The Preatures need very little introduction, they’ve been receiving critical acclaim both in Australia and abroad since they hit the ground running in 2013; highlights of last year include a massive career win in the US signing with Capitol Records/Harvest (Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, BANKS, Death Grips), performing at CMJ in New York City and recording at the famed Studio A (Frank Sinatra, Beastie Boys). Their debut single ‘Is This How You Feel’ was inescapable nabbing a top 10 spot on the Triple J hottest 100 and nominated for the ARIA awards best pop release.
The Sydney- siders have returned to Australia to launch ‘Two Tone Melody’ the first single off their upcoming debut LP. Produced by the band’s guitarist Jack Moffitt and Jim Eno of Spoon and mixed by Moffitt at their own Sydney studio Doldrums, the release ‘Two Tone Melody’ will be celebrated by a national tour in July which includes a set at Splendour In The Grass. Ahead of the tour we chatted with the band’s vocalist Isabella Manfredi while the band were visiting Universal Records offices to collect their gold records.
[Tone Deaf] Hey there how are you feeling about the new single?
[Isabella Manfredi] “Yeah, it was the last song that we recorded in Austin with Jim [Eno, producer] and I don’t know it just seemed to be, we wanted to put out one of the big songs first as the lead off single but we got home.
We were trying to do this whole album in eight weeks so, it’s pretty tight and we just weren’t happy with any of those big songs and we weren’t ready to let them go out and ‘Two Tone’ was really the only song we were really happy with to let go and it just had a magic about it I guess, people started listening to it and just really liked it.”
What were you listening to while you were creating ‘Two Tone’? What inspired it?
“Well ‘Two Tone’ is the only song that doesn’t feature anything kind of heavily electronic, along with ‘Is This How You Feel’ so the only thing on ‘Is This [How You Feel]’ and ‘Two Tone’ that are electronic are the synths. So we thought it was a really nice way to lead in the record because ‘Two Tone’ it is very much an album song, it’s not a single.
The rest of the record is, I suppose influenced by 2012 when there were just a bunch of records that really interested me. The Cat Power record Sun and Here We Go Magic, Metronomy, Chairlift.
Prince, Roxy Music and kind of like late 70s to early 80s David Bowie, that record that he did with Brian Eno and yeah I don’t know we just kind of since then I’ve been kind of really getting into JJ Cale is a staple in the band, we’re always listening to JJ. He does like that great understated, sort of tulsa sound, everything is very understated and it just sounds really beautiful and kind of mesmerising in an effortless way.
‘Two Tone’ was done to tape, so it’s the only song that’s done live to tape on the record, so its got that, I suppose effortless sound. It’s just live to tape, everything.
Was recording live to tape that a change? Have you ever done that before?
“We did it in the early days but we sucked at it! [Laughs].”
Ok, so you’ve had a bit of time to polish the skill?
“Yeah I guess, it’s just a really different way of working. For me as a new song, I really wanted to do it like that [record live to tape] ‘cause I’m still really in love with it.
Jim had all of that great gear there and we wanted to use it but we didn’t have time, so it was an issue of time. If you need to save time then you need to keep all your options open whereas with ‘Two Tone’ it’s very simple.
It’s a really simple song and everything was there so we didn’t need to worry about how much we could possibly fuck it up. There are a couple of mistakes in there, you can hear there’s mistakes on the keys and mistakes in the guitar and everything but that’s ultimately what makes a good performance.”
You wrote it right? Was it written here or overseas?
“I wrote it here I was actually writing with Simon Day at the time. Simon Day is from Ratcat. His band Ratcat was the first independent band to reach number one in Australia. They’re a band from Sydney.
Really like hugely influential but not many people know about them. He’s been a really good friend to us and I was at his house and we were writing a song, like a punk song about deadlines like, ‘yeah mother fuckers it’s a deadline’ [laughs] I don’t know and we were just having a joint and hanging out and I went to the bathroom and the song just popped into my head. It was completely different from what we were working on but it was just there. I just put it on my voice memo so, thank you Apple.”
What are you hoping that listeners are going to get out of it when they’re listening to it?
“Well it’s a song about high expectations, so I don’t know I just, for me it’s a love song I guess.”
You’re about to tour which includes playing Splendour – what are you looking forward to most? Are you looking forward to seeing anyone else at the festival?
“No [laughs]. Just probably hanging out with our friends who we haven’t seen in a while. I don’t know, just getting out to that part of the world I guess, getting out to Byron, playing, hanging out with other bands. It’s the first time we’re going to be on tour in Australia for a while so, we’re just looking forward to having an Aussie audience again.”
What can we expect? Any change up from previous tours? Are you looking to try anything different?
“I think we’re just going to try and get some new songs from the record in there. We want people to be able to hear it in all of its awkward glory, have like some blow up dolphins and shit like that so people get distracted.
I wanna like use heaps of backing track, ‘cause all bands use track except for like Tame Impala and Pond now but like use heaps of backing track and then put my voice but you know when you slow down voices so they sound like Barry Manilow or something, like Barry White. Just have that and see if people wig-out. I’d love to do that. Just once. You know like put heaps of backing track into a set so it’s all going super smooth and you’re plying this awesome set but then there’s this one thing that’s really really off and see how people react to it.”
Well if you try it at Splendour then who knows what might happen but if you try it at a smaller show you might be able to get a better gauge on how people are picking up on it.
“It wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t big though. If it wasn’t on a big stage, like splendour. Like have you seen that video of the goats in the Taylor Swift song? You know stuff like that, just put that in there.”
If you can get a Taylor Swift goat in there, I want to see that!
“Well I reckon people would actually be way more entertained, if they saw that than our music. Well, I don’t know – I think…”
So what else do we have to forward to with The Preatures in 2014
“I think we’re just going on tour in July so we’re back on the road, playing Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and we’re actually taking one of our favourite Perth bands on tour with us Guns, have you head of Guns? They’re an awesome little band and Bad//Dreems are coming on the road with us as well, which is cool. They’ve supported us both times in Adelaide that we’ve played there and we just really like them. They’re a really good band and really cool guys so we’ll be on tour with them. I’m just really looking forward and excited to play in Australia again. We’ve being doing so many overseas shows.”
The Preatures Australian Tour
with Bad//Dreems and Gunns
July 12 | The Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC SOLD OUT
July 19 | The Metro Theatre, Sydney, NSW
July 28 | Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay NSW SOLD OUT
Aug 01 | Fowlers, Adelaide, SA
Aug 02 | The Bakery, Perth, WA
