A new country rock band will preview the original songs from their forthcoming debut album at a gig in Armidale at the end of the month.
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With a lead singer who comes from a blues background, a fiddle player who loves rock bands, and a hardcore folk and country fan on the mandolin, The Quick & The Dead was formed by six University of New England students, who all either sing or play music and write songs.
While their influences are varied, they discovered their shared love of playing music while living together last year.
"We all have a history of music, so we naturally just played instruments and experimented," Sophie, a law student and ukulele player explained.
"Then about six months ago we went 'wait a minute, if we all do this thing, why don't we do it together'."
The girls started writing songs together, and in December they recorded an album, titled Dirt Roads, at Beechwood Studios, 15 minutes out of Armidale, with record producer Colin Bale.
"It was so nice to do it in Armidale," guitar player and history student, Charlotte said. "Colin was absolutely amazing. We've been getting little drafts back from him, which has been really exciting to hear it."
While the band members have a lot of different influences, they found themselves amalgamating at country rock.
"I think we've all come to it at different times," Sophie said. "(Although) Finlay is an avid country fan and she puts us all to shame."
As well as an avid country fan, Finlay is the band's mandolin player, and her love for music is clear when she speaks.
"I've always been a country, and folk, fan, particularly Australian country and folk, acoustic music as I've grown up," she said, highlighting The Waifs and Missy Higgins as inspirations.
"It's been a pretty big opportunity as we've all started playing music together to get to share that with my band."
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Lead singer Hunter, who is studying nursing, came from a different musical background to most of her bandmates, singing blues.
"I don't think I realised how much other music is in country music," Hunter said. "I come from a very blues background, not realising that a lot of the music that I previously listened to as a young person, was actually very inspired (by) and heavily country, which was a big realisation I've had over the last six months."
Collectively, the band said the group's influences include Johnny Cash, the Dixie Chicks, the current top male artist in the US Luke Combs, as well as The Wagons, an alt country band from Melbourne.
"They're all bands who have had a big influence on who we have become as a band," Finlay said.
"We love a lot of different music," Sophie added, "so it's good there's so many different genres of country, because it makes us better, I think."
Watch The Quick & The Dead perform Shoot First in The Armidale Express office (warning: explicit language)
"We're not confined to current country and we're not confined to older country music, or even country in general," Finlay said.
"I also think it's kind of cool that we've had kind of different influences, all of us, growing up and through our life," the band's fiddle player Hanna, who is a big fan of Dire Straits, said. "So we've really been able to inspire each other."
The band's first single will be Shoot First, which they are in the process of shooting a video clip for.
With the Dirt Roads album coming to fruition at the end of last year, the band approached Impies about playing an album launch, which saw them booked to perform on Saturday, February 29.
"We're super excited to get to play a gig in Armidale," Finlay said. "(Especially) for the people in Armidale who have become our fans and who we have connected with.
"We're hoping to play a lot of music that gets people up and dancing and having a good time."
Another local band, Sons of Autumn, will be the opening act for the concert at Impies, which starts at 8pm.
Tickets cost $15 and are available online from The Quick & The Dead's website. Visit thequickandthedead.com.au.