Credit: Roger Sargent
Words: Linn Branson
Made in Birmingham and transplanted more recently to London, indie alt-pop four-piece North Parade kick off what looks like being their big year with the release of debut single, ‘birmingham’.
Recorded back in their West Midlands stomping ground at Wolverhampton's Magic Garden Studio and produced by Gavin Monaghan (The Blinders, JAWS, The Sherlocks), and released this Friday (February 7), Little Indie is hugely honoured to bring you the premiere of what is, we have to say, a bloody ace first track.
"When I first got the rehearsal demo for 'birmingham'," says Monaghan, "I thought it was a very catchy song, a little in the vein of The Cure or JAWS, who I had worked with previously. But I always look for that killer lyric that tells me if the band can really write, and a couple of lines really stood out for me.
"First: 'And I see you’re getting thinner, / it only makes your eyes look bigger', then: 'I don’t think with my body I listen / but in my dreams you hang yourself in my kitchen'. Both leapt out like blood spatters on a spotless white sheet. The swirling 80s guitars and Stranger Things breakdown are augmented by a lovely breathless vocal delivery, making this a great debut that I’m proud to have worked on."
Despite picking up plaudits on the live circuit since forming in late 2017, North Parade have spent time carefully planning their recorded entrance before letting go with their first release.
“Henry had his heart broken - and is trying to get two albums out of it!” quips bassist James Dewing about their frontman and lyricist, who wrote 'birmingham’ very late one night in a service station on the M40.
While the band confess to influences from 80s/90s pop and rock field - Pulp, The Cure, Blur, The Smiths - it is obvious to detect more recent sounds in there too, from a touch of The 1975 to Sea Girls and Sad Boys Club, melded to produce something confident and effervescent that takes Henry Plumridge's quite more-ish vocals and matches with his spiky songwriting and lashings of melodic indie pop.
Catch North Parade live at London's Camden Assembly on February 23. They also play a Brum hometown show on April 4 at Stirlings Bar and Lounge (but we confidently expect them to be offered loads more on the strength of this single, so keep 'em peeled on their social media).
North Parade are: Henry Plumridge (vocals/guitar), Chris Ettinger (guitar, vocals), James Dewing (bass), Ollie Clark (drums, percussion, vocals)
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