This time last year, Perth-based indie outfit Parliamo were preparing for what would be one of their 2022 highlights: A victorious “hometown” set at the Otherlands Festival.
For this August’s edition, the underground pop sextet had earned themselves a promotion from sideshow showcase to the Scone Palace weekender’s main stage.
Alas, just a few weeks ago organisers pulled the plug on Otherlands, due to what they describe as “poor ticket sales, rising production costs and loss of grant funding”.
A familiar music-biz tale, for sure, though a heavy blow for the Fair City group, frontman Jack Dailly explains.
“That was a bit of a nightmare,” he says. “We were really looking forward to that one – it was the best weekend of last year and it’s always been important for us to play our hometown.
“When we started out, that was our springboard, garnering support from our pals and other folk. When we played Otherlands last year it was kind of a homecoming thing, we had a bit of a party with loads of people turning up.”
Originally formed in Perth by Jack and long-term mate, guitarist Finn Freeburn Morrison, two years ago the band released debut EP The Parliamo Manifesto.
It showed off Jack’s sardonic, perceptive lyrical style, backed by a gang with eclectic tastes ranging from Britpop grooves to driving indie rock.
Jack and Finn may now be based in Glasgow, but two members of the group still live in their home city and their vocalist is proud to fly its flag (or at least that of local football club St Johnstone, as Jack did at Glasgow Green’s TRNSMT festival last year), the former claims.
“We’ve always tried to put Perth on the map,” he says. “Dundee always had loads of good indie bands coming out, so we thought we could give that a go.
“It’s just that small town mentality where you feel you have something to prove a wee bit. Perth’s a great wee place, though. Folk are dead friendly and there’s a good sense of humour. We try to put that across in the music if we can.”
New singles prove Parliamo will push limits
Any humour, though, comes across as bone dry on the two tracks released this spring – the breezy, synth-tinged You’re An Animal, followed up by the darker, heavier Matters Like.
Both suggest a band unafraid to push at its own boundaries and Jack happily agrees.
“I feel like we’re just trying to keep a core, recognisable sound, with the vocals and lyrics, but we’re all into such different stuff with a broad plethora of influences. So we try and reflect that and keep things interesting for ourselves more than anything.”
Jack is also keen to mention the input of the rest of the group, completed by Fraser Nicholson (guitar), Mairi Sutherland (guitar, backing vocals) and Andrew Haxton (drums), with latest recruit Finlay Mcelnea joining on bass in spring 2022.
Stability is important for any group, as is patience in a climate proving a challenge for many guitar bands. Luckily, Parliamo has at its core Jack and Finn’s productive songwriting partnership.
They were first introduced in 2015 when they were 14 and 15 years old respectively, quickly forming an inseparable bond that has lasted eight years, the latter remembers.
“We met up at our house to jam and wrote a song on our first day together,” he says. “We just thought that was fun and kept on doing it. It just seems to kind of happen and work quite well. We work together quite quickly.”
From ‘nonsense’ lyrics to songwriting ‘catharsis’
Far from a tortured songwriter, Jack admits he normally responds to Finn’s melodies with nonsense lyrics before being inspired to write proper lines.
So Jack himself may be as surprised as anybody about the content of his latest material – Matters Like explores the vulnerability of experiencing a fledgling relationship – but getting it out can be therapeutic, he believes.
“When you put things down on paper they make more sense to you,” Jack says. “I’ve got all these thoughts going around my head, but it’s when I sit down to write I realise what I feel about these things.
“It’s cathartic in that sense, I guess.”
Making music ‘expensive’ for unsigned outfit
For now, these two tracks are to remain standalone singles, with the band due to get back in the studio at the beginning of July, Jack explains.
“We have about 50 tunes that are ready to go,” he says. “We’d love to have another EP or even album out in the next year or so, but we’re unsigned and this is all expensive, especially with us working and based in different places.”
Thankfully, there are key live dates still to come.
Next month they support The Snuts at Glasgow’s SWG3 outdoor space Galvanisers Yard – Parliamo’s biggest gig to date – and tomorrow they are third on the bill at Silverburn Park Festival, Leven, just below ska livewires Bombskare and Kirkcaldy’s local heroes The Shambolics, a group that inspire Parliamo, Jack reveals.
“The Shambolics are a great example of a band with a really good loyal, local following,” he says. “If we can emulate them, that would be great.
“It’s good to play another Scottish festival, because if you can get more and more people from your own country supporting you, that puts you in good stead.”
Parliamo play Silverburn Park Festival, Leven, June 24.
