Premium Export: The Parlotones

(102 reads) The curiously named Parlotones are inarguably South Africa’s premier rock export. Their music can be heard escaping the headphones of listeners all across the world. Advertisements for their concerts can be seen plastered up on streetlamps in France and university notice boards in South Africa.

Their albums sell with ease and their success is inked in thick strokes across the pages of the nearby future.
The straight-shooting rock act is comprised of the brothers Hodgson (Paul and Glenn) on guitar and bass respectively, Neil Pauw behind the drum-kit, and Khan Morbee in charge of guitar and vocals. Says Mister Morbee, interviewee at present, “Music influences me full stop. To a large extent it was predominantly the British scene, with bands such as The Smiths, The Cure and Radiohead, which was the main reason we wanted to start a band.”

“In terms of music, we’re not purists. If a song is good it’s good, regardless of whether it’s behind a wall of guitars or a hip-hop beat. Sure I’m more partial towards guitar music, but I love songs from all types of genres.”

This musical cosmopolitanism of influence is presumably one of the reasons the Parlotones have enjoyed such a long-lasting journey throughout the South African musicscape and beyond. Their latest album, “A World Next Door To Yours,” sold approximately 63 000 copies and has ensured their concert floors are always filled with feet.

Regarding the recording of the new album, Morbee says, “Recording is always an awesome experience because you finally get to lay down and mould a project you’ve been working on for over two years. Each time we go into studio we’re a little more experienced; we’re more accomplished as musos and we understand a bit more about the limitations and possibilities in the studio.”

He goes on to outline the artistic vision of the Parlotones, as yet only partially realised: “We want to be able to compete on the airwaves (as well as live shows) with the best in the world, which means we will always be cognisant of commercial appeal – there are boundaries but we will always try and stretch them.”

The sound of the Parlotones, while certainly as recognizable today as much as it was years ago, is constantly being redefined by the song-writing process. They’ve definitely evolved since the days of the “Episoda” album.

“I think the song writing is now more precise and more focused,” says Morbee. “We used to be a little arb and have little direction or understanding of theory or chord structures or lyrical content... But we’ve learnt a lot. I still like Episoda for its naivety and the fact that we created something cool with very little knowledge or skill. I think the sound and the direction on Episoda is definitely still what we are today – we’ve never really digressed from what we set out to be. We never started out indie, turned punk and then settled on dance. We always sort-of had a sound, which we’ve now refined, and will continue to refine, but we’re still essentially the same sounding band.”

The sound in question has helped the Parlotones land hosts of international concerts and they’re steadily building a reputation on the global scene.

“We signed a worldwide deal with Universal a while ago (for Radiocontrolledrobot),” says Morbee. “We’ve been abroad about 14 times to territories which include France, The UK, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland. We’ve played a few festivals and hundreds of shows. We’ve supported big acts such as Wombats, Mute Math, Blue October and Ocean Colour Scene, and will be touring with Starsailor around the UK. The response has been great but it’s still developing. We have small fan bases in a lot of cities and the process is happening a lot quicker than it did for us back home. We’re very excited about the journey thus far because it gets better with every tour.”

And what touring and recording sights have they got their eyes set on for the immediate future?
“A tour across Canada, America, The UK, Germany and Ireland, as well as SA over March and April, a possible tour of Europe in May/June, studio in June/July, a local tour in August, abroad again in October, and we’ll hopefully release the new album in November. This is the intended schedule, but new opportunities arise all the time.”

The Parlotones are well on their way to worming deep into the transcontinental mass consciousness of musical lovers. And they’re not afraid to aim high.

“Our initial goal is to be the biggest band to have come out of SA,” says Morbee. “I guess the ideal would be a string of albums that are both commercial and artistic triumphs. We all know that’s near impossible, so for now commercial triumphs which afford us artistic indulgences would be cool!”

*Pic: Renee Frouws