Watch: The Parrots - "I Am A Man"

10 September 2014, 13:29 | Written by Paul Bridgewater

(Tracks)

(Deers) (The Parrots)

The Parrots’ debut London show last week was the most energising and credible performances of raw rock n roll we’ve seen this year and ended with a stage invasion from their friends in Deers.

The Madrid three-piece deliver an assertive and confident take on the ramshackle garage sound that’s utterly joyful and couldn’t come at a better time. It’s vital without being pretentious or backward-looking and skilled without being about geekery.

They’ve been a central part of an intensely creative local scene in the Spanish capital, drawing from obvious reference points but infusing them collectively through years of live shows as well as mutually supportive relationship with their contemporaries.

Deers’ Carlotta Cosials stepped in to direct the video for track “I Am A Man” - the flip-side of the “Loving You Is Hard” 7”, which came out in August via Bachelor Records - and explains the band’s appeal:

“The Parrots have spent millions of hours of their lives at night [and] sometimes they have this superpower that they can make you have one of your best times ever so easily - but sometimes they don’t.

“The kind of person who really really doesn’t wanna go back home - that person who stays while everybody’s leaving, who begs you with his eyes not to leave him alone - that person who ends up in ridiculous places in the morning and then they call you and say, “you won’t believe what happened last night”...the three of them are kinda like that.

“Sometimes people treat them right and sometimes people are just not that nice. In the video they are under a killing sun in the hallucinating desert and there is a shadowy figure that I think represents themselves. In the deepest part of their souls, they have this voice saying, “you know you shouldn’t be here, you are doing something wrong”.

“Or maybe not. Maybe it’s just a cool video with three dudes on the sand. The most interesting thing about filming it is that everybody was wearing bikinis [laughs]”.

Frontman Diego Garcia elaborates: “We were with Deers in the south of spain playing shows and we thought about recording a video. One day we were on the beach and Carlotta and us had the idea of a hangover day - waking up somewhere you don’t know. We love hip hop vídeos and tried to decontextualize some of the ideas that are in those vídeos as well.

“The song is about how the night is Kafkaesque - things become blurry and you become a monster, not being able to recognise yourself.”

Watch the video above for “I Am A Man”. A new EP is in the works, with a label and release date to be confirmed. The band play shows in Spain, France and the UK this month and next:

12 Sep - Solar Fest, Mallorca, Spain
27 Sep - Esto no es serio Festival, Alicante, Spain
12 Oct - Jägermeister party at Monkey Week Festival El Puerto de Santa María, Spain
16 Oct - MaMA Festival, Paris
18 Oct - Cherry Cola Club, London