School Fair are one of New Zealand’s best kept secretsreleasing their debut album, ‘Gorse on a hill’ in 2021 after a whirlwind home-recording session, the band released their long-awaited second LP at the start of the year. The band’s fusion of spoken word and provoking instrumentals sets them apart from other musicians, with a truly unique sound to their name.
I spoke with De Stevens of School Fair after the band’s recent gigs around Europe to discuss who influences their usic, playing at the Windmill, and how their second album, ‘bird the kid’, came to be.
Who is School Fair? Who’s in the band and what is their role?
D: I think that School Fair definitely began as a weekend project, the first record was a really random, fun thing that we did. It was never that School Fair was a project we needed to put a lot of energy into - Marlin’s Dreaming put a record out last year and we did a big tour, since then School Fair’s taken the crown in terms of our attention. I don’t know if there’s one we put more energy into than the other, or take more seriously. If anything I’m surprised we take School Fair seriously at all if I look back at how we started.
Your music seems to draw from a range of genres, so who would you say are the band’s musical influences?
