In normal times, we would have sadly waved goodbye to summer and welcomed in cooler and more milder weather. But this heatwave has proved that summer is here to stay and that means we’re in need of the perfect soundtrack and duo Child of the Parish are putting in their bid with their new single “Midas Touch”. Entering a retro-filled soundscape, the brother-duo intricately layer bouts of reverb-heavy melodies with 80s extravagance, while delivering up a rapturous production. Between the heart-pounding drums and ear-worming climax, the duo excellently dive into their own experimental soundscape.

Speaking on the single, Ben Vella said, “It’s fair to say my range of inspiration shrunk a bit during lockdown, trapped in the house in the middle of the countryside, but actually writing about the pandemic felt like the last thing in the world I wanted to look at, so the music and themes came back to good old escapism.”

Set to be a part of their highly-anticipated EP, we caught up with the brothers, talking about the new project, staying creative in lockdown and how they sum up their relationship

Check out the interview below…

Hey guys! How are you? How has this past year been for you?
It’s been tough! You have to put it in perspective in that we’re both healthy and haven’t lost anyone, but I think everyone, and all bands at all levels have struggled. But hopefully we’re coming out the other side now.

With everything that happened last year, was your creativity affected?
Weirdly it’s been a very creative time despite everything. I know a lot of people in bands in the same position where, although you’d rather it wasn’t the case, you’ve been gifted this unexpected period where you can just write. We wrote the whole new EP during lockdown, and I felt we’ve maybe experimented a bit more with sounds. In terms of the live set and album it’s given us a lot more time to plan and think about it. Also recording wise we’ve worked with a lot of musicians who learned to record themselves remotely; singers from America, saxophone players from Australia, we went weirdly global locked in our rooms!

How did yo guys first get into music, what sparked you interest?
We come from a very musical family, our grandad and his brothers were in the BBC orchestra so it’s a bit of a tradition. Then our parents had an amazing record collection, from the who to the stones to Dylan etc etc, so we’ve always been surrounded by music.

You guys are brothers as well, how do you guys navigate a working relationship and family relationship?
So far it’s working out well.. but we haven’t been on tour yet! Although I figure if we can share a womb we can share a bus.. we’ve always got on well, and always had a mutual appreciation of the same kind of bands and DJs, so it should be fine. Although our grandad and his brothers were thrown out of the BBC orchestra for fighting during a performance so maybe history will repeat itself.

Where are you guys from? Do you think your area has had an impact on your sound?
We’re from Camden so definitely! Having all the amazing venues, clubs and record shops on your doorstep definitely made a difference. Hearing about all the legendary bands that have played round the corner probably makes it seem more possible.

You’ve just released your new single “Midas Touch”, talk us through the production process!
Tom started this one, it was actually two different ideas – he had the harpsichord part that’s in the verse and then some string samples from the chorus. I got a real glam vibe from the chorus so we started layering it with some amazing sax parts from a player we use. It definitely has a bit of a 70’s feel which is a period in music we both love. But the drums and synths are quite processed so I think it’s an interesting mix of sounds.

The song is all about getting sucked into bad luck, what made you want to write about this?
Although we got very creative during lockdown, your sphere of writing influences shrinks pretty dramatically! When we were first allowed to see people in gardens I started seeing some mates and playing poker outside. I love poker but I’m rubbish at it, and although we play for peanuts you often think how you’d act if the stakes were higher, how you could sucked into a desperate run of bad luck. I also like a lot of the language in poker “as the river turns a feeling you’re in free-fall” the river is the name of the last card to turn over, which is a nice double meaning in the song.

And it’s taken from your upcoming project, what can we expect from the EP?
As I said we experimented a lot during this ep, so it’s really varied! Midas has some prog/glam elements to it, the next one has some rock and disco parts, the next one is kind of electro RnB – it’s pretty mixed!

Who would you say inspires you and who would you love to work with?
It’s really inspiring working with the artists involved with the band. Pius Bak does all our artwork and drew the comic we wrote. We’ve been working with an animator from Australia recently, and have found a more manga based artist recently. It’s really fun when you spend so much time in the studio to take your head out of music and think about a different medium for a while – it’s hard to be definitive about but I feel it feeds back into the creative process in the music.

What’s next for you? What are you most excited about?
We had our first gig booked just before lockdown, so although it feels we’ve going for a while we’ve never played a show! We’ve spent a lot of lockdown obsessing over the set, writing instrumentals and outros, rehearsing it individually, but to finally put it together with a band and play in front of an audience is going to be amazing. It’s been so long we’ve got not excuses if it’s not great now!