PICTURE PARLOUR: “WE LOVE BEING WOMEN, BUT THERE’S MORE TO US THAN THAT”

Picture Parlour are the band name on everyone’s lips. You may well have heard of them, but it’s less likely that you’ve actually heard their music - because until now, there hasn’t been any out. Ahead of the release of their highly anticipated debut single, VOCAL GIRLS caught up with the band to hear the story so far

Picture Parlour on film by Megan Graye

Picture Parlour are natural born storytellers: even in conversation, Katherine Parlour (vocals and guitar) and Ella Risi (lead guitar) are eminently watchable, sharing anecdotes with a charismatic back and forth that makes you feel as if they’ve done this a hundred times before. Which, to be fair, they probably have; the pair are speaking to me at the end of a full-on press day, giving them plenty of opportunity to have perfected their interview patter. And yet, nothing about them seems rehearsed - genuine and animated, I get the impression that there are elements of the band’s lore which just don’t tire from repetition. 

Take, for example, their live shows, which quickly generated a word of mouth fervour that spread round London’s gig circuit quicker than a Lost Mary in a smoking area. Anyone hoping to satisfy their cravings for Picture Parlour’s earworm tracks had to do so via YouTube footage of them playing live; even a cursory glance through their Instagram would yield a glut of semi-outraged ‘I can’t find your songs on Spotify!’ comments. This week, though, the band have finally released their debut single, ‘Norwegian Wood’ - a track they’ve been sitting on for over two years. “It feels surreal”, says Parlour. “We wanted it to sound like how we imagined, and we just didn’t have the means to do that before [signing with their current management]”. She pauses, smiling, “so I guess we’re delusional and waited, thinking that something could happen”. 

Listening to the track, it’s not hard to understand why the pair had such ambition. With expansive production and an anthemic chorus, ‘Norwegian Wood’ is a powerful yet vulnerable expression of insularity as a self-defence mechanism. ‘If I express myself / Well you wouldn’t stick around me’ sings Parlour, paralysed by a potent contradiction of love and fear. The single also comes accompanied by a DIY, monochrome video inspired by one of her short stories - an evocative tale which fans may well be able to read for themselves at some point down the line. “We were saying that it’d be cool to release a book alongside [a longer body of work]”, Risi explains, “containing all the stories that the songs came from”. Spanning auditory, visual, and literary mediums already, it’s clear that Picture Parlour’s world is one which invites immersion. 

Picture Parlour on film by Megan Graye

Picture Parlour on film by Megan Graye

Words are her forte - “before I pick up an instrument, I consider myself a lyricist” - but there was nevertheless one aspect of the band’s timeline which nobody, not even Parlour, could have written. One night back in March, her and Risi were out at the pub with some friends when their phones suddenly started blowing up. Checking social media, they realised all the furore was because Courtney Love (yes, the Courtney Love) had given Picture Parlour a shoutout on Instagram. The Hole frontwoman had shared footage - shot by South London legend Lou Smith - of the band playing Brixton’s Windmill, and her dedicated fans then flocked to follow Picture Parlour before you could say ‘3 Scouse she wolves & a cub’. “It was mental”, says Risi emphatically, “to have an icon give you that kind of affirmation… insane”. “I think [Love] has become a bit of a tastemaker”, says Parlour, “because she’s not just spoken about us - I guess she’s trying to shed light on female-fronted bands, which is an incredible thing to do”. 

“There was no concern that you would see [my] gender before the musical merit”

It’s a bit of a point of contention, that phrase, and one which the pair are assuredly familiar with. While obviously being an accurate way to describe a band, ‘female-fronted’ can encode a certain value judgement when used repeatedly by press or men in the industry. “I think it limits you to an extent”, Risi says. “We love being women, and we’re proud to be women, but there’s more to us than that”. Parlour agrees, explaining that “it’s easy to throw women in music into a box, because it’s just the laziest thing to do - ‘women, tick, guitar, tick, indie, tick’”. For Risi especially, this became apparent when she studied music at university and was the only woman in her class. “It automatically makes you feel like it’s not your space to be in, and that you have to prove yourself”, she says, turning to her bandmate and smiling. “That’s why it was so special when we met and started doing music together - there was no concern that you would see [my] gender before the musical merit”. 

Picture Parlour on film by Megan Graye

Special is one way to describe Picture Parlour’s origins - another would be fateful. Risi and Parlour met as students in Manchester after a mutual friend put them in touch, and proceeded to write the soaring, set-closing ‘Moon Tonic’ that very day. Having moved to London and recruited bassist Sian Lynch and drummer Michael Nash from “proper old school Facebook music groups”, the quartet put in months of rehearsals before making their live debut at the Windmill in December last year. “We didn’t want to embarrass ourselves”, smiles Risi sheepishly. Despite concerns around whether Picture Parlour would fit in with Brixton’s renowned post-punk scene - which Parlour notes is “absolutely polar opposite to us” - their set got the “stamp of approval” from venue programmer Tim Perry, and the band became regulars on Windmill’s gold-spangled stage. 

“This has been our dream since we were kids. We worked really hard, and we got really lucky”

Contributing to a noticeable shift away from the many sprechgesang, Mark E. Smith-esque outfits of late, Picture Parlour epitomise a new class of guitar music. In part harking back to the days of melodic mid-2010s indie, in part evoking the narratorial arcs of Fleetwood Mac or Patti Smith, their sound is widescreen and unashamedly maximalist. They’re not dissimilar to The Last Dinner Party in this regard: both bands have cultivated a sort of mythical buzz around them; both have a reputation for theatrical, you-had-to-be-there live shows. Recently, TLDP became the latest subjects of the inane ‘industry plant’ discourse - an accusation which, as many have noted, is directed at female artists far more frequently. Though Picture Parlour haven’t had such comments yet, it wouldn’t be surprising; some people seem to have a perverse belief that artists need to have struggled before receiving any critical or commercial acclaim. Parlour, for her part, finds the whole thing vaguely amusing. “If Courtney Love wants to post about us, and it helps us out and people are offended by that, then fucking more fool them”, she grins. “This has been our dream since we were kids. We worked really hard, and we got really lucky”. 

Far from being a case of overnight success, the road to releasing ‘Norwegian Wood’ has been a long one. Speaking about that first rehearsal with Lynch and Nash, Parlour is rapturous: “When Michael clicked his drumsticks, and then it all came in… I had a lump in my throat”. Emotion, it seems, is at the core of Picture Parlour’s fable. Weaving together nostalgia and euphoria in a tapestry of swaggering basslines and sucker-punch vocals, this is music made for packed festival fields. “That’s the dream, isn’t it?”, Risi smiles. “Playing the tunes that you created and that you love, and for people to enjoy them as much as you do”.  

So, we’ve had the prologue - a band born of instant connection, hard graft, and an unexpected plot twist. Now, Picture Parlour are ready to turn the page and pen their first chapter. 

‘Norwegian Wood’ is out now. 

Picture Parlour on film by Megan Graye