Some two weeks ago, South London-based band Picture Parlour – vocalist Katherine Parlour, guitarist Ella Risi, bassist Sian Lynch and drummer Michael Nash – were waiting with that familiar mixture of nerves and excitement, on the eve of the release of their debut single.
Their anticipation was magnified by the fact the release of rip-roaring ‘Norwegian Wood’ was coinciding with a feature on NME’s The Cover. It was a fortuitous boost that came after Courtney Love had first shouted them out on Instagram, sharing a live recording of their memorable shows, and bringing them to the attention of a wider audience and eager-eyed music journalists. But when the moment finally arrived, so did a peculiar aspect of our social media-crazed world: a Twitter storm. “Nepo babies”, “industry plants”, decried many, alongside the rather wild theory that Ray Parlour (yes, the ex-Arsenal player who happens to share the same surname, but no relation, with the band’s lead singer) had bagged them a spot on the magazine’s cover. For the band, it was a moment of confusion, not least because it couldn’t have been further from the truth of Katherine and Ella’s working-class roots, and their hard-earned move to London to try and make their dream a reality. What’s more, The Cover is itself billed as a digital series that spotlights emerging artists. But still, the unsavoury rumours persisted.
So, for our own series that spotlights rising talent, we speak to Katherine and Ella in their own words, about that episode in question; the blessing the internet can provide, in connecting them with Sian and Michael; and their upcoming support of Bruce Springsteen.
How are you guys doing? Busy?
Katherine: Really busy, but really good.
Finding a way to deal with it all?
K: It’s a little bit stressful.
Ella: We just kind of delete social media apps – log on when necessary.
Your debut single’s out, you’re live now…
K: Yeah, we’re switched on now; there’s no going back.
E: That’s why we’ve been really excited because we’d been sat on everything for so long. So when we released it, we said it’d be full steam ahead from here. And we felt really ready for that. And were really excited for it. Then when all that happened, it was a bit like ‘Oh, god…’.
Yes, without focusing too much on the negatives, it is an interesting thing that happened: you were on the NME digital cover on the day of your debut single’s release. People’s response was quite divided and quite loud. I just want to hear what you made of all that when it was happening…
K: In all honesty, it was a shock. It was the last thing we thought would be said.
E: Before we released it, we were wondering things like, ‘I hope people like the music video or the track’; that wasn’t even something that entered our heads because it’s not our background.
K: The whole purpose of this NME cover is it’s not a printed magazine cover; it’s to showcase emerging acts, which is what we are. I guess maybe there were miscommunications, but I was confused. And then it just flooded in; you know what social media’s like, it’s a wildfire, it just catches.
E: There were points where it almost became comic…
K: At first it was kind of funny, we thought it was obviously a joke, that it had to be some internet meme. But then we realised, ‘Shit, this is genuinely what people think.’ How do you navigate that? Ultimately for us, it’s about the music, but when your identity as a working-class person is undermined, you ask: do we fight to prove we’re working-class? That’s just the most ridiculous thing. If you are something, that’s what you are, and you don’t need to fight that.
E: It feels weird feeling like you have to air your whole family history, to prove who you are.
K: It like a Black Mirror thing. This is the internet age. Having said that, it was so cool to just have the single out and the positive response has been incredible; having people who genuinely enjoy the song has been the coolest part. And how it feels to be on the map. I suppose this is the beginning for us. Onwards we go.
Black Mirror is a good way of describing it – it’s the worst traits of the internet… So to focus on the music, how did it actually feel to have your single out in the world?
K: It was just such relief. We had ‘Norwegian Wood’ for two years, and wanted to record it and were desperate to get music out. So to have it out was surreal. It was this point of go-time. And now we want to make a better song, we want to make an album. It’s just pure excitement.
I read it wasn’t the first single you thought about putting out. So how did you come to that decision?
E: With the lead-up to the release, we’d just been playing live constantly, which means you can gauge from an audience’s response what goes down well. We’d open the set with ‘Norwegian Wood’. It just felt like a good place to start; it’s a real raw, vulnerable tune.
K: It was a good hello, no bullshit, this is who we are. The band all felt that way. (I didn’t, I was outvoted). So we just thought ‘fuck it’, let release ‘Norwegian Wood’.
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I understand the track was written fairly quickly. What’s it about, in your own words? K: It was written super quick. I was on my own, feeling like everyone does at times: really crap, wallowing in self-pity. I wrote it and then thought, ‘Meh, that’s going into the bin’ with hundreds of songs. Then Ella came home and I showed her; she was like, ‘We should work on this, it’s got legs.’ But it was genuinely just a moment of self-indulgence. I love it now but, in that moment, I remember thinking, ‘God, get over yourself.’ That sounds like it really epitomises your relationship as a creative pair. How did you guys form Picture Parlour? K: Ella studied music in Manchester, and I studied Philosophy and Politics. I wasn’t a music student, wasn’t a proper musician. We both had different bands we were in, with the same bass player. We had this mutual friend who Ella messaged because she wanted to jam.
E: We thought it would have been a bit of a lengthier process, but we just felt so lucky in that moment, like we’d found it on the first try.
K: I remember we all came in together and it was the first time Ella and I had heard any of our music live, properly. When that first note came in, I got a lump in my throat.
It sounds like your journey so far has been a succession of things clicking: you two meeting, finding Michael and Sian, that first gig at The Windmill…
E: It’s so weird, as we were on our way to London, we said if we could just get our first ever show at The Windmill…
K: We’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, especially given some of the discourse: how has it clicked in such a way? And I think it’s because we’ve both worked on our craft, as people would say, and on ourselves as individuals for years. And you learn what works for you, what doesn’t work, how to make decisions, what to take a risk on. I think that kind of thing is a massive reason as to why things just seem to have clicked quicker for us with this project.
Another key moment for you was when you got a shout-out from Courtney Love. What was that like?
E: Crazy.
K: Madness. I remember the moment it happened.
Describe that moment…
K: We were in the pub with friends, having a pint and our phones just started to vibrate, which was weird.
E: We thought it was a hacker, or someone having us on. It was like when we first got emails from industry after our first couple of shows at The Windmill, we thought, ‘This is a scam.’
K: It was a moment of thinking if it was real. And it was, we exchanged a DM and said we can now retire.
What was the DM, just a ‘hello’?
E: What did we even say? This was the last thing we were expecting on a Tuesday, whatever time it was; why am I messaging Courtney Love? But, absolute icon, we were so flattered she chose to do that post.
K: Again, it’s a social media thing. As much as it’s a curse, it’s also a blessing. [Courtney Love’s] massively influential; when she posts about someone, and says such a nice thing about them, people are going to listen. It did us bits.
E: That’s pretty much how we got the NME cover – they reached out because of the whole Courtney Love thing, which again is funny, because apparently our footballer dads are paying for it.
We’ve explored it a bit already, but why do you think people are so quick to assume things like ‘nepo baby’ and ‘industry plant’ currently?
E: I completely get why people would be skeptical when they see a newer band on the things like an NME cover; even though it’s for emerging artists, it’s still a big deal. It’s something we were really excited about and couldn’t believe we were going to be taking part in it. But I think, completely fine, question it, we’re happy to tell our whole timeline of how things have worked out for us, because it’s been insane for us. But it’s almost like people are waiting behind their keyboards for the next thing to jump in on, and hate.
K: I think it’s simple: there’s loads of unfairness in the world, not just in music. It’s a political thing, it’s a social thing. There’s a lot of hate and anger and disappointment that people have, and when something looks like it’s unfair, whether the facts are there or not, people don’t like to wait, they like to jump. And people like to make sense of things; it makes sense to think, ‘Well, [they’re on] the cover of NME, there’s something fishy there.’ But if people just waited a sec and thought about things, it would save a lot of energy. We’re not music industry defenders, we’ve been, and we are in a position now where we’re not signed, we’re just trying to make things work for ourselves and we’re going to take opportunities that come our way. I understand if people are angry because some people have gained a leg-up, but it’s the jump before fact.
E: And that’s the thing. People don’t know our life stories and our backgrounds before Picture Parlour, but we know how much work we’ve put into it. It’s a weird one, do people expect us to turn down fantastic opportunities when they arise?
Speaking of taking opportunities as they arise, let’s move from Courtney Love to The Boss. You’ll be supporting Bruce Springsteen. That must be another surreal moment…
K: That’s super special for me because Bruce Springsteen is mine and my dad’s special artist from childhood, that’s just been our thing. Last year, for Father’s Day, I bought him a ticket for me and him to go and see Bruce. And now we’ll be playing that day, it’s ridiculous.
What was the moment when you found out the news?
K: It wasn’t long ago. We had a gig, came offstage and our manager shoved an email in my face. I was like, ‘Can you just give me a sec?’ And it was an email asking if we’d like to have one of the slots that day. I’ve still not processed it. Until we’re on that stage and it’s happening, I don’t think it’s going to feel real.
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Do those live successes put a degree of pressure on wanting to get more music out? K: Yeah, definitely. But especially when you think about a stage like Hyde Park, you think: what songs can we make to fill those spaces? I don’t think it’s pressure, though, it makes me excited. It’s like when you see Glastonbury and see so many artists playing such incredible shows. It just makes me want to write another song. And what’s next for you? Do you have another track you can shout about? K: We’ll definitely have another single out later in the year. And then more singles, maybe an EP, maybe an album. Whatever we can get.
Picture Parlour will join Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band at BST Hyde Park on Thursday 6 July. They’ll also be heading out on tour with The Last Dinner Party this October – see here for full dates and to grab tickets.
Their anticipation was magnified by the fact the release of rip-roaring ‘Norwegian Wood’ was coinciding with a feature on NME’s The Cover. It was a fortuitous boost that came after Courtney Love had first shouted them out on Instagram, sharing a live recording of their memorable shows, and bringing them to the attention of a wider audience and eager-eyed music journalists. But when the moment finally arrived, so did a peculiar aspect of our social media-crazed world: a Twitter storm. “Nepo babies”, “industry plants”, decried many, alongside the rather wild theory that Ray Parlour (yes, the ex-Arsenal player who happens to share the same surname, but no relation, with the band’s lead singer) had bagged them a spot on the magazine’s cover. For the band, it was a moment of confusion, not least because it couldn’t have been further from the truth of Katherine and Ella’s working-class roots, and their hard-earned move to London to try and make their dream a reality. What’s more, The Cover is itself billed as a digital series that spotlights emerging artists. But still, the unsavoury rumours persisted.
So, for our own series that spotlights rising talent, we speak to Katherine and Ella in their own words, about that episode in question; the blessing the internet can provide, in connecting them with Sian and Michael; and their upcoming support of Bruce Springsteen.
How are you guys doing? Busy?
Katherine: Really busy, but really good.
Finding a way to deal with it all?
K: It’s a little bit stressful.
Ella: We just kind of delete social media apps – log on when necessary.
Your debut single’s out, you’re live now…
K: Yeah, we’re switched on now; there’s no going back.
E: That’s why we’ve been really excited because we’d been sat on everything for so long. So when we released it, we said it’d be full steam ahead from here. And we felt really ready for that. And were really excited for it. Then when all that happened, it was a bit like ‘Oh, god…’.
Yes, without focusing too much on the negatives, it is an interesting thing that happened: you were on the NME digital cover on the day of your debut single’s release. People’s response was quite divided and quite loud. I just want to hear what you made of all that when it was happening…
K: In all honesty, it was a shock. It was the last thing we thought would be said.
E: Before we released it, we were wondering things like, ‘I hope people like the music video or the track’; that wasn’t even something that entered our heads because it’s not our background.
K: The whole purpose of this NME cover is it’s not a printed magazine cover; it’s to showcase emerging acts, which is what we are. I guess maybe there were miscommunications, but I was confused. And then it just flooded in; you know what social media’s like, it’s a wildfire, it just catches.
E: There were points where it almost became comic…
K: At first it was kind of funny, we thought it was obviously a joke, that it had to be some internet meme. But then we realised, ‘Shit, this is genuinely what people think.’ How do you navigate that? Ultimately for us, it’s about the music, but when your identity as a working-class person is undermined, you ask: do we fight to prove we’re working-class? That’s just the most ridiculous thing. If you are something, that’s what you are, and you don’t need to fight that.
E: It feels weird feeling like you have to air your whole family history, to prove who you are.
K: It like a Black Mirror thing. This is the internet age. Having said that, it was so cool to just have the single out and the positive response has been incredible; having people who genuinely enjoy the song has been the coolest part. And how it feels to be on the map. I suppose this is the beginning for us. Onwards we go.
I mean, there really were some wild bits of theory, one that ex-Arsenal player Ray Parlour got you that cover slot… K: My dad was like, ‘Did I?’ But that’s the internet for you. It’s not something we ever considered, because when you’re on the other side of it, you forget that it’s humans behind screens. That’s what artists talk about a lot: their relation with the internet. So it must have been a baptism of fire for you with your debut single… E: When it all initially started happening, we were in our friend’s studio doing a few demos and stuff. Then we had this influx of notifications, and were thinking, ‘What’s going on on Twitter?’ And then we just sat for a bit wondering. E: And you’re also consumed by everything you want to say… K: But you don’t want to add fuel to the fire. E: Because when it feels so far from the truth, it’s quite disturbing to have a bunch of strangers write your narrative, and then you not having a voice in that whole thing. So we were just sat there for a bit wondering where we go from here. K: But that’s the learning point. We all just put our phones in a box and thought let’s just make the best demo ever. We know the truth, we know it’s ridiculous, let the internet do its thing. People say Twitter has its own brain; let the Twitter brain feed itself and then carry on doing what we’re here to do: make a really good demo.Meet @pictureparlour_, the fearless rockers who have become a word-of-mouth sensation a mere six months after their first live gig.
— NME (@NME) June 19, 2023
Get to know one of Britain's most talked-about new acts in our latest #NMETheCover story: https://t.co/4Ap8zT4G7m pic.twitter.com/Jlvivd2GKB
Black Mirror is a good way of describing it – it’s the worst traits of the internet… So to focus on the music, how did it actually feel to have your single out in the world?
K: It was just such relief. We had ‘Norwegian Wood’ for two years, and wanted to record it and were desperate to get music out. So to have it out was surreal. It was this point of go-time. And now we want to make a better song, we want to make an album. It’s just pure excitement.
I read it wasn’t the first single you thought about putting out. So how did you come to that decision?
E: With the lead-up to the release, we’d just been playing live constantly, which means you can gauge from an audience’s response what goes down well. We’d open the set with ‘Norwegian Wood’. It just felt like a good place to start; it’s a real raw, vulnerable tune.
K: It was a good hello, no bullshit, this is who we are. The band all felt that way. (I didn’t, I was outvoted). So we just thought ‘fuck it’, let release ‘Norwegian Wood’.
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I understand the track was written fairly quickly. What’s it about, in your own words? K: It was written super quick. I was on my own, feeling like everyone does at times: really crap, wallowing in self-pity. I wrote it and then thought, ‘Meh, that’s going into the bin’ with hundreds of songs. Then Ella came home and I showed her; she was like, ‘We should work on this, it’s got legs.’ But it was genuinely just a moment of self-indulgence. I love it now but, in that moment, I remember thinking, ‘God, get over yourself.’ That sounds like it really epitomises your relationship as a creative pair. How did you guys form Picture Parlour? K: Ella studied music in Manchester, and I studied Philosophy and Politics. I wasn’t a music student, wasn’t a proper musician. We both had different bands we were in, with the same bass player. We had this mutual friend who Ella messaged because she wanted to jam.
E: I did a bit of Instagram stalking and thought, ‘She’s really good.’ So I asked to be linked up. It was during that weird period of lockdown where things were starting to open back up but the music industry was non-existent, there were no live shows. Basically, I didn’t leave for about three weeks and we just kept writing and writing. It was nice because there was no scene going on at the time, we just wanted to make music that we’d want to go see and that we just genuinely love. We weren’t expecting to go off and make it into something big. When we actually had a little catalogue together, we thought, ‘Maybe we could play this live.’ And then Katherine was going to London to do a Master’s. K: I just said, ‘I’m going to go, so you could just come with me.’ And that’s how it happened. But we thought we couldn’t just find any other musicians to play with and dive into a show; let’s try and make this – people say ‘world-building’ – something tangible that we can present to venues, to promoters, and it be a fully-formed project. E: It was a leap of faith because we didn’t know anyone down here. We just thought everyone says, ‘Go to London.’ We found our bassist and drummer on Facebook, on a musician’s forum; then we went through the songs and it was a moment where we realised we can do this. Then it was just a matter of endlessly reaching out to venues and promoters. Eventually we got a response from Tim [Perry] at The Windmill in Brixton, which we’ll be eternally grateful for, because that’s where it feels like it all began. What was that first gig at The Windmill like? K: So scary. We’d gigged loads before in our own respective projects, but that felt different. I don’t think we ever said it to each other at the time, but I just felt this immense pressure of this project feeling like the right thing. Ella felt like the partner to have. And it was a case of: if this doesn’t feel right, where do we go from there? So it was really scary. At the time we were new to London, so didn’t really understand The Windmill scene and the scenes that were going on here. All we knew was it was massively post-punk, and we weren’t – the lineup we were on was heavily post-punk. But it was one of those moments that fit like a glove. As soon as we came off, we said we wanted to come back again. Tim said we should come back next week. Just to go back, you formed your band with the help of Facebook. What was that actual process like, trying to find people who would fit? K: We received a few messages from people, and reached out to others, but you just follow your intuition. It could have been a lovely person, but we weren’t sure if they’d be the right fit. When Michael reached out, it felt like a good vibe. Obviously we didn’t know him so just wanted to make sure he wasn’t a serial killer, so we went for a pint to see if we get on and we really did. We wanted to make sure he gets it, sonically, so we sent a demo of ‘Norwegian Wood’ without any drums on; we didn’t give him any references because we wanted to see organically what would come out. The drums haven’t really changed from that first demo he put down. We realised he gets it. With Sian it was a bit different, I kind of poached her. I’d seen videos of her playing the bass; a few people I knew who were in bands were interested in her and I thought I’d have to at least drop her a message to see if she wanted to play with us – luckily, she was. We sent her the demos and she said it was the first one where she felt ready to pay to get the train, to go to Brixton to rehearse. We all did a rehearsal together and it was like magic.View this post on Instagram
The Windmill in Brixton is well-known for giving emerging bands a chance, just as they did for Picture Parlour. Photo: Ollo Weguelin.
Courtney Love shouted-out Picture Parlour on her Instagram Story.
Norwegian Wood is out now.
How are you guys staying grounded when you get news like that? K: I mean we’re grounded because we got absolutely battered on social media. But there’s an element where we’ll just be doing a normal thing like making a coffee and will say to each other, ‘Can you believe that?’ E: If we’d have said these sentences a year or two ago, we would have thought we were nuts. It’s just beyond anything we could have ever tried to fathom when we start doing those first jam sessions. K: It makes us excited because this is just the beginning. We haven’t even touched the surface. For me, we’ve achieved some stuff but at the same time, we’ve achieved nothing. I’m like, we’ve just got to keep going. E: I’m excited to get recording more music, release more tunes.View this post on Instagram
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Do those live successes put a degree of pressure on wanting to get more music out? K: Yeah, definitely. But especially when you think about a stage like Hyde Park, you think: what songs can we make to fill those spaces? I don’t think it’s pressure, though, it makes me excited. It’s like when you see Glastonbury and see so many artists playing such incredible shows. It just makes me want to write another song. And what’s next for you? Do you have another track you can shout about? K: We’ll definitely have another single out later in the year. And then more singles, maybe an EP, maybe an album. Whatever we can get.
Picture Parlour will join Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band at BST Hyde Park on Thursday 6 July. They’ll also be heading out on tour with The Last Dinner Party this October – see here for full dates and to grab tickets.
1 Comment
I’m obsessed with their single! Can’t wait for anything new from them and for them to come to Italy <3
Thanks for the interview!