How The Pretty Littles accidentally made their heaviest album
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

10.07.2019

How The Pretty Littles accidentally made their heaviest album

The Pretty Littles

Long-adored Melbourne rockers The Pretty Littles have new music on the way, much of which can be heard live in the next instalment of Young Henrys’ Best Served Loud series.

The band have evolved since their early days, with eager fans awaiting to see what they do next. As frontman Jack Parsons says of The Pretty Littles’ growth, “We’ve stayed really similar in middle of the road rock, but the songs themselves I know and can see have got better in terms of what they’re about and how they’re put together. And I’m very proud of that because we’re happier with each album that comes out and just kind of go, ‘ok cool, we’re getting better at putting songs together’.”

Their latest record Skeleton Run saw the band take a bit of a heavier turn while incorporating commentary around the political climate of Australia, though that wasn’t necessarily their intention.

“We’d been playing lots from our last record Soft Rock and we’d been touring and touring and we kind of realised – not through any truly meaningful way, but just playing gigs – that we didn’t really have any songs. So, we tried to write new ones.

“We tried to write songs a bit differently and we got some cool ideas from that and then in the end it turned into quite a heavy rock album. Well, not heavy rock, I don’t know. It turned into a heavy album but we all really like it, I think.”

The album included some stronger themes, with tracks like ‘Don Dale’ written from the perspective of an Indigenous child held at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in the Northern Territory. But Parsons says the band doesn’t aim to have any sort of political agenda, but rather these songs just develop out of watching the world and having feelings about what’s going on.

“I’m not looking through the papers going ‘oh I hope I find something that pisses me off’ – I mean that would be really easy to do. It influences the songs in that you might just see something and it really affects you to the point where you write about it. It’s like anything. Something happens in your personal life and you are affected by it and so you write about it.”

“Influence on the songs come when I see something that kind of makes you want to sit down and write about it,” he explains.

The Pretty Littles fans don’t have to wait long for more, either, as Parsons tells us, “We’ve been working on a new [album], which is exciting too. We recorded ten songs in a weekend. We did it real quick. And that’s pretty close to being finished, I reckon.”

“The [new] songs are different, again. Thankfully they’re not as heavy – got pretty dark on the last one.”

Melburnians will get a taste of some of this new stuff, as well as the old favourites, at their next upcoming gig as part of Best Served Loud presented by Young Henrys. Here, the band is a headlining a set after Batz and Destrends warm the stage up for them.

“I’m looking forward to playing a gig, ‘cause we haven’t played many in the last little while,” Parsons explains. “And I’m looking forward to playing at Stay Gold ‘cause haven’t played there yet, but I saw Pist Idiots play there a couple of weeks ago and that was really great. It’s a nice little room.”

Stay Gold, the local favourite live music venue nestled into Sydney Road in Brunswick is, as Parsons explains, perfect for the The Pretty Littles. “Stay Gold is right in our area, for sure. They’re sort of the gigs we play,” he says.

The Pretty Littles’ show for Best Served Loud follows a succession of epic free gigs as part of the Young Henrys-sponsored series. The likes of Jade Imagine, Dumb Punts, Hobsons Bay Coast Guard and Chasing Ghosts’ Jimmy Kyle have performed since the event’s 2019 iteration kicked off in February.

For Young Henrys, the series is about spotlighting the best local talent in the best local venues; in turn, ensuring that musicians get paid and that venues are supported. 

The Pretty Littles will play Young Henrys’ Best Served Loud series on Friday July 26 at Stay Gold, free entry. Find out more via the Facebook event page.