Getting Serious

"Our opinion on the band is that it's hard work. It's a working class job – that's what you can make it. You might not get paid lots of money, but you can travel the world, and that's what I've realised anyway,” comments Slatts, a member known more for his comedic genius than bass skills.

Formed in 2010, the intense and unpredictable five-piece delivered their debut EP, The Stench Of Hardcore Pub Trash, in 2011, but didn't really start truly flogging Australian highways and airports until their 2012 debut album, Bite Your Head Off. Three incredibly well received and generally hilarious video clips, an international re-release through Candlelight Records, heaps of Australian tours later, the band has just returned from their first gig in Singapore, a slot at the giant Hammersonic Festival in Indonesia and six weeks on the road in the USA.

“Basically it was like starting a new band again,” he admits. “In Australia you start off, build a band, and then you build a profile. We obviously had a little bit of presence there already, so it was really awesome to rock up to places where we thought there was going to be no one there, and there'd be a bunch of people that had driven from surrounding areas driving up, saying they thought they'd never see us, so that was amazing.”

Speaking of people driving to come and see them, even Phil Anselmo of Pantera and Down fame showed up at one of their shows.

“We played in Baton Rouge, and he lives in a property about an hour out of town. We obviously played at Soundwave, and Down were awesome enough to get us up to play a song with them. They kept in touch basically. They'd been sending us emails saying 'We might come, Phil's pretty pissed but we might come,' and yeah last minute they arrived literally 20 minutes before we played. The singer of this support band, he was pretty pissed by that stage, and he was like 'Look over there man, you see who that is? You like Pantera? That's Phil Anselmo, man!' and I was like 'Yeah, he's actually here to see us.' It was a pretty chuffed moment! And then I was like 'And I think we're staying at his house!' He was having a ball man – smashing Long Island iced teas up the front, lifted Youngy [Matt Young, vocals] up and ran around with him.

“Then Ari [White, guitars] and Squiz [Andrew Livingstone-Squires, guitars] jumped in the truck with him and his wife drove. For the hour-and-a-half drive he just pumped Portal and King Parrot and he couldn't even speak. By the time we all pulled up Phil was up for about two minutes and just crashed out. Another surreal moment, his wife goes 'Come and look at him, he's sleeping really weird!' Being in Phil Anselmo's room and just seeing him passed out with his arm holding up his head... I never thought I'd be in Phil Anselmo's bedroom. Sitting around his house the next day, walking around his property… Awesome scene of Phil Anselmo walking around in socks and crocs, showing us his pet cemetery where he'd buried all his animals over the years, to where they called their beach, which is a lake with a bunch of sand… He was just relaxed, telling us stories of the history of Pantera, it was amazing.”

It's hard to keep it together on the road for a lot of bands, but despite being in their 30s and 40s, King Parrot seem to have gotten the mix just right.

“There was several times across the six weeks where I just couldn't believe that we hadn't punched each other the fuck out. There's been no serious arguments… sometimes alcohol's involved and people are dicks. Sometimes alcohol's not involved and people are still dicks. But it's compartmentalised and it's fine. We made the decision a while ago to treat it fucking seriously, and don't party until after the show.”

While King Parrot will tear it up for Australian audiences most of this month, they've set aside some time to work on album number two before most likely heading off back overseas.
“Ari's probably the hit machine – he'll bring stuff to the table and we'll just work around it. It's cool… There's a couple there that I think have a heaps more hardcore-punk edge, like Against Me!, that whole vibe… not Against Me!,” he giggles. “What the fuck am I talking about? I can't even remember who the fuck I'm talking about. But it's definitely got that more hardcore punk edge to it.”