Gold Fields is one of those Australian bands that makes a big impact whenever they do anything, and that’s partly because they don’t release music that often and partly because their music is simply really good. They like to stay quiet for a long time and then tease something that they have on the horizon, exciting the music world with just a tidbit to keep fans happy for a while longer.
They did this with their most recent album Dalawa, which was released in 2019. The album is the same electropop goodness that they have been known for, but as the band puts it, the album has a bit more “maturity”. That’s bound to happen when there is so much time between albums. Fans wanting exactly the same kind of sound would be disappointed, but Gold Fields was banking on their fans having grown up with them, so it was a safe bet to figure that their fans would want some of the same thing Gold Fields wanted out of their own music. The genre was still the same, but with more nuance and skill, it was obvious that the band was growing up and expanding their horizons to make a sound that was more truly their own.
Black Sun was their debut album, released in 2013, and it made waves in the Australian music industry. There were other albums that were similar, but there was definitely something special about Gold Fields and what they were doing. After all, their demo of “Treehouse” was the most played song on the service TripleJUnearthed.com. It beat out some of the other big names that had released at the time and definitely put the band on the map.
That happened back in 2010, and it took the band another three years to release their first proper album. Then, it was another six-year wait between the first and second album. In that time, tight band teased fans with some news that they were working on something and that they had enough music put together to make up a new full album. They are definitely the kind of band that loves to take their time on projects and really put their hearts into what they do rather than cash in on a quick payday. That’s part of what separates them from a lot of the mainstream music in Australia and the rest of the world.
The band toured heavily in 2013, but by 2014 they had stopped. They needed a break from the hectic schedule and just took some time to themselves. That’s understandable, but fans were waiting with bated breath to hear something new from them.
They were not work on their new album the entire time between 2014 and 2019, though. The group member got married, went to university, had children and went on with their lives, and that made getting back together a bit of a struggle, but they managed and released their second album to great acclaim.