We thoroughly enjoy how Aussie five-piece, The Preatures are taking things back to the good old days of  Rock’n’Roll, so caught up with the voice of the band, Isabella Manfredi about the bands forthcoming plans.

Sydney has a bit of a bad reputation in Australia for not being as musically forward as Melbourne or Perth but if there was ever a clamour to eliminate that theory then The Preatures are that, personified.

The quintet create jerky, effervescent rock’n’roll, with their latest video for new track ‘Is This How You Feel‘ imperiously demanding our attention with it’s visual echoes of the glittering 70’s. With a gaggle of sold out shows across their native homeland, Isabella and her boys are playing a duo of shows in London at Madam JoJo’s and Hoxton Bar and Kitchen on October 22-23rd consecutively.

 

Is there any romance to the band? How did you all find one another?

Nothing that romantic here. Jack and Tom starting playing together in high school, and the three of us met at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney. We dropped out to start a band, mostly playing covers in Bowling Clubs while we started to write our own stuff. We shared a bill with Gideon’s band at the time and we just thought he had this wonderfully abrasive voice, so we asked him to write with us. Luke joined a year later on drums.

So what were the previous projects before you started ‘preaching’?

Gideon was playing solo when we met him, he had a band called The Primates and then The Preachers, which is where we lifted the name. Luke was playing in a number of bands and doing sessions around Sydney – I think he was playing for The Spirits when he joined up with us and Tom and Jack had a few bands in High School, my favourite is The Estecazy Princes. I didn’t really sing before I met the boys, I was at Sydney University studying to be an English teacher.

You all must have an eclectic taste in music, is it ever a compromise to create the overall aesthetic of the band?

It’s always a compromise! Compromise is what happens when five people play together. Jack and I have certain ideas, and we all fight at one time or another, but that’s what makes the work good. If everyone agreed all the time it’d be boring and the music would suck.

Who inspires you as a collective?

I love Chrissie Hynde’s voice, that control of vibrato she has and the casual affectation, and Patti Smith, but then I also love a lot of country singers like Emmylou Harris and Tammy Wynette, the sentimentality of their voices.

How has a city like Sydney shaped you as individuals and as a troupe?

Sydney is great at big things like festivals and concerts but its tough for anything underground. I think this makes bands more ambitious because there isn’t as much to sustain you at ground level, but the amount of red tape is frustrating. The best thing about Sydney right now is the collective scene and how diverse it is.

Tell us more about the EP ‘Is This How You Feel’?

Well I suppose we started off wanting to work completely differently to how we had before. We made the EP at our rehearsal space, which isn’t a studio in any sense, which made us make some pretty unconventional decisions in the way we recorded. We made plenty of mistakes and some of the songs didn’t benefit so well, but then we were able to stumble on something like ‘Is This How You Feel’.

Is there anywhere in particular where you’re looking forward to visiting?

We have lots of friends in London right now so we’re really excited about playing there.

How is the full length record shaping up and when can we expect it?

We’re at Sunset Sounds in LA right now laying down some tracks, but we haven’t found a producer yet. If we don’t find someone we really want to work with then we might do it ourselves. Hopefully we’ll have it out before April next year.

 

 

Words: Shane Hawkins