IN BETWEEN North American tours, demoing and writing for a new album, and returning to Europe, Melbourne metal band King Parrot are making their annual pilgrimage to Warrnambool.
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Frontman Matt Young admitted the yearly trip to play at The Loft is as much about keeping in touch with their many south-west fans as it is about letting bassist Wayne Slattery spend some quality time in his hometown.
“Once a year, we drag Slats back to Warrnambool to meet up with his old man at the pub and have a few beers – it’s a family reunion,” Young laughed.
In recent years, King Parrot have become one of Australia’s busiest and foremost metal bands.
In July they returned from a 40-date run across North America which included their own US East Coast headline shows. It was King Parrot’s eighth North American tour in three years.
“We’re building our own following over there and it’s going really well,” Young said.
“On this tour we did two weeks through Canada and a bunch of places we’ve never been before, and a bunch of new places in the US. There are so many places to play – a lot of American bands, they just tour America, that’s all they day, and there’s enough people and venues to support that.
“Every tour is different but the main thing is when we do play in the bigger cities, there are people there that want to come and see us again and buy shirts and CDs. It’s been really encouraging to see. We’re building it the same as we did here.”
After a short break, the band began working on the follow-up to their 2015 album Dead Set, which reached #21 on the ARIA charts.
“We should have some demos done by the end of September to take away and listen to … (then) do some recording over summer (and have) a new record out in the second half of next year,” Young said.
“We’re hoping to announce an Australian tour for summer as well – we don’t want to be locked in the studio (over summer or) at all. We’d prefer to play live.
“But we’re excited (about a new record).”
Young said that if nothing else, a new record gave them an excuse to make some new film clips.
“We enjoy getting the creative juices flowing for videos,” he said.
King Parrot’s clips have become part of the band’s calling card – the YouTube videos for Dead Set and Like A Rat have attracted almost 200,000 views each, while Shit On The Liver has over 427,000.
Friday night’s Loft gig is one of just four Aussie dates before the band heads off for a European tour supporting Obituary, Exodus and Prong.
They’ll be supported at The Loft by south-west connections Witchgrinder and The Ascended.
