King Parrot have proved themselves a live force to be reckoned with. Rocking an arsenal of strong songs, electric performances and a slew of tours over the last couple of years, the band were a natural choice to support Soulfly on their current European tour. Matt “Youngy” Young of King Parrot checks in with The Void to share a few of their magic moments on the road.
What has the tour been like so far? What has the crowd response been like?
Its been an amazing tour on the road with Soufly, Incite and Lody Kong. Its basically the whole Cavalera family and King Parrot. Its been great for us to play in front of big crowds every night and get a great response. As Europe has been mostly unchartered territory for us, its been a little strange initially getting not much response from the crowd and having to try and win them over. I like the challenge again.
King Parrot Tour Bus Spotify Playlist – LISTEN
What’s it been like touring with a legend like Max Cavalera? How long have you been into him as a musician, and what has touring with him taught you?
Max is an awesome guy and really committed to his craft. He’s very professional the way he goes about his performance and keeps pretty quiet for the most part of the day until he gets on stage. It’s quite interesting to watch the way the whole family operates, everyone has their jobs and does them well. Personally I have been into Sepultura since I was 12 or 13 years old. “Arise” was one of the first extreme metal records I had ever heard and it changed my life hearing vocals like that for the first time. The one thing I have noticed and learned from Max is to remain humble and down to earth. For all the success he has had he is a very genuine person and I like him a lot.
You have jumped onstage with the Soulfly guys a bunch of times, what songs have you done with them and how did it feel?
We have been doing our tribute to Lemmy every night on this tour, busting out the old classic “Ace of Spades.” We are yet to do the song I performed on the new Soulfly album ‘Live Life Hard’ as they are still trying to get it down with the band, it has never been performed live before so hopefully we will get that happening soon.
‘What’s been the biggest “pinch yourself” moment so far?
Pretty much everyday getting up and doing Ace of Spades with Max and Soulfly is a pinch yourself moment. The fact that we get to play in front of these big audiences every night in so many places we have never been before is really cool. We are very grateful for the opportunity.
You’ve done a ton of touring over the last couple of years, is there much of a difference in terms of energy between Europe and America?
It’s hard to compare as we are pretty new here in Europe, but hopefully we are going to be touring here more often in the future. The US and Canada has really welcomed us in the last 2-3 years so we are under no illusions in regards to how much work we need to do to build up our audience.
From the fans that you’ve interacted with you, had a lot of them discovered you before the show, or did you get more ‘wow never heard you guys and stoked I found you’ vibes?
There has certainly been plenty of people that know about us, but I think a majority of the people had never heard of us. There’s been quite a bit of both and a lot of people saying thanks for coming over because they thought they might never see us play.
Which song has gotten the biggest response?
Psychotherapy and Valium is always good. Bozo, Tomorrow Turns To Blood, Need No Saviour and Shit on the Liver. They’ve all been going down well, no one song in particular, we ain’t Bon Jovi.
How close up are you guys with the fans? Do you party with them afterwards?
We are always out and about after the show to hang out with people, and do photos and sign stuff etc, but we have a bus on this tour. When the bus calls and we need to be on the thing and getting as much rest as possible. It’s been great to have a driver as opposed to driving ourselves.
Have you lost any band members or left them anywhere or had any random moments in transit? What’s it like being a vego on tour?
Our merch guy actually fell ill at the beginning and had to leave the tour, so I have actually taken on merch duties as well which has been challenging. For the most part its been pretty smooth sailing. Being a vego on tour is always a challenge, most people don’t care/know about it so you have to be prepared and do a bit of shopping at the supermarket when you can.
Have the fans said anything funny about Australians or Australian bands?
I think the main thing they have said about King Parrot is that they can tell we are Australian, as opposed to other Australian bands they have seen. They can tell that we are Aussies by our presentation and sound which is really good to hear. We really want to that to come across in our music and to get that feedback is awesome. There hasn’t been anything else too unusual other than the fact that Europeans are always kind of happy and surprised that Australian bands can make out it here to tour. They love live music which is great and love investing in experiences which is what life is all about really. It’d be great to see more of the population in Australia take that approach to life.
Favourite cities/insane standout shows?
Last night we played in Vienna and it was sold out and totally crazy. We had a blast! Paris was a great show too. There was certainly a few in the UK that were nuts, London was excellent, Glasgow too. We always have a great time in Manchester, there’s some die-hard King Parrot fans up there and they really support us and go totally mental at the shows. Spain was brilliant and we loved being down there, we actually went for a swim in the middle of winter in Valencia, people thought we were insane, and it was bloody cold, but refreshing too.
What are your touring buddies Lody Kong like? Any song recommendations for us? Drummer Zyon Cavalera must be great to watch!
Oh yeah, check out a track called “Chillin Killin.” Lody Kong are a great up and coming band and the young Cavalera brothers are awesome musicians and making a name for themselves in their own right. Zyon is a great drummer, certainly one of those drummers that is really entertaining to watch. He is also playing for Soulfly now too. Great band and great dudes and we hope to be doing more stuff with them in the future.
King Parrot Tour Bus Spotify Playlist – LISTEN
Lody Kong – Chillin Killin
Incite – False Flag
Soulfly – Sodomites
Soulfly – Live Life Hard
Sepultura – Refuse/Resist
Sepultura – Arise
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Alice in Chains – Got Me Wrong
Bad Brains – Sailin’ On
Beanflipper – Fucken Life
Cattle Decapitation – The Prophets of Loss
Poison Idea – Death of an Idiot Blues
Ween – Your Party
High Tension – Lapindo
Extortion – The Pessimist
Exodus – The Toxic Waltz
Clutch – Sucker for the Witch
Child Bite – Ancestral Ooze
Hobb’s Angel of Death – Jack the Ripper
Culture Killer – Exterminate Filth
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