No, they did not.
They did play lots of house concerts in Ireland, though, while traveling there. They played for every house that hosted them.
Ask me how I know? Because Rio interviewed them, and one of her first questions was, “Did you ever play for the Queen of England?”
The Nields are one of our family’s favorite bands. We love their music, we love their attitude. We love the music they make for adults and the stuff they play for kids. You can imagine how excited we were when I was invited to interview them about their new album, The Full Catastrophe.
Rio at 7 knows more about music than I do, and she’s been practicing her interview skills at school, so I asked about having her do the interview in my place. Nerissa and Katryna were totally into that. Rio caught up with them last week. In addition to learning that they had not played for the queen, she asked some great questions about the band’s history.
If you know nothing about the Nields, let’s back up a little: they’re a folk (and sometimes rock) band led by two sisters, Nerissa and Katryna. They have been playing together since the early 90s; touring widely. There have been a lot of guys named Dave in their band, some of whom still play with them when they perform as a full band. Usually, these days, the sisters write and perform together as a duo.
Rio learned a lot more about their background, including how they got started singing:
“Our parents had one car and it was a Barracuda,” Nerissa told her. “Little kids could jump from the back seat to the trunk. We would ride around in the trunk of the car hiding from our parents, and then we would pop our heads up and sing songs for them. We were always singing.”
Each of the sisters belonged to singing groups in college, but neither has been in another band. Nerissa decided she wanted to be a singer when she was 7 years old. It took Katryna a lot longer; she didn’t realize she wanted to be a musician until she was 20 and travel in Nepal where a teacher encouraged her to pursue a musical career. Before that, she thought she wanted to be a lawyer. When she realized she wanted to sing, she wrote Nerissa a letter and said, “Guess what? I want to be a singer.” Nerissa said it was one of the best letters she ever received.
My favorite question: Was the band always called The Nields?
The answer: They always performed as The Nields, but when the band was forming, they considered and rejected a variety of band names, including these:
- Atticus
- The Wheels
- Odd Man Out
- The Big Idea
- Cartoon Kids
- The Blister Sisters
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Sierra Reply:
June 21st, 2012 at 9:41 am
Right? Awesome.
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