KING PARROT - The Return of the Kings
Matt Young on Crafting the Perfect Parrot
Written by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Tuesday 29 March 2022
Remember the bloke who walked down a Melbourne street in green and gold corpse paint for the Shit on the Liver video? Would you trust this man with your music career? You should. Vocalist for Melbourne thrashcore veterans KING PARROT, Matt Young is throwing his experience and work ethic behind up-and-coming bands in the Melbourne scene. Ahead of KING PARROT’s long-awaited return to the stage as part of the Cheeky East Coast Tour with HIGH AS HELL, FRANKENBOK and CHOOF, he spoke to Sense about the challenges of being a manager, crafting the perfect setlist (which, of course, includes Dead End) and his new material for metal’s angriest supergroup, CRISISACT. Just in case all of this is a bit high-brow, I also ask who would win in a fight between guitarist Ari White and FRANKENBOK. Journalism!
What spurred on this tour?
Like every other band, man, we’re just chomping at the bit to get back on the road. We’ve had this booking with Halloween Hysteria for Halloween last year [laughs], and it’s now in April … We’ve really wanted to do a show at the Bendigo Hotel in Melbourne because they’ve been struggling a little bit to keep the doors open with the stuff that’s been going on, and the restrictions and all of that sort of stuff. With band cancellations and things, people getting COVID and having to isolate, lots of people are cancelling at the last minute and all that, so we really wanted to be able to be there to try and do a show to support them to keep the doors open, because it’s such an important place for bands to be able to play in Melbourne. And then the Frankie’s show that’s come about is a tradition. We’ve been doing Easter at Frankie’s … I think it’s maybe been four years in a row? … It’s always a great time, man. Frankie’s is an institution in itself up in Sydney, and they’re going to be closing their doors soon, so this may be the very last opportunity we have to play there, so it’s exciting.
How did you come to put together the lineup for the Bendigo show? What led you to finalise on CHOOF, HIGH AS HELL and FRANKENBOK?
The guys from CHOOF are opening the night. They’re a great band – I’m working with them at the moment with management stuff. They’re a band that Squizz, KING PARROT’s guitarist, has been recording for a while. Great dudes, great attitude, great energy, awesome songs. Really kicking goals – they’ve got a great work ethic, and we want to help them out as much as we can, because we just like doing that kind of stuff. To be able to put new and up-and-coming bands on our lineups, just to help them get that exposure, that other bands did the same thing for us when we were trying to get ourselves established. Same goes with HIGH AS HELL – great dudes, catchy band, great songs. [They’re] a point of difference in the lineup, really. They’re not as extreme as the other bands, but they’re just a really cool, tough rock ‘n’ roll, stoner kind of rock band. I really enjoy them as well. And FRANKENBOK … We’ve been mates with FRANKENBOK for years, and they really helped us out in the early days. We did lots of runs of shows with them interstate. They’re really nice guys, and they’ve got a new record out at the moment. When I spoke to Dave at the Bendigo about putting a show together, he suggested, “Why don’t we put FRANKENBOK on? They deserve it.” I was like, “Yeah, fuck it, let’s do it. Why not?” I think we’ve got a really cool, diverse lineup, and it’s just going to be rad to be able to play in Melbourne again. I’m really looking forward to it.
At this point in your career, when it comes to picking songs for the setlist, what are some of the challenges? Do you try to incorporate something to please everyone? Because I feel that “If you always do what you’ve always done / You’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Hint-hint …
[Laughs] Yeah, I think it’s more a matter of what we can remember … [Laughs] Because we haven’t been touring in a while, we haven’t been as active as a band, I guess. We haven’t been around each other as much, so we’ve kind of got to go, “Well, we’ve got an hour’s set, or an hour-and-ten, whatever we’ve got – what can we make work?” There’s always a few fringe songs that might get left out here and there that we could potentially throw in or whatnot, but we try to mix it up as best as we can, but there’s always staples in the set as well. There are the songs that we really love to play, and that we know how to play well, and that we can always put in the set, because we know that the audience will want to hear it. Having done so many shows over the years, you know what the reaction is going to be. We just try to keep it simple, man, and not try and reinvent the wheel and pull out anything too obscure. We’ve got a pretty solid batch of songs from the three albums and two EPs that we know will make a really killer set.
I just want to throw out that Dead End is only a minute-and-a-half long. You can probably squeeze that in somewhere. *Ahem* Anyway…
That’s right, but you know, the intro to that song, the banter that we do beforehand, talking about people getting drunk, and who’s getting fucked up tonight, and who’s gonna have a great time and blah-blah-blah, and we do all the stupid shit at the start of it, and then we do the outro part and we do a big ring-out at the end and tell everyone to get fucked at the end of it, that actually makes it about a three or four minute song. [Laughs]
You are also working as CHOOF’s manager … What are the biggest challenges of a job like that? What do you think makes a good manager?
I think it’s just being able to listen to the band and understand. I think, in the early days, I saw a lot of people managing bands who weren’t kind of fully invested, and I sort of make a thing of it now; if I’m going to manage a band, I’ve really got to be invested in it. I’ve really got to be behind them, listen to them, understand them, know the music, and continue to learn about the music and understand how they work as a unit. If that all works for me, then we can work together, but I’ve just learned over time, and managing a bunch of bands over a few years, that it’s integral that you have to be right into it. These days, I won’t even bother with managing a band unless I’m really into it – unless I believe in it, and I think that it’s got a future. One of the challenges of being a manager that I really love is helping bands get established and get to that point where they’re feeling that forward positive motion … always pushing and pushing … “What’s happening next? What are we going to do next? Where’s the next bunch of shows? Where are we going to hit next? What’s the next release? How are we going to market this?” Always having something to move forward with. Keeping everyone engaged is really important too. The challenge is to find bands that you really love, who want to be managed, and then to be able to push them and propel them to that next level where they want to be, and finding people along the way who want to be in on it, whether that’s booking agents or promoters or other sort of partners, to help build it. It’s a lot of fun, and there’s nothing else I’d rather be involved in. The music industry is just so much fun. It’s a great challenge.
Are you a bit of a hard-arse, you reckon?
Yeah, probably. I can be, if I need to be … I mean, the guys in KING PARROT can probably tell you that for free. [Laughs] I don’t think I’m an arsehole. If it needs to get done, or something needs to be done, I just try and get it done. I try and speak the truth, always. [Laughs] Pretty simple.
Pictured: Dave Haley, Matthew Young, Brett Bamberger + Joe Haley - CRISISACT
Photo courtesy of CRISISACT
What can you tell me about the new CRISISACT? How long have you been working on it?
I got a bunch of tracks off Joe and Dave Haley … it was a while ago now. I don’t even want to say how long it was. But I’ve been working on the vocals for three or four months, and I’ve just been at my friend’s studio. I’m doing the vocals – doing a couple of tracks here and there, and just getting it done. We’ve done another nine songs, I think, nine or ten songs, and I’ve completed all the vocals for them now. We’re just waiting for Brett from REVOCATION, who is our bass player. He’s been recording the bass in his bus while they’ve been on the road with CANNIBAL CORPSE over in the States! [Laughs] He’s just been recording it all on his computer … I think they’ve nearly finished the tour now, so hopefully by the time he comes back, all the bass will be done and we’ll be ready to go, and we’ll have another release to come out. I’m not sure how long it’s going to be. It’s similar in length to the first one. That’s about all I can say.
“Looks on paper like it’s an album, but is all done and dusted in about eight minutes.” [Laughs]
Pretty much, yeah. Maybe it’s a little bit longer than that – maybe twelve or thirteen. We did one longer song that’s maybe three minutes I think.
It’s your Orion.
It’s our opus, yeah.
What kind of lyrical subject matter have you been exploring on the new stuff?
Well, CRISISACT has only been around for a couple of years. Just anything that gets into my head. The state of the current situation in the world, and the frustrations about all of that sort of stuff. So you’ll hear lots of that. Lots of angst and just outright buffoonery from my brain, observing what goes on in the world … Potentially being engaging and thought-provoking while also hammering home the point, you know? If anyone listens to the first one, you know it's pretty anti-establishment, anti-government, anti-media … [Laughs] It’s punk rock, man. It’s a lot heavier than most punk rock, but it’s got that sensibility about it, and I love that shit, you know? I never set out to be political or anything like that with music, and I guess I’m not. I don’t have any affiliation to left-wing or right-wing – I think it’s all a load of shit. I’m just against it, you know? Wherever that puts me … whatever! I don’t care! [Laughs]
Pictured: Andrew Livingstone-Squires, Matthew Young, Wayne Slattery, Ari White + Todd Hansen - KING PARROT
Photo by: Danin Drahos
Lastly, I’ve got probably the most important question you’ve ever been asked; who would win in a fight – Ari versus the entire band of FRANKENBOK?
Oh wow. Did someone ask you to ask me that question?
No, I just came up with it. Why?
[Laughs] “Ari versus the entire band of FRANKENBOK.”
That’s just one I pulled out of my arse. [Laughs]
Oh man, far out. I don’t know, man … Wow, I don’t know. I’ve never really seen Ari in a fight, to be honest with you … I’ve seen him get fired up and stuff. Me and Ari have spent a lot of time together over the last fifteen, twenty years … I’ve seen him get really angry at times, on several occasions, but I’ve never actually seen him get into a dust-up, and I think it’s because he looks so scary that when it actually gets to that point where there might be a dust-up, it just sort of dissipates! [Laughs] … I don’t know man. Maybe we can find out on the night! I’d probably put my money on Ari just scaring everyone before it even happens.
KING PARROT bring the noise in Brisbane on April 2nd, Melbourne on April 9th, and Sydney on April 17th.
Pictured: Matthew Young, Ari White, Andrew Livingstone-Squires, Todd Hansen + Wayne Slattery - KING PARROT
Photo by: Tin Foil Biting Studio (2017)
