By Saskia Damiao
Picture Parlour have been described as one of Britain's most talked about new bands, and they live up to every single expectation you have of them. If you truly are an indie rock girlie you will love their sound. Watching them at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, the oddest time I’ve ever watched a performance, they truly do light up the stage and they’ve only been a band together for 1 year! Katherine, Sian, Ella and Michael are brilliant and I cannot wait to see what else they get up to.
Norwegian Wood is such a beautiful song, and only written in 20 minutes! How did the song get chosen for the single rather than others you may have in your back pocket right now?
Norwegian Wood just felt like the right place to start for Picture Parlour. It’s vulnerable, open and it’s real. We just felt like beginning our journey with our hearts on our sleeves felt like the right foundation to build from.
Your 1-year anniversary of you being a band will be coming up around Christmas time, do you have anything big planned for the anniversary?
We have our first gig anniversary coming up which was at The Windmill, Brixton on December 2nd last year. To celebrate, we’ll probably have a pint and work on some new material for our upcoming shows.
How does the crowd at Leeds compare to the crowd in Manchester that you played last night?
Northern crowds are always the best. Everyone is always up for it and the audience is always so warm. Both Manny and Leeds shows had that in common. Manchester is like a second home to us so a show there will always be special, but Leeds popped off beyond what we could’ve imagined. It was an afternoon gig in Leeds so we weren’t sure how it would go down in broad daylight, but the vibes were immaculate. Northern supremacy!
Your set was absolutely phenomenal, even at 1pm on a Saturday you can really feel the passion and energy that you guys bring to a performance. Who are the people that have the biggest influence on this?
Thank you!! We genuinely come alive on-stage coz it’s where we have most fun. I’d (Katherine) watch live performances of Stevie Nicks, Marc Bolan and Patti Smith as a kid with my mouth wide open, in awe of the energy they’d inject into every venue. It was the same with bands like Green Day, Arctic Monkeys and Haim - we’d dream of stirring up the magical storm that they all do on stage. As a band, our goal is to bring that same energy as best we can to every show. Always helps when the audience are ready to have the time of their lives with us.
At LSTV we love to ask silly questions so, if you could all swap bodies for the day with any music artist who would it be? (you have your mind, but their voice, success, wealth etc)
Katherine: Lana Del Rey so I could write the best song of my life and then take it for Picture Parlour’s future album
Ella: Billy Joe Armstrong so I could play Green Day songs for 24 hours