Fountaineer

Named for the fountain in the centre of Bendigo, marking the geographic heartland of Victoria, <a href="spotify:artist:0hC181QdI9ErP0POxXrbSp" data-name="Fountaineer">Fountaineer</a>&#39;s view of their country town steadily growing into a city is at the heart of their song writing.

Fountaineer began in 2013 with a phone call. Anthony White rang his brother Francis and said they were going to start the band they’d talked about since their teens. The band rounded out the trio with Kieran Daly and hired a farmhouse out in regional Victoria, spending five days in isolation working to sketch out the record. For a lot of people, it was the idyllic, cosy satellite getaway from Melbourne, but it was also the centre of racial tensions and insularity – a microcosm of Australia’s evolution. That love and criticism of their hometown fuels Fountaineer’s music – at one point reflecting on the generations of families raised there, the next reflecting on the close-mindedness that their beloved town needs to outgrow.

Fountaineer’s focus was on creating something that was empathetic no matter where a listener came from. Stories of a town where live music amounts to playing covers down the pub, where social networks are built through footy clubs, and where churches are still regularly attended are familiar to places in every corner of the globe. These are places stuck with one foot in a muddy past and not entirely willing to step out.