Leeds’ newest bedroom pop band Party Hardly make washed out lo-fi love songs and have been getting lots of attention over the new year, especially after supporting indie pop group The Magic Gang, and Diet Cig on their current UK tour. The four piece’s live show is one of soaring pop songs and layered whining guitars, and they will hopefully be releasing some recorded tracks over the next few months. Here’s a chat POND had with Party Hardly late last year:
How is everyone? What have you been up to recently?
We’re all very good! What have we been up to recently? Well we’ve recorded in the studio the other night, recording some new tracks, we’ve got some shows coming up, and recording a video too! We’ve had a long break, but everything’s been kicking off again recently.
How would you describe your sound in five words?
Lo-fi bedroom pop. Mac DeMarco on steroids. Muscle pop. A vinyl dipped in water. All sorts.
What are your plans for next year?
Oh wow, we’ve gotta think about tomorrow yet. Gigging, we’ve got a got a few gigs lined up – two shows in February with Heaters on the 15th of February, who are an American garage band who are doing pretty well at the moment, and with Post War Glamour Girls on the 18th.
You changed your name earlier this year from WULFS, what inspired this change?
Oh, it was so deep and meaningful and spiritual! There was basically a band called WULF, who at the time were doing slightly better than us and had more fans, and I had a guy come up to me at uni like ‘Oh your bands playing live at Leeds this year, fair play for getting that already’ and I could hardly hear him because there was music playing, but it turns out he was on about the other band. We could’ve kept the name because ours had an ‘S’, but I guess it just made more sense, especially because at that time we went from me and Dan, to the full band.
What’s your writing process?
It varies, actually not that much, actually quite standard really. We write a guitar part, then write the rest of the song around that really. Once we have the main track down, we usually jam around to pull it all together really. Back in the early days when it was just me and Dan, we had a lot of songs that we’ve now re-written for the band, and yeah.
What countries would you love to play?
America, Europe, Japan, Columbia, Scotland would be funny, Australia.
Who are your biggest influences?
My mum, of course! We all listen to loads of stuff, The Velvet Underground, The Magic Gang, Lou Reed. It’s quite a varied one, there are loads of bands we are influenced by but don’t necessarily sound like, but have taken techniques and ways of doing things from them. Leeds is also a massive influence for us.
What were some of your favourite albums from last year?
Mac DeMarco’s EP, Wolf Alice’s debut, Drenge’s new album, Slaves, Turnover’s one from this year, Pinkshinyultrablast, and Fidlar is a big one for us!
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