WHEN Little Quirks reflect back on 2020 it'll be remembered as a year of hits and misses.
The Central Coast family band of sisters Abbey (vocals, guitar) and Mia Toole (drums) and their cousins Jaymi (vocals, mandolin) and Alex Toole (bass) had high hopes to kick-off the decade.
After several years of building up their fan base through a combination of YouTube performances, slick music videos and catchy folk-pop songs driven by their three-part harmonies, the Tooles appeared primed to explode.
Earlier in the year they released their third EP Cover My Eyes and were preparing to sign with label ABC Music just as COVID-19 shut down the global music industry.
The signing still went ahead, though it became a bizarre virtual dotting of the i's and crossing of the t's, over a Zoom meeting.
What didn't go ahead, however, was their planned maiden foreign tour to the UK.
Little Quirks were supposed to perform at Brighton's Great Escape Festival in May alongside Paramore's Hayley Williams, Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C and Los Angeles pop-rockers Best Coast. There were also gigs planned in Liverpool and London.
In preparation for the tour Jaymi, who was in the final year of her Secondary Teaching degree at the University Of Newcastle, placed many of her classes on hold.
"I was supposed to do my last internship and this was my last year, but now it's been pushed to next year," Jaymi says. "I'll be finished then and it'll turn out to be a five-year degree when it's supposed to be a four-year degree."
Not surprisingly, Jaymi and her cousins are looking forward to welcoming 2021. They'll have the ideal opportunity when they headline night two of Dashville's A Fresh Start concert series on New Year's Day, sharing the Lower Belford stage with Magpie Diaries, Bones and Jones and the Dashville Progress Society.
A Fresh Start begins on December 31 with William Crighton & The Bellbird Rats, Bloody Hell, Blackwater Fever and Viragos and concludes on January 2 with Wagons, Hat Fitz & Cara, Huntress and Front End Loader.
"I like the sentiment, that they're calling it A Fresh Start," Jaymi says.
"They're gonna be allowed to have people dance, which will be nice because that's something we've missed from our other gigs. It's been very polite."
"I specifically remember that Dashville Skyline show, as for some reason, I was really nervous that day," Jaymi says. "I hope I'm not so nervous this time. That's just me in particular. I get stage fright a little bit."
Despite COVID-19 Little Quirks kept busy releasing the singles Florence's Town and then the soul pop-inspired Someone To Hold, which features Jaymi on lead vocal. Both songs will appear on a five-track EP due for release in February.
Despite the lack of mandolin, Jaymi says Little Quirks aren't moving away from their indie-folk sound, which was inspired by Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers.
"We were inspired by a more '50s style because we wanted to have one of those classic old slow-dance songs, but with more of a folky modern twist," she says.
"We wanted that song to have a sense of nostalgia. I think most of our stuff will still be folk rock. But we're always open to going in different directions."
Someone To Hold also features an nostalgic video, filmed and directed by Abbey and Mia's father, Adam Toole, at the Avoca Beach Picture Theatre.
YouTube videos of the girls performing Cranberries covers initially helped provide Little Quirks with a platform and it remains essential to their creative process.
"We don't have as many deadlines or rely on an external source so we can take our time and be more creative with it and have that creative control," she says.
Music has always been a family tradition at Toole family gatherings with cousins, aunties and uncles and grandparents playing and singing together. This Christmas won't be any different.
But has the dynamic changed given Little Quirks' success?
"The only thing that has probably changed is when we go to family events, half the family is talking about more business stuff and about the band, which the other family members probably get sick of," Jaymi laughs.
