Friday Nite: Australian band Fruit to visit Greensburg

Fruit grows. For the Australian band of the same name appearing in Greensburg on Friday night, that's their approach to music and life in general. And for many music lovers in North America, Fruit is growing on them.

"We just liked the name," says Susie Keynes, vocalist, guitarist and one of three songwriters in the group. "But it's come to describe the music -- growing, fresh, vibrant." Plus, she jokes, "We get plenty of free publicity. Every time we pass a stand along the road, our name is out there."

To continue the metaphor, the band's sound is a fruit salad -- a colorful mix of pop, jazz, rock and folk -- that's been blending since the band formed in Adelaide, in south Australia, in 1995.

While some band members have changed over the years, the trio touring the U.S. and Canada this summer are founding members -- Mel Watson, Sam Lohs and Keynes. Keynes and Lohs play guitars and sing. Watson plays horns, both woodwind and brass.

They're touring to promote their latest CD release, "Burn," which will be released in August and, for the first time, will be available through major market retailers, such as Borders Books & Music and Barnes & Noble.

Speaking from California while on their way to the Vancouver Folk Festival in Canada, Keynes says their latest recording effort was an "intense and beautiful" experience.

"We spent four months in a rented farmhouse outside Philadelphia between February and May 2004," Keynes says. "We worked 14 (to) 15 hours a day with producer David Ivory, who'd seen us play the year before and invited us to record. It was in the thick of winter, which for us was amazing to see all that snow, and then the change of seasons. As we emerged from the studio, the leaves on the trees were emerging. It was beautiful."

Keynes thinks the band's sound on "Burn" is the most refined it's been.

"David really brought out our best. He was just like a mad professor, on the other side of the glass, flailing his arms and screaming, 'You've got to sing that note.'"

And that they do. All three band members share lead and harmony vocal duties, and all three write songs. Keynes explains the process:

"One of us writes a song, brings it to the band. It's an organic process. It sort of gets stuck in the soil, and it just sort of grows from there."

In addition to the four studio and three live Fruit recordings, each of the women has released solo records. Keynes says the solo efforts are just another creative outlet for the band members.

Besides the current touring trio of women, the band includes drummer Yanya Boston and bassist Brian Ruiz, a fact that upset some of Fruit's early fans. The band started out as a six-woman group with a huge lesbian fan base.

"I was incensed by some of the angry e-mails we received," Keynes says. "I said, 'You're way off the mark. Go have your own political party somewhere else. Just let us be who we are.' That's what we're about, being who we are and growing."

And that sentiment is captured in the title song from the new CD. In the chorus, band member Mel Watson wrote: "'Cos we can change the face of life / Just by looking at another point of view / 'Cos there's so much to know / And so little to fear in love."

"Mel has a real talent for writing anthems," Keynes says. "She really caught the sentiment that we believe, that this is an exciting time to be alive and that we can expand our thinking."

Fruit

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Admission: Free

Where: St. Clair Park, Greensburg

Details: 724-838-4323

[via the Trib]