Let’s Take Five: An interview with The Pretty Visitors!
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We first saw The Pretty Visitors just over a year ago when they headlined The Wedgewood Rooms (upgraded from the Edge of the Wedge due to demand) and we were impressed by their energetic live performance from the word go. The band have since released three singles, gigged across the south and next week they return to Portsmouth to headline the One Eyed Dog for Icebreaker Festival (on 25th January)!
We thought this was a good time to catch up with the band regarding playing live, Icebreaker Festival, their brand new single which is set for release next month and the future!
Hi there! Firstly, so that our readers can know a bit more about you, please introduce The Pretty Visitors:
We are Aaron (Guitar), Sam (Bass), Connor (Vocals and Guitar) and Jack (Drums). We’re from Portsmouth and the surrounding area and we play what we love: Rock’n’Roll. Our style ranges from fast paced indie-rock to basic blues to psychedelia and everything else in between, with lyrics about where we’re from often providing the backdrop for our songs. It’s nice to be playing back home for the first time in a while and we’ve got a big performance planned for the 25th!
Your next single ‘Mystery Woman’ got its first play on BBC Introducing Solent the other week but for anyone who’s yet to hear the track, how would you describe it in three words and why?
Complete sonic experience.
This is one of those songs that required depth, and we spent two full days in the studio adding tracks that perfectly complement each other, as well as getting quite experimental. I remember distinctly swinging a microphone around a studio, as Jack was tapping the floor with knackered drumsticks and Aaron layered four different guitars through what seemed like hundreds of pedals. All this comes through in the final master, it sounds massive and is our best tune yet.
The Pretty Visitors gigged quite a bit last year and have various live performances lined up over the next couple of months. Do you have any strange/weird gig stories to share?
Every single time we head out on the road there’s something. Stuart Pearce being at one of our gigs and him pulling the most disinterested and disgusted face as we took a selfie with him, Connor taking down Jack in a club ultimately glassing his hand the night before a show, meaning Jack had to hit soft rim shots on the snare for half an hour, and using our mates bright yellow minivan to take some people up to a London gig – literally a bigger version of The Inbetweeners car.
But the one that definitely stands out is a gig we did in Gosport last year. As we approached the solo and the final crescendo of our opening track of the set in front of a packed pub, Jack’s stick somehow miraculously flew from his hand and zipped some 10 yards directly onto the switch of the extension lead, turning off two amps and leaving a one-stick drummer and singer to carry on helplessly. The odds of that happening at any given gig must be in the miracle territory – in which case if there somehow is a God he must despise The Pretty Visitors.
Next week you’re set to headline the One Eyed Dog, Southsea for Icebreaker Festival 2020! If you could tour the world alongside two other bands/artists playing at Icebreaker Festival 2020, who would it be?
Sad Palace and The Stone Birds.
Sad Palace have graciously come and opened for us at The Joiners before and they blew us away. The structure to their tunes and the delivery of the songs is great to watch live. Every instrument only works to serve the song which is something we believe in too. The Stone Birds I’m not sure we’ve even managed to play with or see them yet but man ‘The Hunted’ is a massive song. It’s Iggy Pop but with an original modern edge and that’s a bit of us.
Finally, have you got anything to share regarding upcoming gigs and what have you got planned over the first half of 2020?
After Icebreaker we’ve got the Independent Venue Week at Heartbreakers with support from BBC Introducing Solent, we have our first show in Manchester and then a huge one at The 1865 in March supporting Pioneers. In between that ‘Mystery Woman’ is released on the 14th of February to be followed by more studio time and a live music session which should all be coming to you by summer time.
It’s a busy time for us and we’re loving everything about the studio (big shout out to Quay West Studios in Gosport) and gigging, if 2020 improves on 2019 in any way we’ll be happy, so keep your ears and eyes peeled for some big tunes and news coming your way!
We’d like to thank The Pretty Visitors very much for their time! You can check out their latest single ‘High Sailing Blues’ below and also keep up with them on social media via the following links! The Pretty Visitors next single ‘Mystery Woman’ is set to be released on 14th February and you can catch them live at the following:
25th January – Icebreaker Festival, Southsea @ The One Eyed Dog, 20-55-21:40 (tickets)
2nd February – Heartbreakers, Southampton (for Independent Venue Week) (tickets)
8th February – AATMA, Manchester
20th February – The Rocksteady, London
13th March – The 1865, Southampton (supporting Pioneers)
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