Australia’s favorite grindcore kings, King Parrot are back with new music in the form of a 4 track EP titled “Holed Up In The Lair”. With the pandemic keeping the touring side of things at bay, now seems like a good time for the band to come out with new music which has an interesting back story as bassist Slatts tell us, but not before he announces his new career in hip-hop.
Andrew: I know your based in Melbourne so how are you dealing with everything over there?
Slatts: It’s tough, I’m not gonna lie to you. I’m thankful for the fact I’ve just started my new rap career as a result of it so yeah I’ve just been sitting at home recording a shitload of dumb raps, it’s been fucking great!
Andrew: [laughs] Well you gotta keep busy I guess right!
Slatts: Yeah stay tuned for a new opening band when we actually do go back to playing gigs, I’m calling myself Little Dopey.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah you gotta have a laugh at all this at the same time I suppose, it’s tough but it’s a unique experience.
Slatts: It’s a once in a lifetime…a generational experience really! I’m pretty good at entertaining myself sitting at home being a hermit. That said, it is starting to become a bit fucking tiring at this point.
Andrew: Yeah but there’s a bit of a surprise, you got this EP that’s just come out and I was just reading a bit of the back story behind it and it’s interesting you had this sort of sitting in the back burner for quite a bit right?
Slatts: Yeah and it’s actually older than I thought. I just got some copies in the mail yesterday and I was looking through the gatefold or whatever and was surprised to see it was recorded in 2017, I was convinced it was 2018. So there you go, even older than we thought.
Andrew: I guess your last album “Ugly Produce” was out in 2017 as well right?
Slatts: Fuck me it was too wasn’t it.
Andrew: So that was a busy year you guys had!
Slatts: Yeah see I gotta talk to Youngy (Matt, vocalist) about that, I fully reckon these songs off the EP are from 2018 [laughs], I reckon it’s a spelling mistake! We did it at Nodferatus Lair with big Philbo Baggans – Phil Anselmo and yeah they just sat there for ages.
Andrew: What was the idea behind that? Were you planning to release it at some stage? What was the idea with those 4 songs?
Slatts: Whenever we work together and have the opportunity, and we were in the States and it’s always a great opportunity because no-ones got work or whatever, there’s no distractions. Usually we’ll stay either end of a tour at Phil’s place so we got a studio there to use and basically recording songs that we’re working on and I guess even at the time I thought it was a surprise they came up really well. I mean we spent a week on four songs putting them together, so they were written in the studio but I guess the idea probably was they would go int a pool of ideas for the next album. But in the current state of affairs I think it was an opportunity because it took a little longer than we hoped, so let’s put them out.
Andrew: So were you guys working on new material this year for an album then?
Slatts: Yep so I’m trying to think when all this started, we were playing shows at the start of the year, yeah. Toddy (Hansen) our drummer lives in Brisbane so we had a couple of weekends – and he actually lives at a rehearsal studio space – so we were going up there and having practice sessions and Ari (White, guitar) got us up there just by himself and Toddy to bash out some songs as well and we worked on songs here without Toddy and that sort of thing. So yeah we have been working on stuff.
Andrew: So you were working on these songs, so around that did you have much touring stuff affected by the covid stuff?
Slatts: Yeah unfortunately we did. So every year we run the Thrash, Blast & Grind tour so last year I think we had The Illegals out, the year before that…
Andrew: I think it was Revocation if I’m not mistaken?
Slatts: Yep so that’s three years running so this would of been our fourth year so while we were in Australia we’re bringing out a band from the States and a band from Japan I think, or maybe 2 bands from the States but anyway that was going to be all of Australia and New Zealand. There was talk about South America as well but that got put on hold pretty much as well so yeah it had affected the touring life a little bit.
Andrew: Yeah a lot of bands have been affected by this stuff. So this EP comes out tomorrow (Friday October 9th) so what now? I guess you can’t do much until next year right?
Slatts: Yeah look I think it’s hard for everyone like small businesses…well I guess we are a small business, but you gotta start planning for something at some stage so we are already looking at things at the moment. We’ve definitely picked a couple of studios where we’re going to record another album, ideas for tours but obviously no hard dates or anything like that yet.
Andrew: No not yet.
Slatts: Are you guys actually doing shows over in W.A. at the moment?
Andrew: Yeah I mean our borders are closed pretty tight these days so nothing is going in or out but all the local bands are loving it because they’re getting some of the best turnouts in years so it’s been good.
Slatts: Yeah that’s great actually, that’s cool. I think because we’ve been in such a bubble, I was talking to Josh who plays in a band called Pod People up in Canberra and he mentioned Pod People are playing and his other band is playing, both shows are sold out. I was like fucking hell, I didn’t think there was even any gigs on ever anymore! I heard The Angels played in fucking Tassie the other day so it’s going on and I’ve been oblivious to it all. I’ve been busy doing my rap songs mate!
Andrew: [laughs] I hope that takes off!
Slatts: So do I [laughs].
Andrew: Bonus track on the new King Parrot album!
Slatts: Yeah! I got a song that I actually co-wrote with one of the dudes from The Illegals actually and it’s about being on tour but not famous enough to get a root, pretty much the story of my life.
Andrew: [laughs] Now because of the language barrier I suppose between Americans and Australians as far as that kind of slang is concerned, did they know what root means? Because that means something completely different over there.
Slatts: Yeah you’re right but I think just because these guys have been unlucky enough to hang out with us a number of times, they know what I’m talking about [laughs].
Andrew: So a bit of the Aussie world has rubbed off them then.
Slatts: That’s it. I mean there’s obviously the reference to root but then another part says ‘not famous enough to get a quick fuck in the shitter’. So I’m pretty sure they would of figured it out [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] You know what’s interesting though and I’m sure you can go off a bit more on this but I’ve noticed a lot of people in America have started using the term ‘No worries’ which used to be traditionally an Australian thing. Have you noticed that at all?
Slatts: Yeah I haven’t to be honest but you could be right but I haven’t.
Andrew: It’s cool to see though to see a bit of the Aussie slang filtering it’s way through the mainstream over in the U.S.
Slatts: Fucking oath mate! It will be listening to the Queen’s English [laughs].
Andrew: So a lot of bands who are dealing with the covid stuff are getting a bit more creative coming up with different ideas for videos and live streaming and all that kind of stuff, have you thought about doing that kind of stuff as well?
Slatts: I would argue that we’ve always been a bit different in our film clips [laughs]. But the newest one is a cartoon and I’m actually in love with it because the dude has made me look really skinny.
Andrew: [laughs] I’m surprised it’s taken this long to do the animation because you guys seem like an animated type of band I suppose.
Slatts: Funnily enough there was a film clip that got started years ago that was a cartoon but I was asking Youngy about this the other day, I think it was an animator based in W.A. too working with the guy who does all our artwork, Boyd but it never went anywhere so I don’t know.
Andrew: Well looking forward to hearing the EP, you’ve had the two songs come out so have you had any feedback from the fans so far?
Slatts: Yeah well to be honest I’ve been on a social media…well not really a ban, I just can’t be fucked with it. So I haven’t actually been on Instagram, I haven’t been on Facebook in years and I haven’t been on Instagram for a few months and then I had to contact somebody about two weeks ago and I bopped on and saw there was a couple of messages from people saying they’re loving the new songs. Then I went and listened to it because I hadn’t listened to it in a fucking long time and thought this is actually really good! My bass playing sounds fucking great, you can actually hear it!
Andrew: Well it does sound great and it’s got a bit of a raw sound which I guess you could credit partially to the studio you recorded it in down at Phil’s Lair.
Slatts: Yeah I think the approach to it was probably, we certainly weren’t sitting there – and arguably never have – trying to perfect everything! But it was great to actually listen to it with fresh ears, I mean when we talked about putting it out as an EP going back 5-6 months ago yeah i listened to it then but after that I hadn’t when we first got it mastered. But it was nice to hear it and be reminded which I like to do with all our stuff. Every once in a while you chuck an album on and, ‘Fuck yeah this is still the shit, it’s great!’ Funnily enough our first EP, a few months ago I was scrolling through Instagram and someone posted a video of themselves doing some rock climbing and they had King Parrot on in the background, the first EP and no shit I was like, ‘Is that someone trying to do a cover of us? Because it sounds fucking terrible’ I remember the messages and they were laughing going, ‘No that’s you guys’. I’m like, ‘Ah oh fuck!’ [laughs]. It’s weird because I actually love that EP, I don’t know if it was because it was on Instagram or something but it sounded fucking awful [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] I was going to ask if you have ever gone back and realized there was a particular song that didn’t date as well or you thought maybe it was a bit of a mistake or anything like that?
Slatts: No not really to be honest. I mean I might of said this when I was going on about my rap shit but I love it and my Mum convinced me that my shit is made of gold so anything I do is fucking fantastic [laughs]. But I still listen to the albums and stuff and I love them, I think the first album “Bite Your Head Off” we did is still my favorite but I do actually love them all.
Andrew: Well good luck on the release for tomorrow, hopefully all the fans out there will love it. I don’t know when it will happen but at some point we gotta get you back in W.A. because we always have a great time seeing you guys play over here.
Slatts: Yeah I really enjoy it, good fun. Never enough time to hang out though, it sucks.
Andrew: Yeah I know how it can be tough but it is what it is I guess.
Slatts: That’s true, that’s true.
Andrew: Alright well I better leave you but congratulations on the new release and it’s been a pleasure to speak to you as always!
Slatts: No worries mate, appreciated, take care!
