Lara Goodridge (violin & vocals) Tim Hollo (viola & vocals) Shenton GregoryakaShenzo Gregorio (viola and vocals) Peter Hollo (cello & vocals)
Influences
matador, tzadik, ato records, sub pop, folk, electronica, rock, post rock, avant garde, albert ayler, albert marcoeur, jan garbarek, aphex twin, brian eno, can, cat power, the clouds, four tet, the books, danny elfman, john zorn, kronos quartet, miles davis, nick drake, nusrat fateh ali khan, massive attack, pj harvey, portishead, thelonious monk, tom waits, depeche mode, joni mitchell, john martyn, prince, cocteau twins, the gorillaz, radiohead, jeff buckley, elvis, the jacksons, stevie wonder, ned's atomic dustbin, the cure... etc etc
Sounds Like
Nothing you've ever heard before! Inspired by a wide array of diverse music such as dub, klezmer, electronica, post-rock, improv and avant-garde. FourPlay's repertoire includes arrangements of The Beastie Boys, Radiohad, Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, The Clouds, Depeche Mode, Sinead O'Connor, The Strokes and Metallica together with a dash of contemporary classical music and a whole repertoire of original music which touch on all these influences.
FourPlay String Quartet LIVE on ABC's Sunday Arts playing their originan piece Now To The Future
FourPlay String Quartet LIVE on ABC TV's "Spicks & Specks" playing Sabotage by The Beastie Boys FourPlay String Quartet doing "Look What They've Done To My Song" on ABC TV's Spicks & Specks
REQUEST FourPlay String Quartet ON THESE RADIO STATIONS!! Triple J Super Request Line: 1300055536
Triple J Request SMS: 19757555
Melbourne 3RRR Request Line: 03 94192066
Melbourne PBSFM Request Line: 03 52225947
Sydney - FBi Request Line: 02 83322900
Sydney - 2SER FM Request Line: 02 95149514
Adelaide - SAFM Request Line: 08 83011071
Byron - BayFM Request Line: 02 66807999
Brisbane - B105 FM Request Line: 07 38371053
Brisbane - B105 FM Request SMS: 0421265105
Brisbane - 4ZZZ Request Line: 07 32521555
Press Quotes
"More Metallica than Mozart. The first string quartet to have inspired moshing and crowd surfing" — The Sydney Morning Herald
"Forget anything you ever thought about string quartets. This is the future." — Michael Smith, Drum Media
"The next phase in the evolution of the string quartet is here." — The Music Network
"There's no escaping the fact that FourPlay have as much attitude in their playing as Jet, AC/DC or Coldplay..."
— Iain Shedden, The Australian
The Bio
FourPlay started life as a classical string quartet, originally made up of friends from the Australian Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the Kronos, Balanescu and Brodsky Quartets blurring of the boundaries between classical and rock music, they began playing rock covers for friends. FourPlay use two violas as opposed to two violins (as a traditional string quartet would use) to produce a thicker, deeper sound.
In 1995 they bought pickups and distortion pedals, and transformed themselves into an electric string quartet. In 1998 they released their first album, Catgut Ya Tongue? which sold out of the first 1,000 copies in 3 weeks... with no distribution or label in place. In April 2000 they released their second full-length album, The Joy Of... to glowing media coverage (now re-pressed an estimated 6 times — and even more for the first album).
FourPlays double remix album Digital Manipulation came out in 2001 to rave reviews across the nation. Produced and distributed independently, this uniquely designed double CD is an amazing compilation of 25 Australian electronic artists remixing FourPlays material, from B(if)tek and David Thrussell to Machine Translations and Deepchild. An album of new work fusing the electronic with the acoustic.
FourPlays live shows are unlike any other string quartet in the world. The energy and sound created is more like that of a rock band, as is their on-stage presentation and banter. A FourPlay gig is an affair not to be missed.
FourPlays repertoire includes arrangements of diverse artists such as the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Charles Mingus, Depeche Mode and Metallica together with a dash of contemporary classical music, and their own originals, inspired by wide array of genres such as dub, klezmer, electronica, post-rock, improv and avant-garde.
"They are like cinema for the ears" — SBS Television
"There are parallels with the taught propulsion of Philip Glasss music and with the ultra modern and sometimes quixotic Kronos Quartet. They spit in the eye of classical romanticism, chain-sawing into these songs and then throwing them together in new shapes" — Rolling Stone
Had a brilliant time at the Port Fairy Folk Festival, and managed to catch you twice. Now To The Future has been on very high rotation since getting back from the festival.
Really looking forward to your Fourthcoming album. :)
hey guys, your tunes are cool! I've just completed a remix of a NIN song. It sounds very different to the original. When you get time, have a listen tell and me what you think. Marco
For those in Sydney Australia, we're presenting Gypsy Dub Sound System at the Beach Road Hotel, Tuesdays in March 08... Here's the flier...
Merchants of the sublime Gypsy-scape... Gypsy Dub incorporate Eastern European and electronic composition, combining Bulgarian strings, traditional brass and the skankiní riffs of a reggae guitarist. A favourite of the Uber Lingua summer series of 2006/07, GDSS has grown out of a search to bring the passion, excitement, skill and juice of European music into a fat and funky club and festival context.
DJs for the rest of the month are March 11 Spex, March 18 Dubchaman & March 25 Mashy P
please tell me you're putting 'Venice Underwater' and 'The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us' on your next album! I need to hear you play them! It's been too long :P
Back from touring Europe n Hollywood... Liz Martin n Michael Bridges launch their new EP: NightMusic
The Vanguard, Sydney, Sunday 25.11.07
w/ Kathellism + Trevor Brown + Nick McClean
The Wesley Anne, Melbourne, Thursday 06.12.07
w/ The Black Swans of Trespass + Rose Turtle Ertler
Shows $10 Doors open 8pm
Featuring Liz Martin on vocals and guitar and Michael Bridges on violin and musical saw, Night Music is a spacious, haunting sound in the tradition of fellow Australians The Dirty Three, Nick Cave and The Triffids.
Hey Peter I've finished the album. I'll be sending you a copy soon. Hope you are well. I have a little giglet coming up next week if you are free. heidi x :)
Thanks for adding me! You guys are awesome!! I have been influenced by your music alot, and have started to play similar music to you with my string quartet. Keep up the good work!!
whats goin on fourplay!? how are things peter? It's dave the stringo from adelaide! WOO! When you comin to see us aye? Any new stuff goin on? Take a look at some of my music on my page :) I'm a bit of a composer as well - i got 2 string quartets up. You guys played a big infulence. Let us kno what u think PLEASE! D :D
HI there Lars,..Spring greetings from Adelaide.I don't know what your doin' on the 27th of Oct...but if your in Newtown,..The JB Trio will be opening for King Curly at the Vanguard...but i think you guys are here soon anyway...might see ya then...john
when you guys comming back to darwin, I saw you guys play at the starshell last year and to say you were fantastic was an understatemnt, i hoped that you were gonna be there this year, but no... next year?
