North Carolina natives The Nude Party are making their live debut Down Under this July as part of the Splendour In The Grass entourage.
They’ve announced sideshows in Melbourne at The Curtin on Thursday July 18 and The Lansdowne in Sydney a day later.
Frontman Patton Magee says the band are keen to rub shoulders with the Australian musical talent on the bill, particularly after seeing Tame Impala and The Murlocs on their touring circuit in the States.
“I think, musically, we feel like somehow a ridiculous amount of insanely good bands are coming out of Australia right now, so we’re just really excited to get plugged into it a little bit,” says Magee.
Since the release of their debut self-titled album last year, the ‘Chevrolet Van’ hit-makers have been touring non-stop across the US, including a showcase at SXSW, and there’s no sign of stopping. With a European tour to follow their Australian stop, the six-piece have also been added to the Lollapalooza and All Points West lineups.
“We are touring so much of the time and have been touring so much that we’ve gotten pretty good at making it as fun and comfortable and enjoyable as possible,” says Magee. “We bought this big airport shuttle bus and we’ve gutted it and built a cage for the gear and a table to play cards and some chairs and a bed and a luggage rack, so we’ve really put a lot of elbow grease into it. You know, we spend so much time touring that it’s worth it.”
Thankfully, the boys are no strangers to living on top of each other without anything to, uh, hide. The Nude Party name reflects the nature of the bands origins – playing in their birthday suit’s at house parties – and when they aren’t on the road, the boys are all housemates.
“We’ve all been living together since 2013, or even actually the summer of 2012, so I mean it’s kind of crazy to think about but it’s kind of been like seven years. There are obviously conflicts that arise with anybody, even with like close family. You know, conflicts happen, but we’ve gotten really good at dealing with them and we’ve gotten really good at remembering that we all have the same goal and we are all on the same team.”
Those goals are clear. Since suiting up, the boys have been focusing on forging a more professional image for the band, a move that has ultimately changed the dynamic of The Nude Party.
“I’ve enjoyed every change along the way. I don’t miss how it was before because I really enjoy how it is now. We’re a lot better musically and a lot more aware of what we’re doing now, and I think we’re making a lot better music than we were making in the beginning, even though it was a lot of fun and people enjoyed it. I wouldn’t change today for yesterday.”
“When we first started playing, we couldn’t even get booked at the burrito shop in town,” laughs Magee.
It’s onwards and upwards for The Nude Party. Plans for the next album are already in the works following a similar process as their debut; live first, into the studio second.
“We’ve already got a bunch of songs and demos we’re writing that we’re going to put into the set list,” says Magee. “We probably won’t play them live as long as we did before but we’ll probably, in all of these upcoming tours, play a bunch of songs and get them all to where the reaction and the feeling of playing it together feels good enough that we know we’re ready to record.”
Catch The Nude Party at The Curtin on Thursday July 18 and Splendour In The Grass between Friday July 19 and Sunday July 21 at North Byron Parklands. Grab your tickets to the sideshow via the venue website.
