Music
Interview
Interview: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets preview UK tour
The Australia rockers come to these shores later this month.
Perth’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, owners of potentially the best band name in music, have been making a splash around the world with their unique brand of mind-bending indie rock.
The band have become frequent visitors to the UK over the past two years, performing increasingly bigger headline tours and support slots with the likes of Royal Blood to their name.
In May, they released their latest album And Now for the Watchamallit, to rave reviews and approval from their rapidly growing fanbase.
Following a mammoth US tour, the band will return to the UK this autumn, for their biggest headline dates here yet.
Ahead of the gigs, we spoke to Porn Crumpets’ frontman Jack McEwan about their latest album and what fans can expect from the upcoming shows.
How pleased have you been to the reaction of And Now for the Watchamallit?
It’s been amazing. We didn’t realise how many people it would reach when we were making it back in Perth. We’ve been playing in the UK, US and places like the Netherlands, and people know the record. It’s like… “what is happening”? We feel like a real band… it’s weird.
When writing and recording it, did you imagine what it was going to sound like played live at gigs?
Yeah, of course. Live is where we primarily enjoy ourselves the most. Having that energy and sharing it when you play a gig is second to none.
I try and write a lot of heavy up-tempo stuff to get all this adrenaline out, and then I feel like a backlash from that, so I write a lot of slow stuff… and then I’m like… well I can’t put all of that on the album! That would be terrifying to play on stage.
I have so much respect for people who go on stage, just them and an acoustic guitar, who don’t just s**t their pants in front of 3,000 people.
How did the artwork come about?
We hit up a bloke called Ben Giles from England. We were scrolling through one of the social media platforms, Instagram or Tumblr probably, and I found this piece of art that I thought I’d just use as my screensaver for my phone, ‘cause I can’t look at any more waves, so this piece of Ben’s artwork just ended up on my phone. Then subconsciously, I started writing music to that frame of visual.
We reached out to him and after he agreed to do it, we were actually worried that the album wasn’t good enough for the artwork. Luckily, he’s a nice lad and it worked out well.
What’s your favourite thing about touring?
I think it’s just the endless adrenaline rush you get from it. You kind of feel like a Tamagotchi on the road. You’ve got managers and tour managers giving you this and telling you to do that. Then when you get home you’re like, “what do I do”? You feel like someone’s switched you off and you’re waiting to be turned on again.
We love going to different places, experiencing different food and alcohol. And obviously, you experience different people who speak different languages. You speak to different people and they’re telling you their experiences in a completely different sound format. It makes music sound different too.
We love getting to know local support bands and finding out their experiences, and why the music they make sounds like it does. On tour, we’re just constantly learning all the time. You wake up, usually with a hangover and all day absorb new things.
Where’s somewhere your band is desperate to play?
South America is definitely one. All the bands we’ve spoken to, like Royal Blood or King Gizzard, they rave about playing shows in places like Mexico City or Peru. From what I’ve seen it looks unreal, those fans really fill out a room. I’m pretty sure it’s Brazil that holds the world record for most people at a gig. 2 million people watching The Rolling Stones on the beach in Rio. There’s a photo of it, google it, it’s mind-blowing. I’d have loved to have been there.
How much are you looking forward to your upcoming headline shows?
We’ve been playing a lot of festivals recently which is great, but I think when you buy a ticket to a band’s headline gig, it feels more personal, you really look forward to seeing that show.
So for us with headline shows, especially in England, a place where we’ve not played a lot, we really feel like we want to impress more, because we’re not from there.
The London show we’re looking forward to but we’re very nervous about. That’s going to be the biggest day of this band outside of Australia. It’s been marked on the calendar for a while. We’re really looking forward to this tour.
What can fans coming to the shows expect?
We’re trying to fill it with as many things as possible. We’ve created this whole visual element to our shows and we’ve managed to sync our visuals in time with the band, so it’s really cool.
There may be an orchestral element to some of the shows too. But I can’t say too much.
Catch the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets at the following shows this autumn:
18 October 2019 – The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham
22 October 2019 – Electric Ballroom, London
24 October 2019 – The Sugarmill, Stoke-on-Trent
25 October 2019 – Band on the Wall, Manchester
28 October 2019 – Sheffield Plug
29 October 2019 – Chalk, Brighton
Tickets for the tour are available now through Ticketmaster.co.uk
