Backstage at a dingy club in Portsmouth, Thórunn Antonia of UK/Icelandic drone rockers Fields is trying to make herself heard over the apocalyptic rumble of a bass guitar.

“I’m so sorry,” the Reykjavik-native bleats. “The guys are in the middle of a soundcheck. It’s very loud.” By the end of the sentence, she’s practically shrieking.
None of this should really come as a surprise. On their debut album, Everything Last Winter, Fields apply a folksy gloss to old shoe-gaze tropes: powers-chords rumble and judder, melodies wax ethereal, people of unspecified gender warble in the manner of existentially-troubled fairies.
“For sure, we love My Bloody Valentine. Absolutely adore them,” gushes Antonia, exiting the venue through a side-door. “But they didn’t loom large for us when we put the band together. We just knew we wanted to play like, really, really loud."
Last year Fields signed to Black Lab Records, part of the Warner Group, upon the recommendation of Simon White, manager of Bloc Party and a friend of the band’s founder Nick Peill.
“Nick and Simon go way back,” Antonia explains. “In fact, it was Simon who suggested Nick should put Fields together. Nick played him a few songs which he had written and Simon was like, ‘You’ve got to put this out.’ I knew Simon too. He introduced me to Nick at a party. Fields started from that.”
Antonia is, in fact, a scion of one of Iceland’s most famous musical dynasties – her father composed the country’s national anthem.
“He’s very famous at home,” she says. “Iceland’s a very small place. Everyone really does know everyone. A lot of the Iceland bands, I would know very well. People like Sigur Ros. We all know each other.”
Fields recorded Everything Last Winter at Temple Bar's Sun Studios, with the assistance of Pearl Jam/ Blizzards producer Michael Beinhorn.
“It was really great. We loved Dublin but Temple Bar got a bit scary at the weekend. It was like being at a football match. So many drunken big guys wanting to throw up at the same time. People in Iceland like to drink, but that was an eye-opener.”