Words by Lewis Maclean. Photo by Katie Isham,
Germein are a band of three Australian sisters, rocking the world one gig at a time.
They are Georgia (singer/keys), Ella (bass), and Clara (drums).
Their latest single City Lights was released earlier this year and is the title of their current album.
After seeing them dominate almost every stage, on every day at the Isle of Wight festival last year, I approached them for an interview that sadly never happened.
So, when I learned that Germein were coming back to the UK this year, to Southampton, to support Tom Jones at the Guildhall Square Summer Sessions, I asked again. They graciously agreed to chat with us, before their gig.
So how have you been?
We’ve been touring a lot since Isle of Wight. We did the Corrs Tour last November/October in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and then we did Tom Jones in the UK in December, which was amazing at Christmas time.
We weren’t there for actual Christmas, but experienced the UK winter which was pretty intense but really fun, and playing venues like the 02 was just so surreal!
Then we did Tom Jones Australian tour in March and April, and now we’re over here, so yeah, queuing up a big one which will be good fun in the summer.
I noticed since the last time I saw you at Isle of Wight festival last year, you have been support acts for Tom Jones and Sting at very high profile venues, so in Southampton the Guildhall Square is probably as big as it gets.
How has 2024 been for you, plenty of gigs but any new singles?
Yeah, yeah, we’ve released a few songs this year already and we’ve done quite a few tours with Tom now, but being in our home country on tour in Australia was really special, and since then we’ve been working on some new music. So, yeah stay tuned for that.
And now we’re back out on the road again. We’re playing one of our new songs tonight so that’s going to be fun, to give that one a go.
What’s the new song called?
It’s called Chuck n Cherry, it’s not yet released but will be announced in the next few days, so stay tuned.
I understand you are back at the Isle of Wight festival again this year?
We are, but we’re only there for one day.
I know last year we played like eight shows, but we are doing a lot of tours with shows on either side, so I think we get in on the Thursday night and then we leave after our show on the Friday night, to try and get to the next one Saturday. So, yeah only one night unfortunately for Isle of White, because there’s so many amazing acts this year, so bummed about that but we’ll try and catch as much as we can on the Friday.
Should be good.
Have you played many other south coast venues?
Um, heck [laughs]. I’m sure we have, but I’m so bad with the Geography of the UK. This particular tour will be good I think, we tour all over the place, so that will be exciting, but the south coast is beautiful from what I remember of all the places we’ve been. We’ve made it to Southampton now, so we’re already getting all the vibes.
So how many times have you been to England?
We’ve been here for a few times, I would say, lots of times.
We’ve always sort of come summer time to avoid the winter in Australia but also you have such fantastic festivals over here at that time of year, so we’ve been coming, I would say for a few years over here.
We started touring Germany and came over here and played Isle of Wight, our first official festival, and then things sort of happened from there, which was pretty cool. So, I don’t know how many Isle of Wight (festivals) we’ve done, but yeah, it’s been a few.
Ella thinks its maybe seven or eight, so it’s been a few, but we just love it.
It’s such a great festival.
Had you heard anything about Southampton before you came here?
I’m happy to for you to fill me in if there’s anything particular I should know [laughs].
Craig David is from here
Oh, really? Oh, that’s cool, that’s pretty cool.
Have you heard of Craig David in Australia?
I have, yes, yeah we have. We do get things a little bit later than everyone else, but I have heard of him.
So who are Germein’s musical influences?
I would say the first one would be The Corrs; we were big fans of them growing up, and it was so surreal touring with them last year – and we’re doing shows with them again this year, just being a sibling band, singing harmonies and all of that, and it’s just great, feel good music.
We just love the Corrs.
Dad grew up playing in a New Orleans, so we love that rhythm and blues music.
We Love Sting.
We love Tom Jones, pretty much all the artists we have toured with are bucket list people for us.
Little Mix as well – that sort of pop music.
We’re such a mash of different stuff, we’ve generally grown up listening to all kinds of things, but I would say The Corrs are our absolute favourites.
Do you know what stage you are playing at this year’s Isle of Wight festival yet?
We’re playing the River Stage on Friday night .
We think we’ll play and then go straight to the ferry, such a shame, but that’s ok.
Have you got anymore gigs with the Corrs in the UK planned?
There’s one in Weston Burt, that’s in the UK, and then we have a gig in Spain at Marbella, and then we’re supporting Shania Twain on the same line up as The Corrs at London Hyde Park in July. So yeah, that’ll be amazing.
Its going to be a massive night with so many of our favourites artists playing on that line up.
You play a lot of arenas here; do you think you’ll ever go back to small venues?
Yeah, sure. I think for us, cos a lot of the tours we’re doing at the moment are support acts, which we absolutely love and we have so much fun, but we would like to one day play our own headline shows, which will obviously be smaller than what we’re playing at the moment [laughs], at this stage. So we will be back to doing smaller shows, so, yeah, really knuckle down and get there with our own headline stuff.
So how many air miles do Germein have now?
How many air miles? (I give a brief but likely patronising description of air miles)
Er, yeah, yeah [laughs].
Well, Clare and Ella are gold, but now I’m not anymore. I think it runs out after a year, but anyway, we’ve got plenty of miles, ahead.
So you’ve toured with The Corrs, Tom Jones and Sting , is there anyone else you would love to play with?
We would love to do U2, they’re still about, so I mean, that would be the next gen on the bucket list for us.
I can see that happening actually.
Haha, that would be great, they are our mum’s favourite band, so we obviously love them too.
(The girls are being called to the stage, but I managed to squeeze one last question), How would you describe your music as food?
Like, some fruit, some water melon, something that is good for you, feel good, fruit salad, yeah that’s sounds good!
Read our review of Germein at IOW Festival last summer.
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