by Lauren Rosier
photos by McLean Stephenson
Indie pop rock lovers watch out for up and coming three-piece female band, Little May. Comprised of Annie Hamilton, Liz Drummond, and Hannah Field, the Australian band is making big waves for themselves in their home country and bringing tons of acclaim to the United States.
Being an up and coming band is always a challenge. There are always people to impress; producers, record label executives, and building a fanbase. This, of course is going to be difficult in your home country, but most definitely in a country as big as the United States. And Little May has been working towards doing just that.
“The last few years have definitely been a huge learning experience for us. In the beginning we were quite naive, I think, but we quickly learned that you have to be across what’s going on and to be strategic in order to make a career out of it,” Annie Hamilton explains.
The band has turned several opportunities down because it didn’t feel right for them or the timing wasn’t right.
Hamilton adds, “I think it’s really important to know when to say ‘no’. No one knows what’s better for your music than you do, so do as much as can to get your vision across, and always follow your gut instincts.”
Little May’s debut album, For The Company, is out now. The girls had the opportunity to work with the The National’s Aaron Brooking Dessner on the record and had some amazing collaborative experiences with him. Each song had its own story and process; in the beginning, the trio had a different idea of how album was going to turn out, as many of the songs were darker.
“Aaron had quite a big influence on the album; he suggested we rework some of them to lighten up the album a bit, so we took that advice and ended up working on some older songs that we hadn’t been considering previously,” Hamilton states.
Some of the songs were written together quite collaboratively, some Drummond wrote herself, and a few were reworked with Dessner.
Hamilton says, “We wanted the album to be a really cohesive body of work rather than a collection of ‘singles’ and ‘fillers’, so each song fulfills a different purpose on the album.”
Their debut single, “Home”, is out now along with its music video to accompany it. One of the older songs they’ve written, specifically when they were an acoustic trio, was rework and they finished out the rest of the song.
“Lyrically, it’s not literally about being homesick, rather it’s more about finding a sense of belonging,” Hamilton explains.
In Australia, the music scene is pretty amazing; however, with the smaller, spread out population, there is a smaller market in each town, which can be difficult. The great thing about Australia is that there are heaps of great bands, venues, and radio stations that all support local music.
“One of the main differences in terms of fans is that audiences at gigs back home often kinda get rowdy and loud, whereas overseas we’ve noticed that audiences are really attentive, which is nice,” Hamilton notes.
Little May has big goals and visions for the future and where they want to be as a band.
“In the end, we just want to be the best musicians that we can be and to have the creative freedom to make the music that we love. We never want to become lazy or complacent; we want to continue growing, improving, and working hard as a band,” Hamilton says.
Come out and support the ladies as they perform live at Milkboy this Friday.
