We Got Bad//Dreems To Interview The Pretty Littles

Today marks the official release day for The Pretty Littles‘ seventh studio album, Force. It marks a new era for the Melbourne rock band: Not only is it their first album in five years, it is the first to feature an entirely new line-up. The 2020s thus far has seen the band’s frontman Jack Parsons rebuild the band with members of The Pretty Littles’ old tourmates Neighbourhood Youth, recording Force in their native Melbourne with Press Club guitarist Greg Rietwyk behind the boards.

To celebrate the release of the album, Parsons sat down for a chat with Alex Cameron – no, not that Alex Cameron, but the lead guitar-slinging member of Bad//Dreems who also runs the indie label Endless Recordings – which Force has been released on. The pair discuss going up the guts of Australia together, not shying away from politics and how to rebuild when it all falls apart.

The Pretty Littles – ‘Australian Dream’

Alex Cameron: So, Parso, what does ‘Australian Dream’ represent to you?

Jack Parsons: Jesus Christ… the song or the idea? The song speaks to how I feel about the “Australian dream” – that it’s a shameful set of lies from the ground up, and in so many destructive ways. The very ideas that we’re brought up on… I don’t know if it’s a colonial thing across other conquered lands, or if it’s unique to Australia, but those distinctive “battler” ideas: not talking about your problems, getting on with it, not being vulnerable, drinking, being tough. All of these things are predicated on falsities and lies.

The Australian dream is coming to terms with the fact that all of these ideals are lies. The way we’re taught them growing up, you’d never believe their lies. It’s coming to terms with the bullshit. Every possible milestone of our country feels disappointingly shallow and full of deceit.

AC: When did you come to realise this?

JP: I think it kind of reveals itself slowly as you get older.

AC: Well, for some of us.

JP: Yeah, I guess if you’re engaged or whatever, or if you’ve got an interest. I grew up in a left-leaning house. My old man was really involved in native title land claims, and mum was a social worker working with refugees. So, I was brought up in a household which acknowledged and celebrated diversity and cultural difference. I still celebrated Australia Day like my life depended on it until… well, until I was older than I’d like to remember. Even despite my upbringing, I still celebrated it. I think that’s a credit to my family that I was able to work that out on my own. As you get older it reveals itself, if you’re looking and maybe becoming more aware of mental health and being able to talk about that more openly.

AC: The Pretty Littles are now known for songs that tackle these issues and highlight the injustices and hypocrisies in our culture – songs like ‘Don Dale’ and more recently ‘Australian Dream’. When did music become a vessel for you to explore these socio-cultural issues? Did you always think the band would be a space for you to delve into these topics, or has that developed over time?

JP: I think it’s happened over time. Our first release came out when I was 20 or something, so the first few releases were very much about dealing with early-20s stuff – painfully. There’s nothing much beyond my own little world on the EP, Small Town and Mash. I was singing about uni and shit, often not aware of my privilege being there.

It started with Gospel. That’s when it became more interesting to write about other things. I think I was struggling a bit with those emo feelings – they started to feel a bit boring to write about. On Gospel, there’s ‘Back Paddock Blues’, ‘Religion Is My Favourite’ and ‘Local Footy’. Then, Soft Rock had ‘Sam’s Mob’ and ‘Tall Man’. I was around 25, so I think I was just becoming more aware of the world around me.

The Pretty Littles – ‘Force’

AC: Do you think that writing and exploring themes like on ‘Don Dale’ makes a meaningful difference?

JP: Yes and no. ‘Don Dale’ is a great example. What’s my song going to do that a documentary on national TV and a royal commission couldn’t? Even the Oils… how many fucking racists have probably pumped their fist to ‘Beds Are Burning’ at some point? I think songs can certainly raise awareness, and create or continue conversation, but really meaningful change refuses to happen despite so many glaring issues. It’s sad. Don Dale is still open.

AC: It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You think about the journalism around Don Dale and the public outcry, yet if you go to Darwin and speak to people there, Don Dale is as active and more full than ever. It’s passed out of the news and outrage cycle, but not much has changed.

JP: Yeah, and it’s mostly black kids. I think that’s the disheartening thing about it. Music is great, people become aware of things they might not have otherwise. But, if you really wanted to make big changes, maybe you wouldn’t be writing songs about them. Or maybe, it’s a piece of the puzzle.

AC: You could say that music and art are pathways for change, just maybe not as direct as you’d want them to be.

JP: Yeah. And, y’know, you ask these questions on different days you probably get different answers.

AC: Back to the new album, Force. There was a fork-in-the-road moment for the band. You’d been together for over a decade, and three founding members retired…

JP: Yeah, Goolsa and Boydy retired, and Booza continued making heavy music in Clearings. I’m sure the fellas are still noodling.

AC: How did you feel at that point?

JP: I was shattered. It was a proper breakup. There were so many mixed feelings. There was this beautiful openness and understanding, a confronting of the fact that things had gotten to stage where they weren’t fun anymore. An acknowledgment of that, and then a sadness about what that meant… and then, a fear about what that meant.

It started wrapping up around 2021. You guys [Bad//Dreems] came on the Victorian version of Guts, Small Town Big Sound, which happened in the middle of lockdowns. There’d been a period of inactivity, so seeing you guys, Amyl, and Floodlights starting out again…

AC: That was a reinvigorating time.

JP: Yeah, and I could see it was reinvigorating for you guys and that made it harder, because I was feeling reinvigorated but I didn’t have a vehicle for it. I couldn’t work out how to continue the band. I felt weird about being the only member.

AC: Survivor’s guilt?

JP: [laughs] Yeah, must’ve been. I started a few other bands that were kinda just Littles songs in disguise, I guess. All the while, people were still listening to The Pretty Littles – and I became prouder and prouder of that. When the song ‘Force’ was written, I just decided it was gonna be a Pretty Littles song and I didn’t really know how that would look. We’d done these farewell gigs, y’know? [laughs] It was so done! I mean, that was meant to be an album launch at The Croxton, which got pushed back by six months or something from lockdowns, and ended up being two shows at The Tote.

I think I just realised I didn’t need to be a prisoner to these ideas of what a band should be or needed to be. I wasn’t being disrespectful to the boys by continuing, so I thought maybe it can be a collective and people can come and go and there doesn’t need to be all these rules – it can just be a bit more fluid. Recording ‘Force’ and ‘Full Hearts’, it was just me and Greg [Rietwyk] in the studio, and Booza came and played drums. That was gonna be the new normal – I didn’t know how it would work live, but I was just gonna do it. That was a nice feeling. Then, the Neighbourhood Youth fellas eventually joined, and now it’s in such a beautiful spot.

The Pretty Littles – ‘Talking On Water’

AC: What was it like working with a new band after so long with your previous bandmates?

JP: Well, it was tough! But only because I made it so. I felt a bit nervous – I didn’t want to fuck it up. I was really excited to play music with them, because I admired them so much. That band had always blown me away – their playing, singing and songwriting – so I didn’t want to blow it.

I was sorta people-pleasing because I wanted it to go well, which isn’t a great approach of course. But, it’s more normal now – I guess you just feel your way through it. Watching them work is really amazing. They’ve played together for so long, it’s so natural for them to all be in a room writing together. Seeing them take some of these songs to different places, they just see different things and it aligns. It’s special.

AC: The musicianship certainly brings out some interesting harmonics within the band. I think I mentioned to you that it brought The Walkmen to mind – a looseness, but a cohesive one.

JP: Yeah, ‘The Rat’ always came up when we were recording. I don’t know much about The Walkmen, but I love that song, and it came up — so it’s interesting you heard that!

AC: Alright, before we wrap up, how about quickfire on songs from the album?

JP: Let’s do it!

AC: ‘Big Fuck Small’…

JP: Happened two weeks before recording. If it weren’t for a completely unnecessary purchase of a new Telecaster, it wouldn’t have happened at all. A very happy accident.

AC: Did you consider putting an ‘s’ on the end of “fuck”?

JP: Nah, it’s a mouthful!

AC: ‘Possum’?

JP: Old song. It’s got half-time. We always wanna go half-time, but you can’t. But we did!

AC: ‘Darky Gardiner’?

JP: Darky is a character in [Richard Flanagan novel] The Narrow Road To The Deep North. Tragic character. The song was more about Darky, but I changed it and kept the name – so it’s a bit of a misnomer now.

AC: ‘Force’…

JP: …sad.

AC: …’Australian Dream’…

JP: …bit of a life changer.

AC: ‘Pillar Of Smoke’?

JP: One of my favourites! Total recreation of a Logic demo, which sits underneath the song.

AC: ‘Full Hearts’…

JP: Good dad-rock. I’ve come to love it.

AC: …’Teenagers’…

JP: An old [previous side-project] Dolmades song.

AC: …and, finally, ‘Nothing To Do’?

JP: My favourite.

The Pretty Littles’ Force is out now via Endless Recordings. It can be streamed and purchased by clicking here. Catch the band on their album tour next month – the full list of dates is below.