FEATURE:
Spotlight
new bands coming through, Picture Parlour are Katherine Parlour, Ella Risi, Sian Lynch and Michael Nash. A tremendous British band who are already turning heads, they have been compared with The Last Dinner Party. Both groups are, most notably, extraordinary and captivating live performers. Even if the title of their debut single, Norwegian Wood, might call to mind a Beatles song of the same-ish name (the Fab Four added (This Bird Has Flown) or a Haruki Murakami novel, their sound and direction is very much their own. In fact, I think that Picture Parlour are going to continue releasing music that defines their sound and stands aside from everyone else. Capturing the attention of the likes of NME and Rolling Stone already, it is clear that there is something very special about them! Similar to The Last Dinner Party, some have asked whether Picture Parlour are an industry plant. How can these women (plus, of course, Michael Nash) have got such press and attention this early on?! Accusations of their being an established band who are prefabricated and a kind of industry experiment. The truth is that Picture Parlour are extraordinary on their own terms. This kind of sexism is really damaging. It is not surprising that they have already been tipped as a huge band to watch. There is a great connection between them. The live shows are hugely memorable, and Norwegian Wood ranks as one of the best singles of the year.
Before getting to some big recent features, I want to head back to The Great Escape. Last month, Picture Parlour played Zahara down in Brighton. NME were in attendance. I am not sure where their next gig is or whether they have much in the festival calendar, but you can see the quartet high up festivals bills and playing big venues very soon! They clearly have a stunning set of songs under their belt that need to be witnessed in the flesh:
“Roll up! Roll up! Picture Parlour invite you to enter their rock circus, a spectacle of melodrama, cartwheeling riffs and genuine, delicious swagger. Just after the clock strikes 12.30pm, Brighton’s Zahara club descends into complete darkness, while an unnerving fairground tune plays from the PA. The energy in the room starts to crackle with feverish anticipation. You can only surrender to the idea that this feels like the start of something very special.
Led by vocalist Katherine Parlour, the London-based four-piece are relishing the lore that has built up around their band over the past few months. Having played their first-ever live show at The Windmill in Brixton last December – a mightily influential venue that has been pivotal to the careers of Shame, Goat Girl and Black Midi – the exhilarating musicianship that has come to define Picture Parlour’s gigs has resulted in bookings at festivals across the country, and won them a fan in Courtney Love. On paper, the band are yet to officially release a single piece of music.
“Wow, it’s busier here than we anticipated,” says Parlour, ruffling her two-tone hair in mild embarrassment. You can say that again. Underneath twinkling rainbow lights, the sardine-packed venue – which is housing the Vocal Girls stage this afternoon – vibrates with the unmet demand for space, resorting to a one in, one out policy. The feeling is bolstered by the band’s seesawing, lightly psychedelic songs, which grow in intensity rather than walloping you in the face repeatedly. Throughout ‘Judgement Day’, each yelped howl and spindly solo feels like another spin on a wind-up toy that’s waiting to be stirred to life.
A suave ringleader holding court in a primary coloured suit, Parlour creeps along the stage, flitting between playing the jester as she gently pushes her bandmates, and looking away from the audience completely. Her distinctive vocal timbre adds depth to ‘Gala Day’, a track that sizzles with the brooding, sinister sexuality of Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Humbug’ era, while the goosebumps come out for the ‘Sawmill Sinkhole’, a blast of raw feeling.
‘Norwegian Wood’ – not a Beatles cover – is equally captivating; “Not sure I know my body,” Parlour roars as the track gradually builds, the band working to emphasise the lyric before guitarist Ella Risi rips into a solo. It’s as if they’ve crafted an entire song around that line in order to muster up the courage to sing it – a genuinely moving moment.
Before they finish with ‘Moon Tonic’, stage chatter proves to be tricky, as repeated expressions of gratitude are met with near-silence. Though, at this point, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that the atmosphere is simply awed”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Garry Jones
Starting out as a duo, Picture Parlour have expanded their line-up and, on the evidence of Norwegian Wood, released an instantly memorable track. I am not sure whether they will drop some singles before an E.P., but there must be intrigue already regarding a debut album. It is early days for the band, but you just know that they will go a long way. Rather than focus on gender and compare them to other women in music, just focus on the music and the incredible quality of this band of close friends. CLASH had their say about Norwegian Wood: quite a hypnotic and brilliant debut single:
“Initially a duo, introduced by mutual friends during their time at university in Manchester, Picture Parlour descended to the capital in order to try and get themselves heard. And that they did. After recruiting drummer Michael Nash and bassist Sian Lynch (the magical rhythm section vocalist Katherine Parlour and lead guitarist Ella Risi were looking for), Windmill Brixton’s legendary tastemaker Tim Perry gave them a shot, hosting them several times before their own headline show sold out in advance. Since the blossoming momentum, ears have eagerly awaited Picture Parlour’s first release, the buzz around the quartet like wildfire. Finally, the band have delivered their debut single, and it was absolutely worth the wait.
‘Norwegian Wood’ feels like a trance, the droning lead guitar and synths mesmerising, the dynamic changes hitting like a one-two punch. The subtle double-bends from the lead guitar closing off each chorus are a slick touch, Picture Parlour oozing a true rock and roll aura effortlessly; no pastiche, no gimmicks, just a refreshing, modern-meets-nostalgia take on guitar music. This debut single is an anthem, vocalist Katherine Parlour’s rich and layered poetry delivered with electrifying passion and prowess atop of a powerful instrumental, courtesy of the other three pillars that make up Picture Parlour.
Katherine Parlour’s razor-sharp commentary and spine-tingling vocal growl over the top of a haunting guitar lead and thudding instrumental makes for an incredible catalyst, the London-based quartet vastly exceeding the hype-fuelled expectations that have shrouded them since their Windmill debut. ‘Norwegian Wood’ is for sure going to springboard this quartet into the stratosphere, their sound fresh and alluring, and their potential is quite simply limitless”.
I am going to get to some of the features. There aren’t many recorded interviews with the band. I hope that they do some podcasts and video interviews. Just so that we get to discover even more about a group that everybody needs to follow. It is no surprise, as we learn from this recent CLASH interview, that Picture Parlour have won a fan in Courtney Love:
“‘Hype’ is a term often used vaguely, an industry buzzword which often strikes after some tepid virality. Rare is it we see a true tale of organically generated hype – slews of high calibre performances, full sets posted to YouTube and a chance attendee in the form of a (controversial) rock legend. London-based quartet Picture Parlour fall into the latter, dazzling audiences far and wide with their sharply distinct sound, incredible instrumentation and an impeccable visual aesthetic. Fronted by the mesmerising Katherine Parlour, who’s vocal timbre emits an effortless growl, Picture Parlour have built a world within their music, with nods to everyone from Nick Cave, Patti Smith and even Taylor Swift. Visceral storytelling and cinematic lyricism are carefully placed over roaring instrumentals, an earth-shaking rhythm section and some truly wailing guitar lines. Debut single ‘Norwegian Wood’ is a powerful, downtempo anthem teeming with bittersweetness and some stunning instrumentation.
“We must’ve had it [‘Norwegian Wood’] for around two years now,” muses Katherine Parlour, the enigmatic frontwoman of the band, from her flat in London. “We moved to London and were feeling like crap. Was this the right thing to do? Everything is so different; we didn’t really have anyone. I wrote it as this twenty-minute blurb one night, being like ‘wow this is so pathetic, I’m never showing anyone this song’. I finally showed Ella, and she was like this could be it!” Guitarist extraordinaire Ella Risi chimes in on the tale of their electric debut single; “We just cracked on with it, showed the band, and we all loved it. We’ve been opening the set with it so seemed like the right place to start with releases, really.”
A double whammy of a reference, to both The Beatles and Haruki Murakami, ‘Norwegian Wood’ was a spark of inspiration for Parlour, during those lower times that came after the move to London. “I picked up the Murakami book, the Beatles reference taking me home a bit. I’d read it like every day on The Tube and listen to The Beatles’ ‘Norwegian Wood’ at the same time. Like a ritual of sorts. And after a week I’d finished the book, I was just like, ‘well, what do I do now?’ I realised I still felt like crap after finishing the book. But it sparked something in me, our song kind of coming from both references.”
The pair initially bonded over a similar music taste, with artists like Nick Cave, Father John Misty and St Vincent all staples during those first encounters – and obviously The Beatles. “That’s kind of like who we bonded over when we first met and started jamming together. We did a couple of covers, didn’t we? And then we were like, as you do, let’s do our own stuff,” Risi recalls, the days of being a stripped-back duo a nostalgic snapshot for the band now, given their electric momentum. After moving to London, the pair snapped up drummer Michael Nash and bassist Sian Lynch to complete the line-up, finally getting their first show at none other than Brixton’s Windmill – the birthplace of a myriad of acclaimed British guitar bands in recent years. “We got our first gig after relentlessly emailing every single venue in London, and hoping we’d get a response. The only response was from the absolute legend Tim Perry, he really liked us and got us back a few times over the course of a few weeks.”
Picture Parlour’s debut headline took place at the Windmill – where else, eh – which sold out in advance, prior to even a whisper of a release. “That was a really good show. I feel like that was the show where we were like, oh, fucking hell. Should we just keep going? There was a bit of momentum at that point. We’re just super, super grateful for that evening. It felt like a special night.”
Despite how much has happened since the show, both Parlour and Risi discuss it and recall with the utmost gratitude and respect, and joy, saying how much Tim Perry and The Windmill has pushed them further. And also, a chance attendee in the form of none other than Courtney Love, who posted videos from their headline set across her Instagram page, much to the delight and shock of the band – as their social following increased dramatically overnight. “What was she doing at the Windmill! That’s, it’s the biggest conspiracy of all time. Like no one can put two and two together. It’s mad. We’ve exchanged Instagram DMs with Courtney Love. What is life?! We were sat in the pub with our mates, when she posted it, and then suddenly our phones were going off and we were getting notifications on the band account. That doesn’t happen!”.
I am going to include quite a liberal chunk of the VOCAL GIRLS feature. Spotlighting this incredible and hugely promising band, it is clear that they are not an overnight success. Indeed, they have been grafting and working on music for a while now. With this wonderful debut single out in the world, they are going to get a lot of big record labels looking their way. I am not sure whether they have been approached already or want to remain on a smaller label (Norwegian Wood came out through BuzzCity) and have some independence. Their world is going to change and blow up very soon:
“Picture Parlour are natural born storytellers: even in conversation, Katherine Parlour (vocals and guitar) and Ella Risi (lead guitar) are eminently watchable, sharing anecdotes with a charismatic back and forth that makes you feel as if they’ve done this a hundred times before. Which, to be fair, they probably have; the pair are speaking to me at the end of a full-on press day, giving them plenty of opportunity to have perfected their interview patter. And yet, nothing about them seems rehearsed - genuine and animated, I get the impression that there are elements of the band’s lore which just don’t tire from repetition.
Take, for example, their live shows, which quickly generated a word of mouth fervour that spread round London’s gig circuit quicker than a Lost Mary in a smoking area. Anyone hoping to satisfy their cravings for Picture Parlour’s earworm tracks had to do so via YouTube footage of them playing live; even a cursory glance through their Instagram would yield a glut of semi-outraged ‘I can’t find your songs on Spotify!’ comments. This week, though, the band have finally released their debut single, ‘Norwegian Wood’ - a track they’ve been sitting on for over two years. “It feels surreal”, says Parlour. “We wanted it to sound like how we imagined, and we just didn’t have the means to do that before [signing with their current management]”. She pauses, smiling, “so I guess we’re delusional and waited, thinking that something could happen”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Megan Graye
Listening to the track, it’s not hard to understand why the pair had such ambition. With expansive production and an anthemic chorus, ‘Norwegian Wood’ is a powerful yet vulnerable expression of insularity as a self-defence mechanism. ‘If I express myself / Well you wouldn’t stick around me’ sings Parlour, paralysed by a potent contradiction of love and fear. The single also comes accompanied by a DIY, monochrome video inspired by one of her short stories - an evocative tale which fans may well be able to read for themselves at some point down the line. “We were saying that it’d be cool to release a book alongside [a longer body of work]”, Risi explains, “containing all the stories that the songs came from”. Spanning auditory, visual, and literary mediums already, it’s clear that Picture Parlour’s world is one which invites immersion.
Words are her forte - “before I pick up an instrument, I consider myself a lyricist” - but there was nevertheless one aspect of the band’s timeline which nobody, not even Parlour, could have written. One night back in March, her and Risi were out at the pub with some friends when their phones suddenly started blowing up. Checking social media, they realised all the furore was because Courtney Love (yes, the Courtney Love) had given Picture Parlour a shoutout on Instagram. The Hole frontwoman had shared footage - shot by South London legend Lou Smith - of the band playing Brixton’s Windmill, and her dedicated fans then flocked to follow Picture Parlour before you could say ‘3 Scouse she wolves & a cub’. “It was mental”, says Risi emphatically, “to have an icon give you that kind of affirmation… insane”. “I think [Love] has become a bit of a tastemaker”, says Parlour, “because she’s not just spoken about us - I guess she’s trying to shed light on female-fronted bands, which is an incredible thing to do”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Megan Graye
It’s a bit of a point of contention, that phrase, and one which the pair are assuredly familiar with. While obviously being an accurate way to describe a band, ‘female-fronted’ can encode a certain value judgement when used repeatedly by press or men in the industry. “I think it limits you to an extent”, Risi says. “We love being women, and we’re proud to be women, but there’s more to us than that”. Parlour agrees, explaining that “it’s easy to throw women in music into a box, because it’s just the laziest thing to do - ‘women, tick, guitar, tick, indie, tick’”. For Risi especially, this became apparent when she studied music at university and was the only woman in her class. “It automatically makes you feel like it’s not your space to be in, and that you have to prove yourself”, she says, turning to her bandmate and smiling. “That’s why it was so special when we met and started doing music together - there was no concern that you would see [my] gender before the musical merit”.
Contributing to a noticeable shift away from the many sprechgesang, Mark E. Smith-esque outfits of late, Picture Parlour epitomise a new class of guitar music. In part harking back to the days of melodic mid-2010s indie, in part evoking the narratorial arcs of Fleetwood Mac or Patti Smith, their sound is widescreen and unashamedly maximalist. They’re not dissimilar to The Last Dinner Party in this regard: both bands have cultivated a sort of mythical buzz around them; both have a reputation for theatrical, you-had-to-be-there live shows. Recently, TLDP became the latest subjects of the inane ‘industry plant’ discourse - an accusation which, as many have noted, is directed at female artists far more frequently. Though Picture Parlour haven’t had such comments yet, it wouldn’t be surprising; some people seem to have a perverse belief that artists need to have struggled before receiving any critical or commercial acclaim. Parlour, for her part, finds the whole thing vaguely amusing. “If Courtney Love wants to post about us, and it helps us out and people are offended by that, then fucking more fool them”, she grins. “This has been our dream since we were kids. We worked really hard, and we got really lucky”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Garry Jones
There are a couple of other features that I want to introduce before finishing up. If you are dubious regarding Picture Parlour’s credentials, the fact they are NME’s latest cover stars tells you all you need to know! The group have had to fend off challenges about their authenticity and legitimacy. Rather than this being some odd marketing experiment or campaign, this is a very real and urgent band who demand your attention. They don’t need to prove anything to anyone. They are very much the real deal! I know that eyes in America will soon turn their way:
“Just six months ago, Picture Parlour were psyching themselves up to take the stage at south London’s premier independent venue, The Windmill, for their first-ever gig. The 150-capacity venue is written into UK guitar music lore, having played a pivotal role in launching the careers of Shame, Black Midi and Squid, and continues to promote emerging bands with its weekly gigs. “Towards the end of last year, The Windmill put us on a Friday night slot,” Parlour says, picking up the story; her Scouse accent sharpens and accelerates as she speaks with excitement. “And afterwards, people were like, ‘Fuck off, that wasn’t your first gig!’”
She continues: “We had to ask [promoter] Tim [Perry] if that was a normal reaction to shows at The Windmill. He told us it wasn’t – and immediately invited us back to play the following week.” Risi adds: “We had been rehearsing for so long before that show as we didn’t want to embarrass ourselves,” she says. “We said, ‘We cannot play this show unless we practise. We have one shot at this.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Garry Jones
One reason the band may already be resonating strongly with rock fans is their determinedly DIY approach so far. Parlour and Risi met while studying philosophy and music respectively in Manchester, having previously been part of other various bands and projects. Yet Risi was the only woman in her class of guitar players – and was often made subject to patronising comments from her peers. In an industry that continues to sneer at emerging female-identifying acts – Panic Shack and The Last Dinner Party have both been subject to unsolicited critique online in recent months – this is, sadly, not uncommon. “It was just so nice to be playing with another woman that really got me,” Risi says of meeting Parlour. “I’ve never heard anyone sing like her before. We could just be our authentic selves around each other – it was one of the first times I felt seen.
Parlour adds that the band felt like “a last chance saloon” for the pair; they started out as a duo, before meeting Lynch and Nash last summer via a Facebook community page for fellow young musicians. Without any financial backing, they had to ensure any personal funds spent on rehearsal spaces always resulted in new material, meaning they work on multiple songs at a time; Lynch, meanwhile, still holds a full-time contracts manager role. The fervour around their early live shows, however, has led to Picture Parlour landing a deal with the same management agency as Wet Leg, and though they are currently unsigned, the record deal offers have recently started to flood in. They’ve also been booked for some major festival slots, including BST Hyde Park with Bruce Springsteen next month, and Live At Leeds in October.
It’s perhaps the speed in which Picture Parlour have emerged that has given them an old-school mentality. “It’s so funny to me when industry [execs] come to gigs to see if the ‘hype’ around us is real,” Parlour says, gently rubbing her face and sighing. “It is real. Come and watch us play, and you’ll find out. I’m very confident in our ability as a band, because the one thing we’ve got is sincerity”.
It will be exciting seeing where Picture Parlour go from here. There will be a certain curiosity regarding their second single. Whether it sounds like Norwegian Wood or goes in another direction. The more live experience the get, the more buzz that circulates. I would not be shocked if they went on a European or American tour next year. Their music is resonating far and wide. Rolling Stone UK featured them earlier this week:
“Tell us about the creation of ‘Norwegian Wood’.
Katherine: As a song, pre-recorded, we’ve been sitting on it for a couple of years and we just couldn’t record it for financial reasons, so when were offered the chance to sit about it, we went fuuuck, it’s happening!
We both moved to London a few years ago and at the time I was doing what everyone does when you move your life to a new city. You wonder if it’s the right decision and whether you should be trying to do new music. I was just feeling crap and I remember seeing the book ‘Norwegian Wood’ by Haruki Murakami in Waterstones on the shelf and the blurb references the Beatles track which just reminded me of home so I thought fuck it, I’ll buy it. Then it became like a bit of a ritual where I’d read the book, listened to the song on the tube and I think I read it within like the week and you know how you’re in that world with the book and then it finishes and you’re like, ok, I’m back in reality now, now what?
It was just one of those moments and I was like, well, I still feel a bit shitty, the book’s a bit depressing. It came to me after that and I thought it was shit, but Ella came home that night and asked what I’d been up to. I showed the track to her and she immediately thought it could really be something, even if I wasn’t sure.
Ella: We just sat down and worked on it and it became our set opener because when we showed it to the band, they loved it as well. It kind of feels like a nice place to start, releasing that.
That’s interesting that Ella liked the song even if you didn’t have the same faith.
Katherine: We have a balancing act between us, I think where a lot of the time I can have like a stupid idea or one that I think is stupid and Ella is going to be like, well, well, hang on. Actually, this could be quite good.
Ella: It definitely helps being so in tune with each other and being able to have that like honest communication as well for sure.
You’ve spoken before about how the likes of Nick Cave and Patti Smith have influenced your sound
Katherine: Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac, T Rex, they’re all what I call classic musicians. It’s amazing what they can do to your emotions. When I go to a Nick Cave gig I can walk away and have a skip in my step because he’s affected me so much. But at the same time, when we last saw Nick Cave we were just in floods of tears. It’s so affecting and that’s the kind of thing that I think seeps into you being a human and when I write songs I’m always hoping it can do the same thing as those musicians have done for me.
Ella: On the guitar side of it, when we’re writing we always tend to make it as big as possible and to sound as big as possible. We imagine whether we could play it on a big festival stage. I want something that, like, if I was in the crowd, any audience member would be able to sing along to it.
Katherine: We go from that sort of perspective and I think that’s why him and Stevie Nicks have this way with words where they can say like the most simple things, but it’s in such a beautiful way, even like sonically, like how, how they sing each word.
Does that come from a place where like you were discovering it naturally or is this the kind of music you were brought up on?
Katherine: I grew up on Fleetwood Mac, but actually my dad was a big Motown fan, like Soul and Motown. Then I guess like you hit your teen years and you’re trying to like discover yourself and you want to be cool and that’s when you find like T Rex and Nick Cave.
Ella: I grew up on David Bowie, I was from a very small town so there wasn’t much music culture, but I could sort of find myself just having a passion for music and playing guitar. Then when I got to Manchester for uni, it was a big culture shock. I started discovering more artists through there.
You’ve just supported The Last Dinner Party who have attracted huge acclaim this year. Does it feel like the tide is beginning to turn for female-fronted bands?
Ella: It does feel like there’s a shift starting, even if it’s a long time coming. I look back at when I was at music uni and one of the only girls in the class, it felt like a space I wasn’t meant to be in. That plays into your self confidence and you keep pushing, so it’s nice to see things slowly beginning to turn with bands like us and The Last Dinner Party”.
I will end it there. These may be the initial shoots and leaves from Picture Parlour, but you just know that they are primed and set to dominate. Alongside wonderful new bands like The Last Dinner Party, there is this really engaging and smart wave of guitar music that has a freshness and originality. A welcomed breath of fresh air and blast of wonder, throw some support the way of this amazing four-piece. If they are approved by Courtney Love then that should be…
ALL that you need to know!
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