One of the most frustrating things about living in a small town is that not many decent rock shows ever come through.  However, what is even more frustrating is that when a band you really like, like King Parrot, does actually come through, you’re on summer vaction several hours away.  Balls.  That’s what happened this summer for Scotty and I – We missed the King Parrot show in our town it was a sad sad day for us.  But!  We found out that they were playing Housecore Horror Festival in Austin this year and I knew I had to get into contact with them.

King Parrot is a special brand of screechy metal that sounds like a mix of grindcore, thrash, and hardcore punk and they are known for having an intense live show and generally giving no fucks.  They are much like if Drunk in a Graveyard was a band..  I feel it would be similar.

The boys from King Parrot were lovely enough to sit down and have a chat with me and were easily my favourite interview that I conducted at Housecore.  They were easy to talk to, really funny, and it felt more like a conversation than an interview.  The interview does go a bit south, especially as we all start laughing, but I think it turned out great and we here at the graveyard are huge fans of King Parrot and are very thankful that they were willing to sit down with us and work it all out.

Robin Goodfellow:  Okay so briefly tell us who you are and what you do.

Matt Young:  I’m Matt, and that’s my friend Slatts, and I sing and he plays bass and does a bit of yelling as well in the band.

Slatts:  Almost everyday.

RG:  Bum slapping as well?

S:  Bum slapping?

RG:  Yeah we have heard talk about some nude stage antics?

MY:  Do you like that?

RG:  Of course, every stage show needs a little something for the ladies.

S:  Matt has a nice bum yeah.

MY:  Yeah we do it for the ladies.

S:  Sometimes I find it hard not to touch his bum.

MY:  No way, we do it mostly for the ladies.

RG:  Okay so the name King Parrot, where did it come from and what is its significance?

MY:  Well, a parrot in Australian slang means an annoying person..

S: …and we are the most annoying.

MY:  Yeah we are.

S:  We are the kings of annoying people.

MY:  You especially.  And you ladies are gonna see that today, if you haven’t seen us play live before, we are gonna annoy the hell out of you.

RG:  I’m not worried, we really like your music.

MY:  Really?  That’s cool.

S:  Like in a weird way?

RG:  Well what other way is there?

*everyone dissolves into giggles*

RG:  Okay so you guys seem to take yourselves less seriously than other metal acts, especially with the whole Blaze in the Northern Suburbs and the yellow corpse paint..  I appreciate that.  It speaks to me.

S:  Yeah that’s Aussie corpse paint.  Green and gold.

MY:  Do you know what zinc cream is?

RG:…  yes?

MY:  Well that’s what it is, it’s zinc cream you know.  Because it’s so hot in Australia.  We want to be evil and black metal and stuff but we also really want to protect ourselves and our skin from the sun.

RG:  Safety is sexy!

S:  Safety is SO sexy.  We didn’t even realize we were being black metal.  We were just putting zinc on our faces.

RG:  I appreciate that.  So with that all in mind, why do you take yourselves less seriously?  Some metal acts like to take themselves super seriously.

S:  See we take our music very seriously and we play it very very well.

MY:  Do you?

*more giggling*

S:  Well..  yeah.  It doesn’t mean we can’t have fun though.

MY:  I think it’s just who we are, the people in the band.

RG:  Are you guys fun guys?

S:  WE ARE THE FUNNEST.  We are like massive mushrooms just kicking about.

RG:  Are you on mushrooms right now?

S:  I hope so.  Why?  Do you have any?

RG:  Unfortunately I don’t.  I came here from Canada so I can’t bring anything fun with me across the border.

MY:  God damn border crossing.

RG:  See I really appreciate your comedy.

S:  Yeah we let all of that shit happen organically.  It’s all about who can out fun each other,

MY:  He wins everytime.

RG:  Should we have a funny off?  I think we could make you laugh.

S:  Well go on.

*more giggling*

MY:  I’m funny in a real serious sort of way.

S:  Yeah.  Once you decipher whatever the hell it is he is saying, its quite funny.

RG:  So do you think being funny sets you apart?

MY:  Well like Slatts was saying before, I think there’s room for everything.  There’s lots of serious dudes in the states and in Canada so when we come over and do our thing, it’s been received quite well.  We just did a tour with some tech death bands Origin and Beyond Creation and we love those bands, they’re absolutely amazing and we stood out, because we don’t play anywhere near as many notes as those guys but we also do our own thing, you know.

S:  See that’s the thing, those guys stand out because of what it is they play but there are so many bands that are great, all over the world and they are still playing in their bedrooms or their garage, and we have to do whatever we can and say “Look at us!”.  And I’m prepared to do that.

*gigglefits*

RG:  Are you gonna haul your bum out?

S:  No he’s gonna haul his bum out, I’m gonna get my fat tits out.  It’s gonna be sick.

RG:  Oh my.

MY:  It’s gonna be hot.

S:  I’m gonna have a heart attack on stage one day.

MY:  He actually faked a heart attack on stage one day.

RG:  You did?  Explain.

S:  I just laid there.

MY:  I was really worried.

S:  Yeah and I was going fuck off, I’m trying to get girls to help me.

RG:  I would have helped you.

MY:  Was not funny.

S:  Yeah, it was HILARIOUS.

RG:  So how did you get involved with Housecore?

MY:  We had met Phil and Kate at Soundwave in Australia in February or March and we stayed in touch with them and they liked the band and videos and all that stuff and it worked in well with their whole thing and it was kind of a coincidence I guess.

*someone in the distance beeps a car horn*

S:  Sorry that wasn’t a car, that was just me farting.  I fart like a car.

RG:  Okay.

MY:  Yes.  Such a talent.

S:  Yes it’s taken me a long time to get to this point.  I’m very proud.

MY:  Anyways yeah we stayed in touch with Phil and Kate and they’ve been really good supporters of the band and they asked to come and play and we were already gonna be here so we said “fuck yeah” of course we will come and do it.

S:  Yeah actually one of our tours fell through and we were like well we aren’t gonna go home, so we organized our own shit in order to play at Housecore. We are coming back in December.

MY:  Yeah we are coming back to do a tour with DOWN in December on the West Coast.

RG:  Yeah, the “Punk Rock But Kinda Not” Tour?

MY:  Yeah.

RG:  We are going to that.

MY:  Really?

RG:  Yep.  Maybe we can hang out again.

S:  Love to.

RG:  So speaking of touring, when you were touring this summer, you stopped in on the West Coast of Canada which is where I live and played some small shows, so do you prefer small shows or larger ones?

S:  Personally I prefer small shows.  In Australia we play country towns a lot, and in a small room, it’s packed with people and the show is just much more intense.  *gesturing*  Can you put the hand movements in there?

RG:  Yep.  Gesticulating.  Farting like a car, we’ve got it.

MY:  They’re all great.  Small shows.  Big shows are great too, sometimes you get to play them and it means you are doing something right and it’s nice to have those shows.

S:  Yeah see sometimes people don’t get it.  This year we played in Indonesia to 15,000 people.

RG:  And what was that like?

S:  It was amazing.  It was awesome..

MY:  Yeah it was good.

S:  See when you play small shows, or play often, you get ready for the big ones, and that’s important.

MY:  Indonesians are fucking crazy.

S:  Nicest people in the world.  It’s like punk rock in the 80s for them, except its with metal.  We went on tour there for about a week and every night we played in high school car parks and chicken shops and every night it was packed.

RG:  A chicken shop?

MY:  Yeah like a B grade KFC chicken shop.  We played upstairs in the children’s birthday party room.

RG:  Are you serious?  How was that?

MY:  That was fucked.

RG:  Was it greasy or what?

S:  There was blood everywhere.  There was kids passed out in the staircase, kids smoking those clove cigarettes, there’s blood all over the floor.  I went next door because I saw some pool floaties, and I don’t know why they were there because there was no pool around, but I took them and we were throwing them around and I put on some water wings.

MY:  It looked amazing.  Real cute.

S:  The whole thing was amazing.  The festival organizers are really into DIY stuff.  If you ever come to Australia you should come see a show there.

RG:  In a B grade KFC?

MY:  Yeah we could point you in the right direction.

RG:  Okay, well tell us what we can look forward to in your stage show, other than the fake heart attacks and the hauling out of asses?

MY:  That’s about it.

S:  We’ve got to save something for the show.

MY:  We just like to put on the sort of show that we would like to see I guess.

S:  Headbutts.

MY:  Sometimes there’s blood, sometimes there’s tears.

S:  Males just rubbing up against each other with gay abandon.

MY:  Sometimes people get upset with us because we invade their private space.  Fuck those people.  They’re dicks.

S:  There will be people instagramming.  Facebook is going to be there.  Pretty sure facebook is gonna be there.  Twitter too.

RG:  We will be taking pictures.

MY:  Yeah you guys are cool though.  As long as you tweet about us.  Then it’s fine.

RG:  We will.

S:  As long as you pinterest to me, that would be just great.

MY:  Oh is pinterest like that new one?

S:  No, it’s actually quite old in social media years.

RG:  So do you like to do arts and crafts?

S:  Yeah yeah, I love it.  I like art and also crafts.

RG:  Do you knit?

S:  My mother actually taught me to knit, but I never got round to learning how to do another row so one time I knitted a really long scarf but it was just one row.

MY:  It was a really skinny scarf.

S:  Fuck it was a really skinny scarf.  It went from the start of my house to the back door.  It certainly kept me entertained so my Mum could do whatever crap it was she was does.

*laughter*

RG:  Okay so last question – our blog is Drunk in a Graveyard and we take a comedic approach to watching horror movies and listening to heavy metal while getting wasted, and so the question is..

S:  …Yes I would have sex with a dead person.

*gigglefits all around*

RG:  …Favourite horror movie and the alcoholic drink to go with it.

MY:  I don’t drink so…

RG:  Really?

MY:  No I just like to say that.  It’s my favourite thing to say.  We did a spoof in one of our videos of the Shining and that’s definitely one of my favourite horror movies of all time.  And there’s some Australian movies I like that you might have seen, like Wolf Creek.  Have you seen Wolf Creek?

RG:  Absolutely I have.  I saw it in the theatres and it was just me and my friend Rigby and this weird old guy came in and sat down right beside us in the empty theatre and when the opening credits came up that said “Made in Australia”, the old guy just got up and left.  I guess he didn’t like Australia and koala bears or marmite.

S:  It’s vegemite.  But there’s one called Serbian Film and I never need to see that again.  If I’m going to watch that, I’m going to drink absinthe to help me forget.

RG:  Yeah I think once is enough.  We can be in the survivors group of people who have seen that movie.

MY:  What about Snow Town?  Have you seen that?

S:  I look like the main character!

MY:  Yeah that’s a fucked up movie too, it’s one of those ones you watch and you just go, oh fuck, that’s fucked.  You just go why did you do that?  Why did you make that?  It did quite well but its a fucked up movie.  Well worth watching.  Once

RG:  Well that’s it.  Thanks boys.

S:  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

MY:  And thank you.
We really want to say a special thanks again to the boys in King Parrot for being absolutely amazing to talk to and super fun. They put on an amazing and epic fucking show and you are a fool if you miss the opportunity to see these guys live.
In the meantime, go check out their facebook and give them a like or two. Buy a shirt and some music.