Melbourne trio Pretty City blend infectious riffs and pensive vocals to create a sound Dinosaur Jr. and Smashing Pumpkins fans would relish.
Over a surprisingly short life-span of 18 months, the fuzz-rockers have released a string of singles and videos gaining praise from the music media. Coining the term 'shoe-grunge' to describe their eclectic blend of psychedelic rock, shoe-gaze and straight-up rock & roll, Pretty City have gained momentum in recent months with support slots alongside British India, Saskwatch and Flying Colours.
Having just released their new single 'Flying', frontman Andrew Schapper says “we wanted broody, sort of travelling music to reflect the kind of stuff we were doing. Just in the car all around the country.”
The single takes on a slightly different approach to their previous hazy, distant sound. “It's a bit more straight rock & roll,” Andrew says. “It's a bit straighter and a bit less sort of washy, a bit less shoe-gaze. But still with our sort of psych-rock sound. Probably a bit more of a mainstream song I reckon.”
Releasing the song for free, Pretty City are not here for wealth or infamy. “To be honest we're all, luckily, just not that fussed about making shitloads of money; [we] just wanna play as musicians and want people to hear our music … we want people to hear [our songs] and we want to share them with the world. So we figure, you know, we enjoy [our songs], other people will probably enjoy them. That's the main motivator.”
In fact, Andrew calls to light the unavoidable truth that “it's quite difficult to make a living out of [music]”, and cites one of his major obstacles with the band as: “that balance of being a professional musician and having to work and finance yourself at the same time. So I guess it's reconciling the time and effort versus some financial rewards. I work at Melbourne Uni at the minute, Johnny's a lab tech and Hugh's a private tutor and teaching, soccer coaching as well.”
With a tireless work ethic, the past year and a half has seen relentless touring and writing from the guys, and some enjoyable videos surfacing on YouTube. “We've all been in a lot of bands before so we've just tried to learn from our mistakes along the way,” Andrew says about’s the band’s history.
“I guess we've been able to move pretty quickly because of that. But also we're all in kind of the same place – we all enjoy the music and touring and just playing gigs. So it's been pretty easy.”
As for the group’s name, it wasn’t inspired by their home town. “[Originally] Hugh wanted to call the band Finance, so that when we were meeting friends and they ask what you do you can just say 'I'm in Finance’. And it became City Finance and all this kind of stuff. I don't know how many names we came up with but eventually we landed at Pretty City.”
The future seems to have a lot in store for Pretty City, and as their fanbase grows, so does their songwriting. “I think as the songs have become more direct the lyrics have also. The song has a feeling or an expression and we're just trying to convey that clearly … I anticipate that we'll get more confident as we progress as a band and say things that are on our mind and say them directly.”
Written by Luke Ward
Pretty City Tour Dates
Fri 10th Oct - Revolver (Melbourne)Fri 17th Oct - The Bearded Lady (Brisbane)
Thu 23rd Oct - The Phoenix (Canberra)
Fri 24th Oct - Mum @ The World Bar (Sydney)
Thu 30th Oct - The Grace Emily (Adelaide)
Fri 31st Oct - Mynt Lounge (Werribee)
Sat 1st Nov - Alia Art House (Melbourne)
