Folk B*tch Trio On Tour Life & Getting Signed: “Every Step Of The Way, Things Have Felt Crazy”

There’s a certain alchemy that happens when Gracie Jane Sinclair, Heide Peverelle, and Jeanie Pilkington sing together—three voices folding into one, rising and falling like a collective exhale. It's the sound that's carried Folk Bitch Trio from small local stages in Naarm/Melbourne to sold-out rooms in London and Los Angeles, and now—signing to legendary indie label Jagjaguwar—onto the world stage.

The trio are united over one Zoom screen to speak to The Music, spending time in a houseplant-filled abode back in Melbourne as they do the final bits of housekeeping before news of the signage drops. When asked about how it all came about, they were transported back overseas to their time in the US last October.

“It came about with a little lunch in LA, which feels pretty classic,” Pilkington admits, smiling over at her bandmates. They all affirm that it was a very nice lunch, although it was no one-and-done affair like that of fiction.

Peverelle adds that the finality was primed first. “We had quite a few meetings when we were in the States, and I feel like this was literally the last meeting that we had.”

“Yeah, we were leaving that day, like, we had a day room at a motel… We Ubered to this lunch, and we were all so tired; I think we probably almost cancelled it. And then, yeah, met the A&R rep and got on quite well; Kiki'd about a bunch of things, and it kind of started from there.”

Has the sign been a big shift for the band? 

“It’s definitely, like, up a gear,” Sinclair says of the shift. “Maybe up two gears.”

“Many gears,” adds Peverelle. “We’ve got, like, a really amazing team that just have kind of elevated everything.”

Their signing celebration wasn’t extravagant; it was just oysters at Queen Victoria Market back home on the first warm day of the Melbourne summer. “We went with our friends and got some oysters,” Pilkington smiles. “Just kind of quietly celebrated.”

Prior to that deal-sealing final day, the three had slingshotted from coast to coast, playing a mix of openers, headliners, and the coveted Austin-original instalment of SXSW.

“We had just been on tour with M.Ward; we drove from Texas to New York on tour, then we played our own headline in New York, and then we went to LA to fly out and also to play our own headline there,” Sinclair recounts. 

The trio solidified their creative relationship with M.Ward (of She & Her fame) in the second half of 2024 with a feature on Ward’s cover of 10cc’s Cry. It was just another notch on a belt’s worth of fellow artist recognition alongside King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Julia Jacklin, Alex G, and indie icon Phoebe Bridgers. Bridgers even went as far as describing Folk Bitch Trio as “Boygenius if it was from the 40s or something”.

That year of wrangling the states in denim-clad uniforms and “off the record” shenanigans was also the year Folk Bitch Trio were introduced to the rest of the world, opening for Cat Clyde and The Teskey Brothers to adoring crowds in Europe and the UK. 

Come 2025, and the trio of self-titled folk bitches continue to flourish, making their mark as the first Australians signed to Jagjaguwar in a decade and marking their signage with a new single. The Actor is their first recorded offering of 2025, detailing a very common narrative rethreaded with overlapping harmonies. 

“It’s a pretty literal song, I suppose,” Peverelle shares. “It was based on a breakup, and, yeah, kind of the demise of a relationship. I guess it kind of just goes through the feelings of, like, yeah, falling in love, and then eventually, it just falling apart.” 

The music video takes the metaphor further, staging a casting call full of actors rehearsing their new lines. 

“We just called on all of our closest friends and family,” Pilkington says. “Our mums are in the video, our sisters, siblings, cousins… I think they all did a really great job. It was very, very fun; A very fun day of shooting.” 

The Actor slots itself amongst FTB’s discography of singles, and with a habit of dual singles, fingers are crossed that more offerings arrive. The band were reticent to reveal more, avoiding overconsumption of songs with the steady folk diet of here and now. 

But behind the international tour dates and label signing, Folk Bitch Trio’s story is still marked by the same grit it started with. Theirs isn’t a fast-tracked fairytale — it’s years of friendship, hard shows, and figuring things out as they go. 

“I was studying full-time and working at the pub,” Sinclair recalls. “We were gigging every single weekend. Saying yes to everything.” 

The band recalls no going out or partying in the early days. The priority was getting their moniker on venue gig guides.

“There was probably a six-month period where we were playing like two, three shows every weekend,” Pilkington adds. “To really weird, varying scales—supporting random bands or playing to 10 people in the front bar. The sound guy has an iPad. Not going well.”

The trio laugh in unison at the offhand comment.

Sinclair shoots back, “No shade to the iPad.”

“No shade to the iPad!” Pilkington continues. “But, you know, a lot of the time feeling like, ‘Wow, this is really vulnerable and feels a little bit shitty.’”

There definitely is a kind of vulnerability in those early shows. Late nights. Underpaid sets. Logistics that made zero sense on paper. “You’ve gotta slog it,” Peverelle shrugs. “You’ve gotta cut your teeth.”

The slow burn of the first few years was defined by all the gigs and singles, and since then, the opportunities have been blazing hot. The group’s ascent has been rapid within the last couple of years, yet they admit they’ve been given some legroom to reflect on the realness of it all. 

“We started this project just before COVID hit, and that was obviously like a year off, and then, like, a year of pretty stagnant movement,” Sinclair tells. “And I think perhaps if we didn't have that buffer, things would have been maybe a little bit crazier. But when you have, like, private time to soak things up…”

Pilkington adds, “We have very low expectations as well. So, every step of the way, things have felt crazy. Like, things now that feel minuscule compared to the things that are happening to us now felt crazy at the time [sic]."

“And because we're such good friends, I do think that, like, I remember the first time we were interstate as a band, and then the first time we were overseas as a band, like… we've definitely relished in the moments of being like, ‘This is this is insane, and this is really special, and this won't happen again.’ So, I don't think it's lost on us. I think we have time to sort of, even if they are small moments, we're like, ‘Yo, this is crazy guys.’”

Sinclair nods, “It’s definitely all still wild.” Peverelle takes a beat as well, “Yeah. But we do talk a lot, I think, like, we take moments to process together and feel… Which is good, I think.”

Even now, with sold-out rooms across the UK and US added to the pool room and another Europe run around the corner, not much has changed behind the scenes. “We tour-manage ourselves,” Pilkington laughs. “Running around those fucking European train stations with a guitar and a suitcase.”

And still, somehow, they manage to keep their cool through it all. “We maintain our glamour,” Sinclair deadpans. “All the time.”

Even now, as they prepare for the UK showcase festival, The Great Escape, and shows in Amsterdam and Paris, their compass hasn’t shifted.

They still laugh at the absurdity of it all. They still giggle at their own jokes. They still believe in making the most tender, stripped-back music — and pairing it with visuals that are a little bit silly - ergo running around in chainmail for the Analogue clip or shedding a tear for their mums’ stage auditions in The Actor’s clip. Modern-day irony blended with folk-music sincerity.

And maybe that’s the reason they’re still here. Still friends. Still laughing. Still harmonising through the madness of a very fast-moving career.

“Big things,” Sinclair grins when asked what’s next. “Watch this space.”

“Off the hook,” she adds, half joking. “Off the line.”

Whatever it is — it’ll be theirs.

The Actor is out now via Jagjaguwar.