When The Parrots met Heavenly Recordings

Fortunately, Diego is a sound engineer himself and he could sort something out, but the sound he managed to get was so loud and brutal that it practically threw everyone out of the room, including the three people from Heavenly Recordings who had come to watch the show.

But they may have liked something because a week later they wrote back and said two things. One: that the show had been very bad (but fortunately they spoke mainly about sound) and two: that they liked the songs and would try to see us again.

Good start. They shared our opinion and they were sincere. For us, it was good news. If after the worst gig we have played in two years they wanted to see us again, we weren’t that wrong. So after that day they started helping us out with shows in London, asking us to do stuff with them that we really didn’t understand. Our intention was to release a record with them but, maybe because we came from a different country, they weren’t quite sure.

We couldn’t wait any longer so we started recording the album (well, we got in and out, because we recorded in a whisper) and we went on our search and doing our thing. They booked us a tour with Hooton Tennis Club (who are now our friends) and since we were getting along so well, every show we played was a party. Jeff (Barrett) came to the last show on that tour and we spoke with him afterwards. At the first glance you can realize how Jeff isn’t only someone who works in music but a passionate person, who like a 15 year old kid can get really mad and obsessed with something new he just discovered. And this is what he must have felt with us, because we started talking about our hopes, about doing an album with them. So we started sending them the new songs and...

A few weeks before the album came out we started touring, playing some weekend shows and festivals in Italy, Switzerland and Spain, checking out the new songs. During the week, we spent all the time rehearsing so the songs were ready and perfect for the shows, and we were very happy with the results. We’ve been the subsequent month and a half away from home and it’s all been very exciting and also stressful at the same time.

We’re writing this from the van, on the way to Lugano (Switzerland). There’s two weeks left of touring and we have toured the UK, France, Belgium and Holland. This month we’ve shared the stage with bands we loved like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard or The Garden. We have struck a great friendship with a bunch of kids and amazing musicians called The Orielles, who accepted our invitation to come tour with us, and above all we have coped with the sweat, the blood and the injuries with more passion than ever before. Our tour manager, Callum, has helped us a great deal and made easier many a frustrating moment. He came with us to hospital and never, ever, we have been short of beer (he has a fucking 6th sense for that).

The next two weeks we’re touring Italy, France again and finally Spain. Our friends would tell us before the tour: come back alive! And we really thank the advise because these previous weeks have been madness and frenzy, with lots of kicks in the head, the ribs, the knees, an almost broken foot and a craziness that once, in Glasgow, made us think we wouldn’t be able to go on with the tour.

Thanks for the tip, folks, we will keep on building our story and taking risks between the lines so we can have as much fun as possible. Just in case, if this madness ever stops, we will never regret not having made the absolute most of it. But thanks for worrying!

The Parrots return to London this weekend for Mirrors Festival, in Hackney. All photos by Neelam Khan Vela.