Minneapolis-based indie pop four-piece, Little Fevers, will release their debut full-length album Field Trip on October 9th.
Members Lucy Michelle (vocals/guitar), Eamonn McLain (bass), Geoff Freeman (drums/guitar), and Ashley Boman (synth), all extremely talented musicians, have turned their years-long friendship into an art project. “Geoff, our drummer, is an amazing songwriter. He does all kinds of arranging and has really good melodic ideas. Eamonn is so talented too, he’d never played bass before, he’d always played cello, he just picked it up with no problem. He’s got a great rhythmic sense. He really wants to make everyone dance, he’s always bringing the party all the time. Ashley is the coolest, she’s really stylin’, a crazy good photographer, super-artsy. We’ve been friends for 10 years, and sometimes I’m like, ‘you’re too cool for me, I’m just not cool enough.’ She has great melodic ideas too and has a great voice, she sounds like a children’s choir when she sings, it’s eerily awesome,” says Michelle.
The friends are also no strangers to change; instead of being deterred, it’s made them determined. In the initial incarnation of Little Fevers, everyone, except drummer Freeman, played different instruments; before making the album, Michelle put down her ukulele and picked up the electric guitar, Boman put away her accordion and stepped behind a keyboard, and McLain chose a bass over his cello. Shortly thereafter, Michelle found out she was going to have a baby, which had a major impact on her songwriting. Most of the songs on the album are about a major life change and the feelings surrounding it, the excitement, the fear, the apprehension, and the anticipation. Michelle admits the album helped her cope with all the changes. “Our drummer’s wife had a baby around the same time; we were all in this whole mindset of ‘alright, we’re starting new things, everything is fun and new and exciting,’ and that’s kind of how all this music came to be and where we are right now,” she explains. On fronting band and having a child, she says, “It can be hard. I definitely don’t have near as much time, I find that the time that I do have, I really utilize it in the best way that I can, and I think it’s also inspiring to have this new little life around. It’s always really scary, and it effects everything that I do. I love the fact that our band is very family-oriented, not like we’re writing children’s songs, but just that we have kids around us all the time, and we do what we do and we make everything work. It’s just what you have to do.”
The band also dealt creatively with having to change their name, which was originally Field Trip; the day their first single was set to premiere on Stereogum, the group discovered that another band by the same name was also releasing their single through the same outlet. Their album, titled “Little Fevers” had been completed and the CDs had been made; unfazed, they just decided to flip it around, calling the LP Field Trip and adopting Little Fevers as their new name. Genius.
The album is 10 songs of pop perfection; with Michelle’s bright vocals surrounded by shimmering guitars and propelled forward by dance-inducing beats and oh-so-groovy basslines, I just can’t get enough. Appropriately, that’s the name of the first track on the album, and you can snag a listen here:
Field Trip by Little Fevers is out tomorrow. y’all! Don’t miss out!
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