With Iggy Azalea making huge waves, Vance Joy on the verge of breaking, and Sheppard recently embarking on their campaign to conquer the ever-coveted US market, fellow Australian natives The Preatures are now being tipped as the next Aussie act that will make it big overseas.
At least according to US music industry bible Billboard magazine, and rock legends The Rolling Stones, who drafted the Sydney quintet as openers for their current run of Australian arena shows.
“We were told we might be up for it, but when you’re in a band people tell you all kinds of things,” guitarist Jack Moffitt tells Billboard of the Stones gig. “Then our manager sent us an email with just the tongue [logo] on it… it’s hard to describe that feeling. It doesn’t seem real.”
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“I have a lot of respect for people who can do arena shows night after night, but I don’t covet that,” adds singer and keyboardist Isabella Manfredi. “I like to be right up in people’s faces.”
Indeed, Manfredi has relished her image as a provocative frontwoman. “[On stage] you’ve got to develop some armor, some kind of character,” she says. “I took on this character who wears all white and has all the pop connotations that come with it — Bee Gees, Britney [Spears], Miley [Cyrus].”
“But by the end of one show, I decimated it. I poured water on myself, I rolled around; it was exhilarating. I don’t wear bras onstage, and this guy tweeted, ‘As the father of a young daughter, I advise the singer of the Preatures to buy a bra. It’s disgusting.’ I didn’t reply, but it made me realize it was provocative, which was exactly what I was trying to achieve.”
According to Moffitt, Manfredi’s devil-may-care persona has been central to the band’s success. “The way females communicate is much more emotionally honest and direct,” he says. “With guys it’s usually bullshit. It’s nice to have someone in the band making sure that we’re actually talking about things.”
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Before they take on the world, as Billboard predicts they will, the band are set to play the inaugural Beyond the Valley and Lost Paradise festivals, as well as Triple J’s Beat The Drum birthday concert and a raft of dates as part of a national Australian tour, which kicks off later this month.
The tour comes in celebration of the band’s debut full-length effort, Blue Planet Eyes, which was recently announced as one of the nominees for a 2014 J Award in the category of Best Australian Album.
Billboard describe the album, co-produced by Spoon’s Jim Eno, as a “pop-rock tour de force”, and while it hasn’t managed to crack the magazine’s famous top 200 chart just yet, the prestigious industry outlet is predicting it won’t stay secret for much longer.
