Just a year after the release of seminal album Force, which saw The Pretty Littles touring with new music again for the first time in 5 years, the prolific Melbourne band are back with Mulga Wire. The new album is The Pretty Littles at their most authentic, following their instincts, writing and performing with their unique charm, political charge and storytelling reflection.
Jack Parsons, the band’s frontman, spoke about how quickly they were able to pull the album together, eager to grab hold of the momentum off the back of touring and the release of Force. The drive to get back into writing and recording quickly was strong, since there had been such a long gap between Force and Weekend Away, which came out in 2020.
According to Parsons, the bones of Mulga Wire was written really quickly within a six-to-seven-week period, then the songs would “go on to be pulled into a million different directions after that in the studio, and whenever (the band) got a second in between shows. There wasn’t a backlog at all. It’s all pretty fresh”, he says. “I love playing shows so much, and I love working on new songs, so once it was clear that there was a body of tunes there, I was like, alright, let’s go!”
“We did sneak one song in from a band we were all in very briefly called Dolmades, which was ‘Cord In The Wall’, he says with a smirk.
Though the album was an effort to “ride the wave of momentum”, the writing sessions also coincided with a period of sobriety for Parsons. He reflects that these periods aren’t always easy to come by, but between shows is when he and the other band members are able to really look after themselves, which allowed for “so much more space and time to have original thoughts and not be caught up in anxieties. I was just free of them and that feeling is obviously amazing”.
He said that he was able to “be more present for moments around (him) and tap into those smaller beauties that you can miss when you’re hungover or in that cycle”.
“Creatively, it was epic and meant that this album could happen more quickly”.
Though it sounds like a tight time frame, the tracks on Mulga Wire are in no way rushed; in fact, they beam with a certain authenticity and flow that reflect The Pretty Littles’ production process. Parsons shared how he and the band really followed their noses, and if the initial melody grabbed them, they would follow it and try to finish it, letting each song build into something natural and unforced. “A lot of the album worked out like that”, he said, “letting an emotion grab a hold or following something which felt a bit odd to us, down the road”.
“One of my favourites on the album, ‘This Next Year’, was one of those songs that we decided to persevere with, and it didn’t come together super easily, it was all jumbled up. But we eventually found something that we really liked, by messing around with it”.
Like much of The Pretty Littles’ work, Mulga Wire is politically charged, driven by the explosive, gritty sounds of the alternative rock band, with poetic lyrics and confronting social commentary.
Parsons shared how important the lyrics are in each song and how they “really have to mean something to him”.
“Before I was playing music, in school and stuff, I used to always write poems, I loved poetry and I loved how you could be so creative. It was always really important to me. When I write now, l just start getting words down and I guess it begins like a poem, then I’ll craft it into a song and try and find a structure and a chorus. But I’ve always loved that element of it”.
A lot of the songs on Mulga Wire draw on the political climate of Australia and things happening around the world, Parsons felt that “they were written off the back of things that (he’d) read or seen”, and that the album is a “pretty classic mix of songs, some which are more heartfelt and reflective, some which are more outwardly facing, and some lighter tunes”.
Out now are three singles, ‘Terracotta’, ‘Good Sleeps’, and ‘In Our Times’, which give an enticing snippet into what the full album has in store for us.
The band will hit the road in a couple of weeks for their tour, with support from Jack Griffith. Parsons teased bringing a few “old songs back from the dead” to their setlist and exclaimed how excited he was to be back on tour with the band.
The Pretty Littles truly put on a magnetic performance and gets the crowd real rowdy, so make sure you grab yourself a ticket to the show.
The Pretty Littles eighth studio album Mulga Wire is out Friday the 5th of June.
To buy tickets or presave Mulga Wire click HERE.
MULGA WIRE ALBUM TOUR
Friday 19 June – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide SA
Saturday 11 July – Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Saturday 25 July – Lansdowne, Sydney NSW
Friday 31 July – The Brightside, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 1 August – Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Images provided by PR
Header image by Greg Rietwyk
