MUSIC

Julian Owen gets claustrophobic with Parrington Jackson.

Almost without exception, it’s the last refuge of the desperate – or desperately unimaginative – music hack: so, tell me, how did you get your name? Cue variations on a quintet trying to recall just what leap of inspiration led them to The Five Of Us. With the band sitting before us today, however, it’s subtly instructive.

As any lover of Bristol folklore will tell you, Robert Parrington-Jackson was gunned down in his office at the Odeon in Union Street in 1946. “It’s quite a morbid thing, I suppose,” says Parrington Jackson frontman, guitarist and chief songwriter Rich Bromley of their co-opting the unfortunate cinema manager’s name. “I was looking for lyrical inspiration and reading up on murders. Some people love it, some say it sounds like an estate agent’s, but it’s good for Googling – if you call your band something like ‘Bricks’...”

The name fits, for this is a band whose songs inculcate a certain claustrophobia, a peeking at life from behind closed fingers. “In my musical inspiration I’ve always been drawn towards the darker side of things,” admits Rich. “If I’m really happy I don’t feel comfortable writing ‘I’m so in love, the sun is shining, I’m having such a great time.’ It doesn’t grab me. Whereas if I’m really p*ssed off, I can get it out. It’s more interesting writing about murders, prison, that kind of thing.”

That darker side is all over new double A-side single ‘Planet’/‘Primitive’, launched at The Croft – early readers take note – on Fri 30 Sept. The former is a start-slow, pace-quickening lick of broodsomeness, the latter more immediate: over an early-years U2 bass line and skipping drums, three guitars pace urgently up and down, individual changes of direction adding greatly to the whole. “Those Bambi eyes cannot disguise what lies beneath,” sings Rich. When laid out with appropriate phrasing, that’s one smartly rhyming line. All told, the release is a welcome addition to the frequently formulaic indie-rock oeuvre.

It wasn’t ever thus. Rock Desk first heard Parrington Jackson a couple of years back, when their debut EP arrived together with comprehensive press notes, all wrapped up in an eye-catching, logo-embossed folder. Good art, not without ambition, but without the songs that should attend it. These were early days, though. “It’s evolved massively,” recalls bassist, James Maggs. His rhythm section compadre Shane Tremlin takes up the story: “We jammed a lot to find our sound and carried on from there. I think I’m the only one in the band who would listen to hip-hop. Just because, drumming wise, I take a lot from it.” Instructively, guitarist Lloyd Cowling notes that: “I listened to a lot of drum and bass back in the day. The way things rumble in, you learn to play the instrument’s sound rather than play the notes and scales – it opens up a new way of playing.” “That was a big change,” says Rich. “The guitarist we had before was grade eight and very much of a ‘play by the rules’ mindset, whereas Lloyd goes by instinct.”

Add together the jamming lessons learned and a third guitarist (absent today), Shane’s brother Max, and you’ve a heady brew. We first noticed the great leap forward at the Bristol Acoustic Festival in January. Most indie acts would use such a setting for little more than knocking out plaintive strum-along versions of their electric set. Not so Parrington Jackson. Besides texture-enhancing violin, their acoustic approach means that, says Rich, “at a lot of points we have three guitars going, and I can’t think of any songs where two guitars play the same thing. It’s great – the band has evolved into something I never expected.” “It was really good for us to have the opportunity to strip it all back,” says James. “It exposes everyone a lot more, even to the point of changing songs. We work it out acoustically, then go back to the electric version and take something new to it. [With the new single] we wanted to capture what you’d hear if you walked into our rehearsal room.”

The attention to detail is paying off. Firmly inked onto local festival organisers’ Must Book notes – this year they played BrisFest, Harbourside, and were the only unsigned band in the Fleece at Dot To Dot – they also notched up three dates at Edinburgh’s Fringe Fest. “It was absolutely superb,” says Shane. “We did a bit of busking as well to try and draw a crowd to the night.” To their surprise, given near-unlimited competition, they drew fine crowds. “They were all quite p*ssed,” deadpans Lloyd.

Their support slot CV is similarly impressive, including Best Coast, Guillemots, The Vaselines and Shonen Knife. “We always study them,” says Lloyd. “‘That’s a good idea, but he should have done this with it’, and maybe incorporate it.” The Parrington Jackson method – early ambition, willingness to learn, and burgeoning flair – is working. Says Rich: “It’s a slow-burning process. In the first year on the circuit you’re bottom of the bill and unknown, the second you move up a bit, third year top, and once established you move on and out.”

FFI: WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PARRINGTONJACKSON

Copyright Julian Owen 2011