Interview with Parliamo: ‘There are lots of songs about a night out but there aren’t many about hangovers, so we thought we’d tap into that niche market!’

Fresh on the heels of their infectious and anthemic single ‘Life On The TV’, Perth, Scotland based six-piece Parliamo are hard at work on their second EP, ‘The Parliamo Manifesto’, due out around October.

The band comprises Jack Dailly (vocals), Finn Freeburn Morrison (guitar), Fraser Nicholson (bass), Mairi Sutherland (guitar, keys, vocals), Calum Simpson (guitar) and Andrew Haxton (drums). Dailly and Freeburn Morrison know each other from school and the others all know each other from Perth ‘where everyone kinda knows everyone’, according to Dailly. Their name comes from the 70’s comedy show ‘Parliamo Glasgow’ starring Stanley Baxter and of which Dailly is a big fan. Initially, they called themselves The New North and early versions of their first two singles ‘Weekend’ and ‘Lucy’ were released under that name before rebranding as Parliamo in 2017.

The album will comprise eight tracks – six new ones as well as their last two singles ‘Life On The TV’ and ‘Paul & Barry’: ‘Most of the songs on the album are upbeat,’ Dailly said. ‘We’ve used samples and Motown drumming. There’s one track just with me, Finn and Mairi on acoustic guitar, that’s different for us. We’ve got more tongue in cheek lyrics – that’s never going to go away!’

‘Life On The TV’ is about how you feel after a heavy night out when your anxiety about the evening kicks in. Utilising a blend of soaring vocal harmonies, obscure electronic samples and rousing indie-rock instrumentation, the single would be brilliant live. The band describes it as ‘a song about the crippling fear, something which most people can relate to, that feeling of hopelessness and embarrassment after a night out, as you sit in front of the TV and wither away – with overthinking, Lucozade and Kevin McCloud your only companions’.

That comes across in the lyrics; ‘The brink of morning, where the overthinking lingers. You are so lovely, what you doing with this minger? Your family’s mental and your uncle is a banger. You’re stuck in my head like the whistle fae the clangers.’

‘I always love Paul Heaton’s lyrics, I take a lot of inspiration from The Beautiful South’

‘Life On The TV’ has a raw, fuzzy intro which sounds a bit like a distorted bazooka so I ask Dailly what they actually used. ‘I don’t know what it is! Calum sampled it from an old ska tune, he isolated one note. Someone said it could be a harmonica but I think he distorted it, it’s very fuzzy, isn’t it? Calum came in with the backbone of the tune, he’d made a demo – we were all sitting there, a wee bit rough (laughs). There are lots of songs about a night out but there aren’t many about hangovers, so we thought we’d tap into that niche market! I don’t know if I’m a daftie but we don’t take ourselves too seriously, or we try not to, anyway. I like lyrics to be tongue in cheek. I always love Paul Heaton’s lyrics, I take a lot of inspiration from The Beautiful South and John Prine (an American singer-songwriter). His lyrics are great, he’s definitely one who brings me some joy.’

Sonically, ‘Paul & Barry’ has a similar feel. It’s a brilliant mash up, incorporating the droning bass harmonica in Dennis Wilson’s 1977 track ‘Dreamer’ and weaving together the band’s electronic and trip-hop influences with a swaying groove-laden indie-rock anthem. ‘What we did, I wanted to write a love tune but not a twee one,’ Dailly laughed. ‘There’s something tongue and cheek about ‘Paul & Barry’, we’ve taken The Chuckle Brothers’ (the Paul and Barry in the title, two British comedians) method of moving large objects and used that as a metaphor for the awkward beauty of young love. We wanted to merge the distinctive warmth of the 70’s recording sound with the more crisp, modern cowbells and 808s (drum machines). We really wanted it to be a toe tapper. We sped up the Dennis Wilson sample to provide the bouncy, baggy backdrop which drives the track along – we loved it, it’s such a unique sounding instrument. I wonder if we could get that sound out of a guitar?’ I say with the number of different pedals out there, you probably could. ‘I’m not much of a pedalhead,’ he confessed. ‘Some people have so many! How are you supposed to remember which one does what?!’

As the song goes: ‘See you and I are intertwined we are like Paul and Barry. To me to you to me to you with nothing there to carry. You laugh at me and cradle the base of your dark and stormy. If not for you, I don’t think anything could do it for me.’ 

Initially, they started writing songs on acoustic guitars, inspired by their love of 60’s music, Noughties Brit pop such as Arctic Monkeys, and Motown and doo-wop, fusing older influences with Simpson’s thrashing, distorted lead guitar lines, which have a real punk energy to them. Dailly and Freeburn Morrison write the songs together, which has been easier over the past year as they are now flatmates. ‘Everyone pretty much writes their own part and I do the lyrics,’ Dailly said. ‘We had two separate periods of isolation here and we got through it by writing songs. I think me and Finn, especially, we love pop music and the magic of great riffs – that’s what we want in our songs.’

‘It’s about spiralling, everyone’s lost their mind a bit over lockdown’

They plan to release two singles before ‘The Parliamo Manifesto’ comes out, one of which is ‘She’s Only Human’: ‘It’s upbeat, a bit crazy,’ Dailly joked. ‘It’s about spiralling, everyone’s lost their mind a bit over lockdown, it’s a bit of a manic song. It’s very energetic, we really like it, it’s a fun one to play live.’

Parliamo’s ability to write soaring melodies which are paired with tongue in cheek and even poignant lyrics gives a raw energy to their songs which sets them apart. This is particuarly true of tracks such as ‘Six Ways From Sunday’ (2020), which is about a teenage couple going through an abortion that neither of them wholly wants to have, and which reminds me of Ben Fold’s song ‘Brick’, which is about an abortion that he and his girlfriend had to deal with in high school. ‘This is an older song, we wrote it in 2019,’ Dailly said. ‘We were due to record in Leith, we were meant to do a different song but I had this one and we decided to record it instead, it was an impulse decision. It’s a nice song, we’ve played it acoustic, too, it lends itself well to that.’

As befits a young band, their sound has evolved since their earlier releases, they’ve become more experimental and are unafraid of taking songs in new directions: ‘We just thought, why don’t we make whatever songs we want, the new stuff is different sonically but we’re having fun and we hope that if we’re having fun our listeners do, too. Arctic Monkeys sound different from album to album. And Bowie was a master at that.’

We chat for a bit about the incredible number of exciting young bands coming out of Scotland and how many bands are doing well. ‘There are so many! Young Fathers are really good (an Edinburgh-based hop hop trio who won the Mercury Prize for their album Dead in 2014). The Sandemans from Perth are really good (an alt rock band). Dundee has a plethora of good bands – The Medinas, Plasmas. Plasmas are synthy, poppy, indie. The songs are so well written.’ I ask him who he’d most like to tour with: ‘Ooooh – who would be the most fun, that’s what I’m thinking – I’ll say Snopp Dogg, I think that would be an experience! Dead, who would I tour with? I’d like to go on tour with Johnny Cash. I’ve just seen the film ‘Walk The Line’, the scenes in it where he’s playing in these old American music halls, I’d love to do that.’

‘Motown set the base for me, musically’

Dailly was exposed to a wide range of music growing up: ‘I was 13 when Arctic Monkeys’ AM came out, it hit me at the right time,’ he said. ‘I was massively into them, I think I overdid it to the extent that I don’t play them as much anymore. I also listened to a lot of folk music, my dad’s really into his folk and Motown set the base for me, musically.’ Dailly learned to play bass when he played in a covers band when he was 13. ‘I taught myself off YouTube,’ he said. ‘I think sometimes when you have lessons, you can feel pressure to play but I taught myself and I really wanted to learn it. Marty Schwartz, he’s my guitar hero, he teaches all the songs online that I want to play.’

Endearingly, Dailly has only ever owned one acoustic guitar, a Taylor that he bought in Edinburgh when he was 16: ‘I do pub gigs every week – since lockdown I’ve worked behind the bar when there aren’t any gigs – but gigs came back at midnight last night, I did a gig with one of my guitarists. I played this guitar last night, I love it so much, it sounds so nice, bright and loud. We played crowd pleasers like ‘The Gambler’ and after midnight, everyone could get up and dance.’ If he could buy any guitar in the world, he plumps for a Rickenbacker – ‘the one The Byrds use’ (a 360-12 model) – and we wax lyrical for a bit about how amazing they are. ‘I’d like a Moon guitar from Glasgow as well,’ he said. ‘They’re handmade, they’re lovely acoustic guitars.’

If he could have written any song, he picks ‘Shame’ by Young Fathers from their 2015 album, White Men Are Black Men Too. ‘Or ‘Chelsea Dagger’ by The Fratellis (from their 2006 album, Costello Music). ‘The Fratellis must be so happy they wrote that song, you hear it everywhere! That’s genuis.’ if he could hear one of their songs on any TV show, he chooses BBC’s Sportscene: ‘I’d probably pick ‘Life On The TV’ or one of the new ones ‘Echo In My Chamber’, which we might release as a single. I’d like to hear that when they’re showing the St. Johnstone and Motherwell highlights!’

(Photo from left to right:  Front row: Finn, Mairi and Jack. Back row: Andrew, Calum and Fraser.)