meet us : biographies

Fruit are singing, strumming proof that you don't need a hit TV series or serious multinational dollars to succeed. Like fellow troubadours The Waifs, John Butler and Ani DiFranco, Adelaide-born Fruit have taken the road less travelled, covering millions of miles and playing thousands of shows since 1996, raising roofs and winning converts across 7 countries. In 2003 they won the "Best Live Album" trophy at the Australian Live Music Awards.

Performing in two equally strong formats – trio and full band, Fruit are fronted by a trio of strong-voiced, strong-willed, singing/song writing multi-instrumentalists — Mel Watson, Susie Keynes and Sam Lohs, and are joined by rhythm section drummer Yanya Boston and bassist Brian Ruiz.

Fruit have shared stages with Jewel, Chris Isaak and Savage Garden. They have won over punters, selling out rooms and smashing CD sales records at festivals across Canada and in more than 30 US states.

"It started off as a project," figured Mel Watson, "and it ended up being a lifestyle."

Fruit's music is powered by the distinctive vocal harmonies of its three frontline women. Their exquisite harmonies hint at a musical bloodline that embraces everyone from Dave Matthews to Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco to George Harrison, Prince to Stevie Wonder. Fruit's music has been described as "sensitive . . . embracing and disarming".

Fruit's first studio release was 1997's Skin; then they delivered Shift Live in 1999, Here For Days in 2001 and 2002's award-winning Fruit Live At The Basement. They also contributed "Give Into My Love" to Stories of Me, the 2003 tribute to master tunesmith Paul Kelly, where they teamed up with ARIA-winning producer Chris Thompson. Here For Days, which was recorded with UK producer Paul Gomersall (who has worked with George Michael, Phil Collins, Echo & the Bunnymen, even Guns N' Roses), climbed to the #3 spot in the Australian Independent Charts. The reputable AllMusicGuide described the album as "an excellent, chance-taking effort that deserves a great deal of attention", likening the band to both Swing Out Sister and The Indigo Girls. Fruit set a sales record at the WOMAD musicfest in Seattle, where they sold 680 CDs in two days. They also did a roaring trade at WOMAD Reading, the Vancouver Folk Festival, Bethlehem MusikFest, the Canmore Music Festival and the Owen Sound Summer Fest. In a musical climate where the word "independent" is tossed about a bit too freely, Fruit truly define independence from running their own record label to unloading their own equipment to planning their own future.

2005 sees the release of Fruit's most anticipated album to date; a brilliant collaboration with Philly based producer/engineer David Ivory. Ivory is most noted for his Grammy nominated work on The Roots' Things Fall Apart and Erykah Badu's Baduizm, and more recently his production of Kindred's Far Away (Sony/Hidden Beach), Patti Labelles' Two Steps Away (Island Def-Jam) and the first release from the rock group Silvertide on J Records.

Ivory's and Fruit's vision for the album has been to harness and build a signature sound that is Fruit; to rein in the complementary writing styles of the three lead vocalists and to "sting" the listener with their seamless sense of harmony and dynamic musicality.

For the band, playing in Fruit is a life-changing experience, the chance to truly connect with an audience – to learn and grow from the experience.

When asked, "Can music change the world?", Fruit say, "If ever there is a point to our music, we believe that that is it. That's the clarity we reached last year – realizing that through our lyrics and our music we could stir the soul...music is a powerful motivator for personal change. The song ‘Burn' (the title track on Fruit's new album) has this incredibly powerful line...‘we can change the face of life just by looking at another point of view'. It's not necessarily directed at anyone or anything in particular but it says so much about what's happening in the world right now. Music speaks to the unconscious in all of us – it's where the heart connects with what is going on in the world. In our own small way, whether we are playing to 20 or 20,000 people, if we can put our best songs, written with our best hearts, onto a CD and it helps to enlighten a few lives, that will be the point of it."

"There have been so many extraordinary moments," Susie adds, looking back over the past eight years.

Yet you can't help but feel that the best Fruit is still to come.

– JEFF APTER, FORMER MUSIC EDITOR
AUSTRALIAN ROLLING STONE