It’s worth mentioning that, in recent months, King Parrot have spent more time on tour than not. Since the release of their debut album, 2012’s Bite Your Head Off, the Melbourne quintet haven’t let anything stand in their way; tallying up multiple national tours and international jaunts that grow bigger with every return.
“We’ve been going back and forth overseas for a good six months,” says Slattery, who is also known as Slatts (or Auntie Slatts if you’re nasty). “We’ve definitely noticed a shift in the audience and an increase in support for the band, including a lot of high-profile people getting on board and showing us some love. It’s pretty ridiculous, but we have worked bloody hard to get to this point.”
King Parrot are very much a band needs to be seen to be understood. To bring someone up to speed with the band’s character, you could do far worse than show them a King Parrot music video, the most famous being the Bonox-endorsing viral sensation Shit on the Liver. The video, with all of its ensuing catchphrases (“It’s in the system,” “Jeez, I’ve had a good day” et al.), set a precedent in terms of the band’s audio-visual identity. While many would consider this a burden, Slatts sees it as a challenge.
“I get emails from people that have never listened to heavy metal in their life – they just like the videos,” he laughs. “We get shared around offices and things like that. You have no idea how many jars of Bonox I’ve had to sign every time we visit a regional town. We’ve really come to enjoy making them – when that first video came out, we more or less had no idea what we were doing. We were just looking to draw attention to the band, especially for people that’d never seen us live before.”
A key feature of King Parrot’s film clips is the connection between the band’s extremely aggressive music and dark visual humour. “We always play our music professionally, but away from that we’re all just fucking around,” says Slattery. “We always like to inject humour into what we do. I know there are a lot of bands out there that are predominantly concerned with their corpse paint or looking tough or what have you. There’s certainly a place for that, but at the same time, I think there’s room to be a bit of a fuckwit as well.”
This week King Parrot will release their second album, Dead Set. Fans have already been treated to the singles Like a Rat and Home is Where the Gutter Is. The latter, in particular, deviates from the faithful take on extreme thrash and grindcore that dominates Bite Your Head Off. In contrast, Where the Gutter Is is a slower, blackened metal song, with vocalist Matt Young showcasing a far lower range than what King Parrot fans would be used to. One might assume tracks like this are the result of the band challenging themselves to try new things, but Slattery says – to borrow a phrase from Crowded House – that it’s only natural.
“I wouldn’t say it was completely intentional. I think it was just a different approach to creating. We had a month off last year in America because it was too expensive to fly back between two tours, so we had four weeks in which we just wrote, rehearsed and created. Instead of how we were used to doing it – which is our two guitarists just riffing back and forth – we had all five of us in a barn together. We were able to explore different elements – go slower, go heavier, go faster. It all came down to the way we were writing.”
If you’re one of the select few that’s yet to see King Parrot live, you’ll have ample chance to do so in the coming weeks. The band are touring nationally in support of Dead Set. Joining them will be cutthroat punk-metal proponents High Tension, as well as blackened-doom barnstormers Colossvs. It’s a decidedly-mixed bill, which is something Slattery and the rest of King Parrot pride themselves on.
“I’ve absolutely no interest in going to a show where every band sounds the same,” he says. “That’s what metal is – it’s so many different things. I think that punters will feel the same. It’s so much better when every band on a bill is bringing something different to the table. That’s why you’ve got ot get there early and you’ve got to stick around till the end. With us three together, honestly, it’s going to blow people away.”
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
