10 Questions For: Laurie Levine and Josie Field

This talented duo’s latest video ‘Same Eyes’ features Cape Town’s spectacular view from Signal Hill. They will be performing together at the Interplanetary Folk Festival, which will take place at Blah Blah Bar from Monday, 26 September to Sunday, 2 October 2016.

1. How would you describe what you do for a living?
LL: I try and make sense of the world and my experience of the world through music. I think the role of a musician is to move people and to capture something universal, that people across cultures can feel, even if they don't understand it. Music speaks to the heart and is its own language.

2. What is your most vivid childhood memory?
JF: I have  great memories of my large extended family all getting together for the holidays. Each evening the guitars would come out and my uncles would jam and everyone would sing along. Such special times!

3. If you could invite any three people, dead or alive, for dinner, who would they be and why?
JF: Joan Baez - I'd love to hear her stories about her career and being a young woman in folk music back then. I'd just love to pick her brain.
Nelson Mandela - Someone who spent so many years in prison and survived not only to live out the rest of his days but change the world for the better.
Vincent Van Gogh - He seems like an interesting character!

4. If you ever found yourself auditioning for a music reality TV show, what song would you sing and why?
LL: That's a tough one! It’s hard to pinpoint one song out of hundreds of songbooks. But for the sake of giving one answer, one of my favourite songs is Leonard Cohen's 'Dance Me to the End of Love'. I would choose it because of the astonishing poetry of the words. It would be a real challenge to create my own version, using a female voice and keeping the integrity of the words intact.

5. Complete this sentence. The South African Cabinet should include a Minister of _______________
LL: Ethics.

6. What would you say is the biggest misconception about you?
LL: I am not sure there are any misconceptions about me, and if there are, I am not aware of them! However, I imagine that some people might box me into the folk and country music genre, which is fair enough given my albums to date. But they might be surprised by some of the music I listen to at home, and the current direction that I am exploring, which doesn't really fit neatly into folk and country music. 

7. What is your (honest) opinion of Cape Town?
JF: I like how you put honest in there...not sure what kind of answer you expect now... But honestly we love visiting Cape Town! Who in their right mind wouldn't? On a side note, I'm not sure I'd live in Cape Town because the sea is a cold tease which I don't like.

8. What's the greatest fear you've had to overcome to get where you are today?
LL: My greatest fear has always been getting up on stage and performing. I was very shy up until a few years ago and I am not always comfortable with the intimacy of playing my music to people. This is something that I have worked on through the years and working through stage fright simply by getting onto stage time and time again has helped me overcome the fear.

9. What's the one thing you'd like to achieve before you die?
JF: There are so many things! One big one for me would be playing some shows in Nashville USA with Laurie!

10. Which well-known South African personality would you, without a doubt, be able to beat in a dance-off and why?
JF: Chester Missing, the puppet. I have never seen his feet and he probably has two left ones.

---

ABOUT #CapeTownMag10Q:
CapeTownMagazine.com’s 10 Questions project gets to know some of the Mother City’s most creative and inspiring people. From television personalities and musicians to politicians and entrepreneurs, we find out more about well-known and up-and-coming Capetonians. You can follow #CapeTownMag10Q on Twitter and Facebook to track recent interviews or read more here about our other awesome 10 Questions candidates.

A FEW OF OUR OTHER 10Q CANDIDATES:

10 Questions For Singer and Songwriter Paige Mac

10 Questions For Cape Town-based Musician Anton Goosen

---

Check out our events section for an up-to-date overview of happenings in Cape Town. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and if you have a smartphone, addm.capetownmagazine.com to your home screen for quick access on the go!

Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, join our Google+ circle, connect with us on LinkedIn, check out our photos on Instagram and follow our Pinterest boards for updates on what’s happening in and around the Mother City