how’s it going?
A: We’re going good.
G: Good thanks, Lauren. How are you?
I’m good thanks. Where in the world are you?
A: We’re in London. Sunny London!
G: It is a bit sunny today.
What have you done with your day so far?
G: Waking up (laughs).
A: What about you?!
Not too much, work today. Just hanging around tonight to chat to you guys. Pretty ordinary until now.
A: Hope we’re not encroaching on your evening!
No! Not at all. This year’s been a busy one, what’s been the most surreal moment?
A: Oh, definitely, George do you reckon meeting Coldplay?
G: Oh yeah, that was weird.
A: We were just standing there! We came out to watch the rehearsal or the sound check, just keeping to ourselves in the corner and Chris Martin jumps off the stage, walks straight over to us and said, “thank you”. And we were like, “what?! Thank you for asking us to play.” It completely embarrassed us because we weren’t expecting this gushy thank you and we just didn’t know what to do (laughs) .
Bit star struck?
A: Yep, bit star struck!
G: It’s kind of weird isn’t it, when someone is such a global, sort of success, like Coldplay or whatever. You get used to seeing those people through essentially a lens…
And then he just saunters over to you!
G: Yeah! It’s so strange, it’s like, yeah you’re real people. You really forget because it seems like such a world away, doesn’t it?
Yeah, it’s super weird.
A: Oh the other one was we were standing and watching Nas at Coachella and then Beyonce stood in front of me and started watching me and I was like ahhhhhh! I was with some friends and they were like, “speak to her, but I was like, “I would speak if I could actually open my mouth and sounds would come out”. My mouth was just doing that fish thing.
(Laughs) I probably would have been the same. You guys just released a new single, “Supernatural” how has it been received?
A: Yeah, like our fans that already know about it have really taken to it. That was pretty much our main goal; just to make sure people knew we were in the studio writing new stuff.
G: It’s been a really pleasant response to the music itself. It was a little bit of a detour from some of the sounds in the first album. I was slightly nervous of what our current fans would make of the music, but everyone’s been really behind it. It’s lovely. You know, after a while you kind of lose context of if anything is any good. You just have to trust yourself. You’ve listened to it for so long and sometimes you just don’t know.
You don’t know how it’s gonna go down.
G: Pretty much. It was a nice feeling.
Very nice! You guys have both been involved in other bands and projects before, but how did you meet?
A: Ahhhh, George did a remix for my old band and it was really, really good. There was some idea of just writing together to see what came of it. I ended up getting in the studio with George and that was it! We did have like a cup of tea I think (laughs).
That was the beginning of it all.
A: Yeah.
G: Yeah.
Why do you think you work together so well as a duo?
G: I think half of it is that we get on really easily on a social level. We have a similar sense of humour, which really helps. Musically, we’re both open-minded. I mean we discussed what kind of music we were into early on, but it’s never been decided that we were going to do this or this, we’ve just sort of focused on how things sound and how it happens. Neither of us are too precious about that sort of thing and I think that’s why it works.
Is there anything that you clash over at all?
A: We used to clash over funk, didn’t we George? (Laughs) We’d be singing songs that opened up a way to bring some funk in. I’d get upset and George gets excited.
(Laughs)
G: (Laughs) I’d still say the main clash is how to make tea properly. The most British of arguments.
A: Have I ever made your tea too weak? He’s like no. Has it ever no been too strong and he’s like no (laughs). If he has to make me tea, he has to spend double the amount of time making it.
G: It’s a good weak brew that she likes.
It’s definitely a skill.
G: This is the problem, we are yet to master it for each other.
Don’t worry guys, you’ll get there one day, I have faith in you.
A: I keep leaving the bag in too long don’t I?
(Laughs) What’s the process like for you guys? How do you start to put together new music?
G: I’ll either have a little idea in the studio and play it to Aluna and turn around and hopefully she likes the song or the musical idea and we can try and make something from that or she’ll say, “hey man, I’ve got this little idea!” And she’ll play something that she’s either recorded on her phone or she’ll have a little something on the piano, singing along. We tend to just go from there.
A: Although we did write a song when we were trying to make Christmas songs on the guitar. We just came up with this thing. It was making us laugh a lot and then we were just like “hey, this is good!”
G: We were doing like parodies of other music, and because you let go all feelings of being cool and making really legitimate music, you kind of just let go of all your tastes and start coming up with all these horrific ideas (laughs) .
But something good came out of it?
G: Really good!
Now, you guys are coming out to Aus for Beyond The Valley, will it be your second visit?
A: That’ll be, ummmm our second visit!
I know it’s a long way to come, but it is worth the journey?
A: Oh, absolutely. Hands down, it’s something to really look forward to. The travelling time, I’ve gotta say, it’s not exactly my favourite way to spend 24 hours, but yeah, definitely worth it! Really looking forward to it.
And have you checked out the lineup? Is there anyone that you’re looking forward to seeing? Do you get to hang around?
A: I’m not sure, I think we’re doing a few shows so I’m not too sure if we’re jetting off straight away. I always like to leave it [the lineup] as a surprise, otherwise I get really disappointed if I planned to see someone, but I can’t because maybe we’re doing sound check or they’re on just before us or something like that.
Yeah, that’s fair enough! Do you get to spend much time to hang about and see the sites while you’re touring?
A: It’s usually pretty much show, show, show and you get to see what by your hotel (laughs) . But I’m hoping some of our mates will be home at that time. I’m hoping Flume will be home and Seekae as well.
Yeah, that was my next question. Is there any Australian acts that you guys really like?
G: Australia’s killing it at the moment.
Yeah, I think so too!
G: It’s pretty impressive. I’m still blown away by the two boys that supported us when we were last in Sydney, Cosmo’s Midnight. I don’t know, a lot of it’s just me listening to stuff on Soundcloud so I don’t know how to pronounce it, but is it Basnji? He’s amazing as well. Like Aluna was saying, she went to see Seekae the other week and Flume, he’s amazing, always excited to hear what he’s going to put out next. Amazing sort of little batch going on. It’s great.
Do you have anything else exciting coming up?
A: We’re still writing, but we’ve got on collaboration that’s out at the moment with Baauer. George, anything else coming up?
G: Not anything that we can have enough confidence to say. Lots of exciting stuff, that we just can’t quite say properly right now!
That’s okay, I’ll keep my eyes peeled!
G: Sorry about the vagueness (laughs) .
That’s cool, I don’t want you guys to say too much (laughs).
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AlunaGeorge play Beyond The Valley festival on Philip Island over New Years!
http://www.beyondthevalley.com.au/
