It’s rare for a band to experience a journey of Greek epic proportions before even releasing their debut album. But—driven by a spirit of innocent exploration and buoyed by their lucky breaks—that’s exactly what happened to Picture Parlour. This Northern duo—Katherine from the Blue side of Liverpool, Ella from the White side of Yorkshire—boasts one of the most fascinating origin stories in the music industry in years. Having weathered a baptism by fire, they’re now ready to release a classic rock album on Island/EMI Label Group that fuses Marc Bolan’s flair with Joan Jett’s grit—full of bite, raw energy, and undeniable style.
The pair met in Manchester and decided to move to London, in part to help launch their music career.
“Moving to London was a total shot in the dark—we were so naive,” says Ella, adding that they managed to book a show at The Windmill, which they knew was a buzzing venue. Major label A&Rs happened to be scouting and the excitement around Picture Parlour only continued from there. At only their third show, Courtney Love was in attendance; they got their first famous fan in the rock icon, who later posted about their band on Instagram (“they rocked the fuck out that place,” she said). “She was this mythological fucking creature to us—we had pretty much no followers at that point and then people were finding us through her,” Katherine said of the legendary advocate. Due to this quick buzz, they were subject to a critical eye from music fans looking to pin down another “industry plant”. Picture Parlour are more aware than any of how this label is sometimes wrongly used to discredit and undermine authenticity, particularly when it comes to women; in fact, Katherine and Ella’s parents are factory workers and cleaners respectively. “I could list a bunch of lad bands that no one questions for being bang average but because we’re girls people were looking for possible potholes: ‘Why is this a busy gig? Who are these people?’” says Katherine.
In person, Katherine is intense and passionate, steering the conversation with fervor, while Ella is effortlessly amusing, bringing sweetness and lightness that perfectly balance Katherine’s bursts of inspiration. They share a warm, empathetic connection that’s electric to witness. Unusual beginnings gave them the fuel and inspiration to dive deeper into their shared vision for The Parlour, an almost Lynchian fictional refuge for anyone who seeks solace from their unforgiving surroundings.
Their debut record, The Parlour, is timeless, effortless and unafraid of its spiritual affiliation with traditional rock music. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, Northern Soul DJs flew over to the states to bring back a new sound, and Picture Parlour did just that. They travelled to Nashville to work with producer Gabe Simon (Noah Kahan, Lana Del Rey) and bonded with the producer over a love of Black Sabbath. Katherine introduced Simon to T. Rex, one of her all-time favourite bands, providing a boilerplate influence for them to share while working on the album. Everything on The Parlour is powerful and bold but never inaccessible; although different in sound with Katherine’s distinctive, soulful vocals, sonics hark back to the raw, cool energy of The White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age. It was important that the way they sound live—they’re joined by their three instrumentalists to play as a rich five-piece band—be translated onto the record.
On standout single “Talk About It,” with its unique sense of urban escapism, driving guitars and tight drums, they’ve succeeded in breathing fresh life into the prototypical indie rock anthem. They span the format on its head as a tongue-in-cheek jab at the inaccurate narratives written about Picture Parlour when they entered the scene. “Messed up / Misinformed by a projection / of one emphatic publication / hanging on your wall, now,”. Katherine calls out the exploitation of young artists who just want to talk about their music but are thrown to the wolves of speculation, accusation and hate. Elsewhere on cheery, psychedelic-rock single “I Used To Be Your Girlfriend,” the band make amusing observations on ex-partners, and growing older. “I used to be your girlfriend / and now you’ve got a baby / I’ve been thinking about it lately,” Katherine moans. It’s both tongue-in-cheek funny and deeply unfunny, as is the reality of the subject matter.
Pick any song on the album and it’s roiling, spilling over with life.“I want to make a record that makes people want to try and pick up a guitar, or sing—to inspire people to have a go and try playing themselves,” says Katherine eagerly. “That’s what the best music does—it incites action, it makes people think, I wonder if I could do that.”
None of the characters Katherine portrays are actually her, but instead represent different aspects of her—whether it’s a feeling, mood, or story she connects with. For example,“Ronnie’s Note #3” is an Americana-inspired folk tale written from the perspective of a man (“I’m a lucky man, ” Katherine sings in the chorus). Similarly, the gritty, chaotic track “24 Hour Open” is about a 24-hour supermarket, inspired by a documentary about Tesco that left them feeling nostalgic and a little sad about the small social interactions that might be the highlight of someone’s day. “I wouldn’t say that me or you are the type of writers to be very literal, ” says Katherine to Ella. “I’d say we’re a little bit more ironic or sarcastic. Like with David Lynch, for example, there’s all sorts of weirdness, always delivered in a hyperbolic way.
”The closest to a directly personal song is piano-led ballad closer “The Travelling Show,” about the tumultuous relationship Katherine has with her hometown of Liverpool. “I associated the city with family trauma or whatever you want to call it. I left home when I was really young and never looked back, ” she recalls. “This song is about joining the ‘circus,’ by doing music, and then taking a moment to reassess the beauty of where I’m from and maybe miss it a little bit.”
It’s evident just in hearing them, in all their two-piece ferocity, that these songs will become almost theatrical in the live space. “I want people to feel sexy listening to our songs, ” says Katherine gleefully. “That’s one of the powers of music. When I play ‘Ronnie’s Note’ it makes me feel like a filthy old divorced guy. I’ve never had a penis but it makes me think I’ve got one for three minutes, and that I’ve used it badly. It’s the power of performance and creating these living, breathing characters.”
Picture Parlour is an archetypal rock band that plays in the worlds of its icons and can’t quite be placed in any decade or space, so don’t try to. They’re not a British indie band, nor will they allow themselves to be categorised or limited by small imaginations. But if you’re the sort of person who feels similarly, who needs that space to feel free, you’re more than welcome to join them in The Parlour.
