OurStage

DAN CONDON DISCOVERS THAT NOOSA-BASED ROOTS OUTFIT THE FIRETREE ARE ONE OF THE MANY GOOD THINGS THE WOODFORD FOLK FESTIVAL HAVE DELIVERED US, EVEN IF PURELY BY COINCIDENCE. Vocalist, guitarist and mandolin player Dale Buchan met vocalist and guitarist Josie Cubis at Woodford a few years ago, and while they were working on different projects at the time it didn’t take long for them to realise they had to start a project together. Thus began The FireTree, a group specialising in “melodic pop music with a fusion of different musical styles thrown in”. “I met Josie at Woodford Folk Festival where I was playing with my old band,” Buchan explains. “We took our guitars up on the hill and started playing music together. That was almost two years ago; the old band broke up and I moved from Byron to Noosa to continue playing with Josie as The Firetree.” “Dale and I were playing acoustic gigs together as a duet around the Sunshine Coast for a few months and were getting a really good response from audiences with what we were doing,” Cubis continues. “We started writing together and after a few false starts with different line-ups we started jamming with Keegan [Roche] on bass, his brother Conor [Roche] on lead guitar and Tim [Bailey] on drums.” The band have been working on an album for the best part of a year now and we can expect to hear the results some time later this year. “Me and Josie began recording our first songs for the album about a year ago and went back to the studio late last year with the band,” Buchan says. “We had a lot of new songs so we sorted through them and developed a unique sound that best incorporates our different styles of songwriting, performing and singing. We're going back into the studio soon for a good four or five weeks to finish the album in the next few months.” WHO: The FireTree WHERE & WHEN: Jubilee Hotel Saturday Mar 14, Noosa Lions Park Friday Mar 20 (5pm)