The Nields’ sound is both accessible and distinctive. They combine folk-y sister harmonies and churning modern rock into something akin to what might happen if Sinead O’Connor and the Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan started channeling the Roches and Natalie Merchant while fronting R.E.M.
The Nields’ lyrics also set them apart. There’s a literary streak running through songs such as “All My Pretty Horses” and “I Know What Kind of Love This Is.” Chief writers Nerissa and David Nields deal with topics that are fairly common but don’t commonly crop up in rock songs. In “Best Black Dress,” for instance, a woman having an affair with her married boss thinks about his daughter, who is her own age, and wonders what she would feel if she knew. “Gotta Get Over Greta” looks back on a terminated friendship with both regret and relief.
Speaking from a pay phone somewhere near Indianapolis, singer-guitarist Nerissa Nields said she got the idea for “Greta” from her sister, lead singer Katryna Nields. Katryna came up with the title phrase, and Nerissa thought it would be cool to use it in a song sung from a female point of view.
“We both went to all-girl high schools,” Nerissa explained, “and both of us experienced those kinds of friendships with other girls that are so close and intimate, and when they end, it’s not like a romantic relationship where there’s usually all sorts of discussion about why it really ended, and ‘Oh, well, why didn’t this work? Oh, well, let’s talk.’ When friendships end, there’s usually no talk. It’s like a coldness. I find that whole topic really interesting.”
In this case, Nields said, the song is about an early friendship. In one verse, she sings, “We played as monsters in the kitchen/ She was the vampire and I was the victim.” But Nields has experienced some of the same emotions in grown-up friendships.
“To me, it’s been a profound situation in my life – friendships that don’t last,” she said. “Sometimes they just sort of fade. More often than not, they end abruptly. I think for me, it’s been harsher (as an adult) – well, not harsher but more silent, less discussion. I think it’s a factor of being an adult in the 1990s in this country.
“People are physically separated a lot more, and being a musician, I sort of live my life in a small circle, and friendships in different cities just aren’t going to last if there’s no compelling reason to keep them there. If you work in a big office building and have friendships, it’s a little bit more like school. You’re forced to confront people.”
The Nields, who will perform Wednesday at the Junk Yard in Casselberry, are now based in Northampton, Mass., but the band formed in Connecticut. Nerissa and Katryna Nields grew up in the D.C. area in a musical family. Their father sings and plays guitar, and their mother sings. From when the girls were tiny, a favorite recreation was singing American and Irish folk songs and country-western songs with their parents.
Nerissa said that when she was 10 or 11, her voice got too low to sing the melody with her dad. So she started singing the harmony parts. “Katryna sort of compensated by belting, which is why she has the kind of voice she has, and I have my kind of voice,” Nerissa said. Now, harmony is what comes naturally to Nerissa although she does sing lead on two songs on the album, “Fountain of Youth” and “Blind.”
“Occasionally, there will be a song that just seems more appropriate to a lower voice to sing lead, or it’s more appropriate for my particular personality to sing lead,” Nerissa said. “Or sometimes Katryna comes up with a really cool harmony that she wants to sing, so I sing lead.”
The third Nields in the band, guitarist David Nields, is a Nields by marriage. He and Nerissa met in Washington, D.C., and when they got married, he took her last name. The three Nields-surnamed Nields started out playing as a trio at open mikes in the D.C. area. After moving to Connecticut, they met up with drummer Dave Hower and bassist Dave Chalfant.
All of the band members love ’60s rock greats such as the Beatles, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Nerissa said. Otherwise, their backgrounds are quite different.
“I definitely have been influenced by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell,” Nerissa said. “David Nields was influenced by early ’80s alternative rock – the dB’s, the Plimsouls and certainly R.E.M. would be the most famous example. Dave Chalfant is a real musician’s musician. His biggest influence is probably Frank Zappa. He has much more of a sort of hard rock ‘n’ roll background. Dave Hower’s favorite is probably the Police. He has more of a sort of punk/hard-core kind of background. And we all sort of came together in the ’90s with these different influences, and it’s been a great mix so far. We all understand each other and appreciate everyone else’s influences.” From: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1996/04/19/the-nields-on-friendship-laundry-and-going-national/
