Although, keyboard player Patrick Hetherington admits they’ll spend the majority of their downtime rehearsing for the next run of shows.
Since moving from Byron Bay to the German capital on a whim at 18, the five-piece have become accustomed to a constant state of flux.
“It’s very tiring emotionally and physically,” says Hetherington of the band’s gruelling touring schedule. “But it doesn’t matter how tired we get every night, even if it’s 10 minutes before we go on stage, the energy just drags us back and we’re right there. We haven’t ever lost that energy yet.”
“I definitely prefer the studio life myself, but I think you need the live side to balance it out because I would lose my mind if I was in the studio all the time,” he says.
Four of the five-piece met during high school. At just 13 years old, they dabbled in an array of different groups between themselves, until eventually four became five when guitarist Jules Crommelin entered the picture, and Parcels was born.
Though the members’ individual forays into making music were vastly different to the electronic retro-pop sound they now employ – their previous efforts having ranged from metal to folk – Hetherington says the varying genres of their past endeavours each found their place in Parcels’ sound.
“It was the point for all of us where we started listening to groovy, funk music, disco music and classic soul, and we kind of really bonded over that. We also started trialling electronic production which was kind of a really modern, new thing for us,” he says. “Once we combined that love for disco and funk with this new style of production we kind of came to this sound.
“And then we take from everything else; we took the vocal harmonies, stuff we’d been using in folk music for the last few years, and we took the groove stuff, which comes from that metal music.”
After landing in Berlin as teenagers fresh out of school, Parcels quickly drew attention with their sound; attracting a record deal with Parisian indie label Kitsuné before being sought after by Daft Punk. The latter resulted in the collaborative track ‘Overnight’ and spurred the quintet further into the spotlight.
The band are yet to release their debut album and with all eyes now on them, the prospect of doing so grows a little more intimidating, though the added pressure only fuels their determination to succeed.
“The hardest part was just starting the album and coming off this kind of buzz that we’d created. There were all these people talking about us and talking about Daft Punk,” says Hetherington. “The first song that came after that was ‘Bemyself’, which was kind of a statement about that which gave us all the confidence to move forward.”
“I’ve been pretty impressed by the way we’ve shut out everyone and everything. We’ve just done it for ourselves. When we first started there was this slight feeling of pressure and nerves, also from ourselves – the biggest pressure has always been coming from ourselves.”
Although the change in scenery has inevitably influenced Parcels’ sound – Berlin’s deep club scene, led by techno and electronica, leaking into the band’s creative peripherals – they are adamant in continuing to extend themselves beyond any one genre or sound on their forthcoming self-titled debut album.
“We didn’t really want to push it into one direction yet, says Hetherington. “Each song is just a moment, it’s usually individual coming from one of us – one experience we’ve had or one emotion we’re having – and we’re trying to put that into a song.”
“I think we really trying not to get stuck in a pattern, that’s when it all gets boring, so every song we’re trying to look at it a different way.”
