“Originally we were a folk band but our ‘box player’ kinda went away. I did a sneaky thing and snuck in a rock drummer and a bass player and yeah we just went from there.” In 2012 the current line-up of Will (drums), Simon (guitar), Jono (bass) and Parsons (lead guitar and vocals) played 113 shows that is just over two a week. Parsons honestly explains what could have been the best or worst decision of his life – he is clearly still not sure.
“I reckon there’s kinda two ways you can pull it off: You can just play gigs now and again or you can just play everywhere. At the end of that year (2012) we were all just exhausted and pretty much done with it,” he says.
However there were a few highlights like getting to play with bands that inspired The Pretty Littles to get so loud. “During that period there was the occasional cracker that just kept us going – we just got enough good ones like The Vasco Era, Delta Riggs, The Custom Kings and The Exploders.”
At the start of this year an exhausted The Pretty Littles went on a hiatus driven by Parsons going to Italy to finish his arts degree.
“I was overseas for four months. I have been doing an arts degree for a thousand years and doing an intensive semester in Italy was the quickest way for me to get it.” Parson studied at the Monash University campus in Prato, Italy that is about 20 minutes out of Florence. A compulsory part of this visit was a two week Italian course that, Parsons explains, his heart was far from into.
“Apparently no-one has ever failed it,” he laughs with a laconic suspense before revealing, “I got 50%. My teacher was called Samuel Grassi and I was just a constant disappointment to him – he was like Coach Carter and I was the delinquent kid. The exam was a multiple choice and during it I was like ‘Samuel, if you were doing this question, would you be leaning more to C or D?’ and he would be like ‘C, definitely C.’” says Parsons, with last part in some weird accent that may be Italian.
So Parsons is in Italy studying while the rest of the band is getting on with life in Melbourne – the prospect of The Pretty Littles reforming when Parson gets back is low. But then vicissitudes of rock’n’roll swung back in The Pretty Littles favour when they got their recordings back that were laid down just before the hiatus.
“Seven weeks in to my trip we got the first mix back of the songs that we had recorded before I left and they sounded fucking excellent. I didn’t wanna be like I was convincing everyone to restart the band because I really pissed them off making them play so many shows in one year but after we all heard the songs it just came naturally,” explains a self-consciously relieved Parsons.
On Friday August 30 The Pretty Littles are playing their first show since the hiatus and are launching the first song from the recording session that inspired the band to keep at it. Parsons explains his personal connection with the song, “The first release from the forthcoming album called Never Felt Worse. It is about when you realise you’re infatuated with someone and you’re just fucking helpless. The chorus is ‘I have fallen in love but never felt worse’.”
Parsons now finally discusses the bands that are playing before The Pretty Littles at The Espy show, “It’s a cracking line-up – The Harlots, Knitting For Gran and Neighbourhood Youth.
“The Harlots are the fucking best band, they are incredible. I don’t know why they’re not fucking huge – they’re just in that middle ground waiting to go massive.”
BY DENVER MAXX
