Off the back of their latest single ‘Head in the Sand’, south coast rockers The Pretty Visitors dug deep to carve out a grungy punk-rock fuelled anthem. Now the band are planning to release a treasure trove of new music.
With the reality of playing abroad edges closer at Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Spain, the June festival could potentially be off the cards as one of the worlds largest festivals, Glastonbury, cancels for a second time.
“In our minds it’s very unlikely,” the band said as I try not to spoil the buzz. The Pretty Visitors are currently shortlisted to play at the iconic European festival and have been whittled down from thousands to the final 25 artists.
The band said: “We’re on a real high right now! To place in the top 25 out of probably over a thousand artists is a really special thing for us and a silver lining in a grey world at the moment.
“It’s nice to be appreciated and a massive thank you goes out to our great followers who voted for us as well.”
“No matter what situation the country or the world is in, the arts and the cultures it creates or comments on are a great unifier as well as an essential source of joy for everyone.”
The Pretty Visitors
The Spanish government is also in a similar predicament to the UK as their Coronavirus cases continue to rise and hospitals struggle to cope with demand. The country has recorded over 59,000 deaths and the capital is averaging around 8,000 new cases a day at the time of writing.
As for the band, they are sceptical but still keeping the dream alive.
They commented: “It’s a really sad time that has seen Glastonbury have to close its doors for the second time and it seems like other festivals will soon have to follow suit.
“Unfortunately the situation in Spain isn’t much greater than in the UK in terms of Covid-19 cases and deaths so we’re still daring to dream but we’re also not getting too carried away with ourselves.”
As I throw another spanner in the works – the old ‘Brexit’ debate. The UK government rejected the idea of allowing visa-free travel for touring musicians despite trying to shove the blame onto Brussels which angered every musician inexistence – even stars like Elton John and Sting got involved to express their anger.
But what does that mean for the little man? It could put artists with small budgets off even considering playing shows abroad for starters.
“No matter what situation the country or the world is in, the arts and the cultures it creates or comments on are a great unifier as well as an essential source of joy for everyone,” expressed the band on the discouraging revelation. “A decision like this affects people’s livelihoods, passions and creativity.
“For smaller independent bands like us there’s now an extra thing to think about and potentially put us off the idea of travelling too much to play, and for bigger bands they now have to deal with hundreds of visas and transport hassle for sometimes over a hundred staff. I don’t think any musician is happy with this decision.”
Steering the focus onto ‘Head in the Sand’, the band have received plenty of praise from tastemakers and playlisters alike; including Modern Age Music who chose the track as our Song of the Day back for its release.
They say it was one of the easiest they’ve ever had to produce as there were no disagreements and everything fell into place and just worked. Having recorded at Quay West studios a number of times now, they understand what The Pretty Visitors style and delivered the perfect final product.
“The song has that gritty spoken word delivery and kind of post-punky feel,” add the band. “We all decided to be minimal in tinkering and just let the vocal be the centrepiece of the song, with us all complimenting it wherever we could. We’re really happy with how it turned out.”
Originally written as a poem, ‘Head in the Sand’ is all about the day-to-day grind that we universally feel. Gloomy Monday’s working jobs you don’t care about, the track focuses on that sinking feeling when you realise the insignificance as to what you’re achieving in the grand scheme of things.
On its creation, the band said: “Interestingly enough, the song was actually a poem written a couple of years ago on a depressed Sunday evening train from Bristol to Portsmouth. Musical style wise it just emerged out of a random jam.
“One band practice, Sam came in with a really energetic bassline which Jack instinctively matched with a solid driving beat and Aaron started experimenting with bends and crazy settings over the top of.
“As they played it it was one of those magic moments where we realised how the poem could be used, added another verse or two, and ‘Head In The Sand’ just kind of naturally came from that.
“I think all of us being a bit older now made this message more apparent to us. We’re out of uni, we’ve completed our apprenticeships, we’ve gained a couple of promotions, what now? Is this it?
“Those existential questions of ‘what am I here for’ are the real catalyst for the bitter edge that cuts through the song, but we think it still maintains a bit of dark humour at times too.”
“We spend quite a bit of time talking about fantasy football, as there’s a bet on our band league – whoever finishes last gets a Pretty Visitors tattoo.”
The Pretty Visitors
Every music fan is so desperate to get back into the music venues and so are the bands too. After all, that is why they do it in the first place. For The Pretty Visitors, it’s always been in their blood.
The band stressed: “Words can’t describe how much, playing live is our favourite thing. It’s the life force and essence to being in a band and without it you just feel lost.
“We hope live shows can return soon enough and the venues can be saved to host us once again.
“Again, we don’t want to sound pessimistic but live shows like we knew them before seem unlikely to happen in 2021 – but if vaccines can be delivered and rapid testing can happen on a large scale, there might just be light at the end of the worst tunnel ever.”
The UK’s roll-out of the various vaccines is doing wonders at the moment as around 400,000 people a day get their first dose and look set to be on target to vaccinate 15 million people by February 15th.
The quicker the vaccine is rolled out, the quicker the band will be getting back to venues like The Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. They performed their first ever headline show at the iconic local grassroots music venue, and said unanimously is their best live show to date.
Elaborating on this, they said: “This is a venue where we’ve all seen our idols or bands that have been a huge inspiration to our music and our lives, so to play there not long after forming and to have a practically sold out crowd singing songs back to you that you’ve written in a shed was a magical and unforgettable thing.
“People were on shoulders and moshing the whole way, I think we were all permanently smiling for a full week after.”
When I asked the lads to describe the band in three words or less, they replied with “a musical orgasm”. That could ring true in the band’s next single coming next month called ‘Western Skies’. Recorded in London, the track explores the “small town mundanity that plagues us all!”
The band couldn’t control their excitement for its release as they call it a “game changer”. It’s sonically louder and the choruses pack an almighty punch.
After ‘Western Skies’, four will be an EP “to give listeners a bit more of a journey and show off our musical style more, so keep your eyes and ears peeled, covid can’t stop us!”
Whilst we eagerly await the new single, the band will get back to setting up their fantasy football teams for the next couple of weeks as the loser gets a Pretty Visitors tattoo. Hmm, I wonder where…
