Melbourne extreme metal band King Parrot have recently returned from an extensive US tour, which means they'll be in peak performance condition for Halloween Hysteria (in Brisbane) at the end of the month.
“We're in good form at the minute,” vocalist Matt Young enthuses.
“There's something to be said for going to Europe or going to the US and doing 20 or 30 shows in a row – it just puts you in that space where you're a really well-oiled unit, you've got everything ironed out and you know the set back-to-front.
“You seem to get into this groove when you play that many shows together that other bands may not get to experience.
“You're so used to playing together and playing tight; there's an unspoken chemistry to touring bands. It's a great experience to get to gel that well with other musicians.”
King Parrot's performance at Halloween Hysteria kicks off their final run of shows for 2018 and Matt says he and the band are extremely proud to be selected among the headliners for the first-ever instalment of the festival to be held in Brisbane. “We're a pretty modest band I think,” he says.
“We have a lot of fun with what we do, we play the sort of music we play and it's very extreme but we have a lot of fun with it. There's an element of humour to King Parrot that most other extreme metal bands don't have.”
Matt is also very supportive of the fact that Halloween Hysteria is putting a greater focus on ensuring a more equitable distribution of female and female-fronted acts.
“You've only got to look at the likes of Pagan and High Tension, and another band I've been checking out recently called Potion – awesome band – and it's really awesome to see all that going on, and watching the female rockers get involved and play great music.”
King Parrot will also see out 2018 on a high with their 2018 ARIA nomination for Best Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal for their 2017 record 'Ugly Produce', joining DZ Deathrays, Parkway Drive, Polaris and West Thebarton in the running.
“It's pretty incredible and I think it's great for the Australian scene and for extreme metal fans that a band like King Parrot, playing the style that we do and taking the approach we do, can be recognised as [releasing] one of the best hard rock/ heavy metal albums for the past year,” Matt says.
“Hopefully it brings some inspiration to other bands to keep playing the music that you love, because these things are possible playing this type of music.
“We have pretty lofty standards for the style of music that we play and we've been able to continually make good records, do the tours we want to do internationally and achieve a lot of our goals just through persistence and hard work.
“Our goal initially was to play extreme Australian heavy music that sounds Australian, that has the Australian approach to it and will hopefully set us apart from other bands that do whatever they do, and I think we've been able to achieve that to a certain degree.
“A lot of people when they think of King Parrot, especially overseas, it's 'those crazy Australians', and that's cool,” he laughs.
