Fairgrounds will welcome a pair of hometown heroes to its Windmill Stage this weekend at Fairgrounds Festival.
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Singer-songwriter and Berry-local Lenka, formerly of the band Decoder Ring, has been releasing solo albums and touring worldwide for the last decade.
Her music has featured in movies such as Somersault, Moneyball and Easy A, and television shows like Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy.
She's played shows across America, China, the UK and Australia. Next stop, a home town set at Fairgrounds 2019.
Electric Ginger is singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Townley. Based in Berry, where he wrote and recorded his debut solo album, his sassy synth stylings, cheeky electro bangers and guitar infused nineties pop have made him a thing of South Coast legend.
Greg has been musician for more than 25 years. His band The Chronics was a popular fixture on the Sydney music scene.
About Electric Ginger
Greg has attended Fairgrounds Festival as a punter for the past four years.
He would stay on a friends property and play at the after party. This is where he first debuted 'Electric Ginger' a year ago - his first solo endeavour.
He surprised everyone in his Evel Knevel suit - his performing armour - and was met with rapturous applause.
This encouraged him to continue to pursue his music dreams. Despite being over 40, Greg said he's never had so much support and love for what he does.
After coming to the area for the festival four years, Greg and his wife Fleur, who sings on some of the tracks, moved to Berry just over a year ago and recently made it official by purchasing a small farm.
Greg said the strong local community made the pair fall in love with the region.
"The local residents have been overwhelmingly supportive of my music and they're the reason I'm playing at Fairgrounds this year," he said.
"Out of their own initiative, residents started a petition to have some local acts play at Fairgrounds and to their credit, the organisers listened."
Greg said he's very excited to have scored the sunset slot on the second stage. He's also looking forward to see his friend Lenka in action.
About Lenka
Aussie singer/songwriter Lenka has been riding the rollercoaster of a world-wide music career for the past fifteen years.
Lenka used songwriting and the pattern of "write/record/tour/repeat" as a barometer of her own mental health, but since the release of her 2017 album 'Attune', her abilities to do just that came to an abrupt halt.
Raising a young family out on an idyllic property near Berry, you might think that inspiration would flow in spades, but this was not the case.
Lenka found herself withdrawing into depression and anxiety as she adjusted to a new life and struggled to employ her own therapy of "writing out" the feelings.
Unable to express herself through songwriting, Lenka started playing around with covers, and to her surprise, inspiration started to flow again.
Music become her remedy once more, partly as a listener, partly as a re-interpreter and finally as a creator of new material.
It was from this rebirth that Lenka was moved to record her forthcoming twin EP Recover and Discover. Compiling one EP of covers and the other of originals, Recover and Discover is an ode to music and the power it has to transform a state of being.
The first singles taken from this double release, especially reveal this lock and key dynamic.
Pat Benatar cover 'We Belong', allowed Lenka to explore her own take on an unexpectedly tender song from the 1980s, whilst original 'On My Side' is a love letter to partnership, and her own partner, who helps her to diminish her existential anxiety and fears for the future.
See Lenka performing alongside Liam Gallagher and The Lemonheads in her hometown on December 6 and 7.