King Parrot’s Matt Young on Touring with Pantera, the Band’s New Album and Singing With Jason Momoa

There aren’t too many bands like King Parrot getting around. The Aussie grindcore heroes have been putting in the work for 15 years, delivering four ear drum-bursting albums of mayhem while earning a reputation for their chaotic live performances. Ahead of their upcoming gig at UniBar Adelaide, frontman Matt Young revealed all to The Note about the making of their new album A Young Person's Guide to King Parrot, singing with Jason Momoa and the impact of new drummer Max Dangerfield.

Interview Tobias Handke // Image Ross Halfin

Image supplied

Hey Youngy. Thanks for answering some questions. First off, King Parrot is currently ripping it up across the country. How have the gigs gone, and what’s the response been to the new material? Any of the new tracks become tour favs?

It’s been an absolute blast getting out and playing these new tracks live. It really has. Some of the new songs have become cult classics already, like ‘Fuck You and the Horse You Rode In On’ and ‘It’s A Rort’. People are loving those two most definitely. We’ve just done the Queensland leg of the tour, so we can’t wait to get over to WA and SA, two of our favourite spots to play!

You’ve just returned from a massive 45-date tour of the States. How did that work out for you?

It was incredible to be able to tour alongside Pantera and Amon Amarth. It was a dream come true for us. We played some of the biggest shows of our career and had the best time out there doing it. We feel like we won over a ton of new fans, and we sold more merch than we ever have before. It was insane.

Throughout the tour, you would join Pantera on stage to perform ‘Walk’. One performance included you sharing vocal duties with Jason Momoa. Please elaborate.

Hahaha! Well, that was definitely a strange one. He was at the show at Wembley in London, and somehow I got introduced to him by the Pantera crew and got told to look after him, maybe because I’m the responsible guy? Lol. It was a blast though, and he was so hyped and excited to be onstage with Pantera. The next day there was apparently a photo of the two of us in the Daily Mail.

Any wild stories from this tour you can share without getting into trouble?

There’s always some crazy stuff going down on a Pantera tour, but aside from the occasional fireworks parties in the parking lot with the crew, partying with Glenn Danzig and Larry Lalonde from Primus in LA and working out in the gym with Zakk Wylde, there wasn’t really too much to report.

King Parrot touches down in Adelaide this month for a show as part of your tour. What are your memories of playing Adelaide?

We have had some absolutely killer shows in Adelaide over the years, and we have built a strong relationship with our fans there. It always feels like a home away from home for us. Playing Soundwave in 2015 was a great memory for us, as well as the Pantera show in 2024.

Some of my favourite shows have been at places like The Cranker and Fowlers. Really fun and great energy. We are looking forward to getting back in the room at the Adelaide UniBar, as we’ve only played there once before, and I remember it being a sick venue. 

For those yet to experience the chaos of a King Parrot show, what can they expect when you take to the stage at UniBar Adelaide?

Full throttle chaos, absolute extreme metal energy and insanity with a hint of sarcastic Australian humour and a few man boobs thrown in for good measure.

READ MORE: Punk Rock Factory Talk ‘Mortal Wombat’, Shoeys, and Going Full Aussie on Tour

Let’s chat A Young Person’s Guide To King Parrot – the band’s first album in eight years. Why so long between drinks?

There was this thing called COVID that kind of screwed us and every other band on the planet. We did release our Holed Up in The Lair EP in 2020, and that was cool to be able to put something out in that period. However, our drummer at that time was living in Brisbane, and we were all in Melbourne, so it was incredibly difficult to get together. We had been touring pretty hard since 2012, so we decided to have a bit of a break until the world opened up again. After we did our first US tour back in 2023, after all that nonsense, we knew that we had to get creative again and start writing a new record.

There’s a real visceral energy to the album. Do you find it hard to capture the intensity of a live show and put it on wax?

Not really, it just comes naturally to us, as that is just the way we have become used to playing. This time around, we took a lot more time and effort in the studio. It was a meticulous process to get the results we wanted out of it. We really enjoyed the process and were really keen to make the best record we had made yet, and I feel like we got there with this one.

The album has some of the most hilarious yet strangely poignant song titles I’ve seen in yonks. I especially like ‘Fuck You and the Horse You Rode in On’. Most tracks take their name from the song lyrics. Do you ever come up with a title first and try and make it work, or does the song naming process always come once the song is done and dusted? 

There’s no real rule to anything we do. It can happen either way or any way. Sometimes myself or Squiz will come up with a song title and we’ll build on it from there. Other times the lyrics will come first and we might pluck a title out of a one-liner from the song.

I often write lyrics, and I will just put down anything that fits at the time to keep the creative energy going. Afterwards I’ll lay down what I have on a demo, and then listen back and change the words or phrasing to suit it better after listening back and letting it soak in. I often write 5-10 sets of lyrics for each song before it’s finalised.

How does this record differ from your previous releases in terms of songwriting and production?

We certainly put a lot of time into the songwriting, and some of the more involved tracks you can really hear where the effort has gone into them. Then there are also two or three tracks that are just short little punk rock numbers that we like to put in there too. It’s always been a mix for us in terms of what works as a KP song and what doesn’t. We like to have a variety of tracks, and we feel lucky we can mess around stylistically while staying true to our sound.

Referring to the title of the album, if you were to give someone advice on King Parrot, what would that be?

The album title itself is actually ripped from the 70s prog band King Crimson, who had an album title of the same name, so that was some common thievery right there. As for advice on King Parrot… hmmm… wear a stack hat!

King Parrot have a new drummer in the form of Max Dangerfield. Any relation to Patrick? What’s his story, and what does he bring to the band?

Believe it or not, he is actually Patrick Dangerfield’s cousin. No shit. We also now have an endorsement with Cotton On, thanks to his affiliation. In all seriousness, Max is an absolute machine on the drums. After we parted ways with Todd, we wanted to find someone locally in Melbourne, and Max was the only guy we really considered. He plays in a great band called Goat Shaman and has great feel and technique while also being able to blast beat and do all the fast stuff. That was exactly what we were looking for in a new drummer, and we’re looking forward to seeing what our Adelaide fans think of him.

King Parrot have been out there getting it done for 15 years. How has the local heavy scene changed over time, and do you think it’s in a healthy spot?

It feels like right now is a great time to be in a heavy band. People are really getting out to see live music again, and the scene seems to be thriving out there. There are also lots of great young bands coming up through the ranks.

Looking ahead, what’s next for the band after the tour?  Any surprises on the horizon?

After this run of shows, we are going to be taking a little break over summer and hopefully spend time in the studio getting some new ideas together for the next album. We’re playing Flippin’ the Bird festival in Frankston in February. No doubt we’ll have some tour announcements coming up soon, but we can’t say anything on that right now ;). We’ll see you Saturday 22 of November at UniBar, though and might fill you in then!

Catch King Parrot performing at UniBar Adelaide on Saturday 22 November. Tickets on sale now via moshtix.com.au.

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