Coffee House Sessions Interview: President Street, & The Fireflys

Label Editor, Amie Woodyatt, chatted to Australian band President Street, and headliners The Fireflys, while on their Coffee House tour.

President Street

Are you all enjoying the Coffee House Sessions Tour so far? 

Great, seeing a lot of England which has been awesome. Places we wouldn’t see normally if we just came om a holiday; the tourist side of it has been really fun. Staying in the little towns we’ve been going to, and obviously the universities have been great. And the Firefly’s as well, it’s been awesome touring with a fun band; they’re good guys, good music, makes it a lot easier.

What would you say is your main inspiration for your music?

We tend to just sort of observe what’s happening around us in our lives, we tend to just write about that mostly. We try to find an emotion and play out that emotion in our songs, whether it’s angry or sad, or scared or whatever.

There’s a good mix of sings, a lot of the songs are probably, sort of break-up-y songs. But yeah there’s some really nice uplifting songs, just about human experience, as well, that you can slot a different story into that’s different to what was intended when writing the song.

Your most recent song Can’t Go On, can you tell us about that and the thoughts behind it? 

That song kind of wrote itself to be honest. We had the music down, and we felt the key it’s in is pretty emotional, and the first line just came on, you know, and then it just wrote itself. It’s a pretty simple song, lyrically, it just really gets stuck in your head, it’s great. The key to the song was Ruby’s vocals, the stacking of her vocals to create that hook; it gave us the centre piece I terms of the musicality and the emotional energy.

If you guys could collab with one artist, who would it be?

I’m really digging the UK artists right now, Anne-Marie, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran.

I’d love to work with Biffy Clyro, I think they’re amazing.

I would just love to play acoustic with John Mayer.

That’s it from me, thank you; good luck for the rest of the tour!

Thank you for having us!

The Fireflys

Are you all enjoying the Coffee House Sessions Tour so far? 

Yeah, very much, the opportunity to hijack new crowds is wonderful really. There’s a very slight awkward sensibility about it, it’s like a flash gig. So, it’s a little unnerving, but it’s great and the reception’s been wonderful. It’s quite humbling actually.

What would you say is your main inspiration for your music? 

As a songwriter, for the last 10 years, City and Colour, Dallas Green’s band. Just acoustic guitar, channelling Neil Young. I’m not the greatest singer or guitarist, so for me, it’s trying to write a great song, that’s kind of been the basis for it really. More recently I’ve got into Of Monsters and Men, their song writing is not to be underestimated.

For our songs I just try and play what suits it, something that keeps everybody together.

So, Fireflys, we know you’ve released four albums and there is a 5th one out this year. Could you chat to us about Only Us, Northern Lights and the songs? 

We’ve released three singles from it already, they were Grace, Runaway and This House is Ours. And the reception to each of those has been a lot more than the previous. There isn’t a really lot of promotion behind the songs, they’re just going out there organically and doing their thing. We’ve just slowly and steadily built up a following over the past 10 years, and that’s how it’s been. We really enjoy it.

If you guys could collab with one artist, who would it be?

For me, it would be City and Colour, just Dallas Green, I think we’d get on really well, musically.

The Chilis!

That’s all for me, thank you and good luck!

Thank you!

Featured image by: Omeiza Haruna