Ballarat indie rock five piece Gold Fields have undoubtedly been on an upswing ever since they came together at the start of 2010.

In their three year musical career, they’ve visited American shores three times, opened for massive acts such as Crystal Castles, and played a range of Australian music festivals including Falls Festival, Peats Ridge, and Groovin’ The Moo.

Now with a highly anticipated debut album coming out in just a few months, the release of Black Sun on March 8th to be precise, Gold Fields have all eager eyes on them.

With the quintet only producing a scarce amount of songs through an acclaimed EP and scattered singles, it’s not a surprise that a full-length album has brought such anticipation.

Gold Fields’ Rob Clifton talks about the record further, confirming “the album’s all finalised and ready to go.”

“It was a very long-winded process,” he continues, “we recorded it about three times over, and we weren’t going to stop until we were all happy with what we’ve produced”.“It was a very long-winded proces… we recorded it about three times over, and we weren’t going to stop until we were all happy with [it].”

“There are a ton of differences between our EP and this album. We sort of recorded the guitars in our bedroom for the EP, and then shipped it away to get mixed and mastered in different states.”

“For this one though,” says the keyboardist, “we’ve definitely had a higher production value in mind and we think it’s pretty clearly reflected in the release.”

In just one short year, Gold Fields found themselves on the lineup opening Falls Festival – a truly unique feat.

“It’s kind of funny how we got started. Two of our members were just watching the Temper Trap, and chatting about how they’d like to make music that’s meant to be played at festivals, so everyone could have fun playing it,” Clifton explains. “Then, a year later, we were opening the festival – it was pretty surreal.”

“We didn’t have this grand master plan to get there. We just recorded some good quality demos, then sent them off to managers and other people we liked,” says Clifton modestly. Their efforts led to them playing their first show at Sydney’s World Bar, which ended up getting them signed afterwards.

With the Triple J Hottest 100 being a hyped Australian event each year, it’s no doubt that it would come with excitement from those artists who would end up in the iconic poll’s shortlist.

Hence, there was much debate between the five members of Gold Fields as to whether they would omit their 2012 single “Dark Again” from their own voting forms, or give it a higher chance to be featured in the list.

“We did end up voting for the Hottest 100, and, yeah we ended up voting for our song,” admits Clifton. “One of our songs ended up getting the 200th spot on the list back in 2011, and then that ended up being the most played song on Triple J the following year, so it was just bad timing.”

Though they missed out on this year’s Hottest 100, and even the follow-up 101-200 list. The Ballarat musicians instead consoled themselves with supporting Crystal Castles on their Big Day Out 2013 sideshows.

Their second time doing so after the 2011 festival tour, and Gold Fields were thrilled to have had the privilege to play with one of their favourite bands. “Back when I just moved to Melbourne, Crystal Castles’ debut album was one of the first CDs I bought,” explains Clifton.

“So I was pretty excited when we booked a show with them – and again, when they asked us back.”

Now the five-piece are returning to America for the fourth time, for a string of dates through February, it seems as though it’s turning into their second home.

“We did some recording over there in a really nice studio the first time we went over there. Then we were invited back for SXSW in Texas, and the most recent time we spent a few months travelling in a van, playing a show nearly every night.”

“Now, we’re overly excited to get back there (America). We’re playing a few more shows around the place…”

“It was really tiring,” says Clifton of their exhaustive schedule, “we’d wake up, drive 8 hours to the next city, then play a show and maybe get four or five hours sleep. We did that every night.”

However, the keyboardist says, “now, we’re overly excited to get back there. We’re playing a few more shows around the place, but I’m hoping it won’t be as full-on as before.”

As for the band’s reception in the States, Clifton is more measured. “Obviously, to them, we’re an international act, so that means that sometimes they talk to us after the show and they think we have funny accents and we have a laugh.”

That being said, they are building an international following, “anyone that comes to our show is so passionate about our music – even if they haven’t heard much at all. It’s really awesome to go to a different country and find people who are overly excited to catch up with us.”

There have been a few talks about the band doing an Australian tour to promote their album release, with Clifton shedding a bit more light on the topic. “We’re definitely looking at scheduling one for around April or May, when we’re back from America. It should be an Australian wide tour, so I’m really excited for it!”

If their appearance on late night US chat show Jimmy Kimmel Live! has the same traction as a certain Wally De Backer did nearly exactly one year ago however, Gold Fields may find their homecoming tour being the toast of the town as the latest Aussie act to ‘do a Gotye’ overseas.

Not a bad position to be in for five lads from Ballarat.

Gold Fields are currently on tour through America, dates below, Black Sun is out through EMI on March 8th.

Gold Fields US Tour 2013 Dates

* = w/ A Silent Film
# = w/ Royal Teeth

Feb 7: Philadelphia, PA @ TLA *
Feb 8: Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall *
Feb 9: Providence, RI @ The Met *
Feb 11: Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel *
Feb 12: Detroit, MI @ The Shelter *
Feb 13: Columbus, OH @ The Basement *
Feb 14: Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom *
Feb 15: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall *
Feb 17: Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue *
Feb 19: Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep * #
Feb 20: Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge * #
Feb 22: Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue * #
Feb 23: Missoula, MT @ Elks Live * #
Feb 24: Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Café * #
Feb 25: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios * #
Feb 27: US debut TV appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Feb 28: Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour * #
Mar 2: Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room * #

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