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Photo credit: Nigel Kippers

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Interview with
JAMES McKENDRY
from
PIRRA

(28th June, 2021)

Interview by Dave Bruce

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Photo credit: Nigel Kippers

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Have you always wanted to be a musician? When did you start writing music?
I started writing music when I was 14. I picked up the guitar because my friend had just started playing and we started writing songs together in his garage.

Which music did you grow up listening to? How has it influenced your current style? 
My parents listened to a lot of 70’s pop music. I remember hearing the Beach Boys, The Mamas and Papas and Abba. I think all those artists had really strong melodies and lyrics, so that’s something I’ve always been interested in.

How would you describe your sound? 
I’d say it’s Indie Dance Pop

Why do you think people resonate with your music?
We try to keep it upbeat and fun. We’ve been lucky enough to work with some great producers who’ve lifted the bar for us such as Sam Littlemore from Pnau and Konstantin Kersting, who produced ‘Dance Monkey’.

Your new single “Never Apart” has just been released! Describe its origin and evolution. 
Our bass player Curt spent days on end working on this track, he went through a bunch of versions before I wrote the melody and lyrics. Then it changed again when we started with Sam, who had his own philosophy and ideas to bring to the table. Our process of working with him was filmed as a mini-series by Pedestrian TV.

Do you have any more new music in the works?
We’ve got plenty of new tunes backed up and we’re just waiting for the green light to release them.

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Do you have any shows/tours coming up? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
We’ve got our ‘Never Apart’ tour coming up. We’ll be playing Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney on September 3, The Toff In Melbourne on September 10 and Suzie Wongs in Brisbane on September 12. We’re looking forward to these shows so much because they’re great venues and we have a new show ready to go. Fans can expect to stay on their feet dancing.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why? 
Kimbra. She’s an incredible singer, writer and producer. Her albums have been a great inspiration over the years for us.

What’s next for you in the near future? 
At this point we’re looking to release more music and do more tours.

What are your longer-term aspirations? 
We’d love to tour overseas. Our record label CR2 is based in London so we’d love to spend some time over there. I would also love for Pirra to record another album.

What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? 
I love seeing people connect to the music. It’s great when you see people forgetting their troubles and enjoying it as much as we do.

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – Ormus by Showa 44
Artist – Jimi Hendrix
Movie – Sideways
Place to visit – Melbourne
Venue to play – Bowraville Pub. We’ve had some rockin’ NYE gigs there and had a surprise appearance from the amazing Tasman Keith.
Food – Kebabs
Drink – Vanilla Coke
Person in History – Django Rheinhardt. Despite suffering a serious hand injury he went on to become one of the most incredible musicians in history. He continued with his music around Paris during the Nazi occupation despite being a Romani Jazz musician.
Tattoo – (If you don’t have one, what would you get?) One night after a few drinks the band all got our friend to draw tattoos on us. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I got my guitar drawn on my arm.

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Pirra is James McKendry (guitar, synth), Jess Beck (vocals), Curtis Argent (bass, synth) and Jeffrey Argent (drums)

Never Apart is out now on BLK&WHT RCRDS

Tickets to the east coast shows are on sale now

FRI 3 SEP – OXFORD ART FACTORY – SYD – TICKETS
FRI 10 SEP – THE TOFF – MEL – TICKETS
SUN 12 SEP – SUZIE WONGS GOOD TIME BAR – BRIS – TICKETS

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Follow PIRRA
Youtube – Facebook – Spotify – Instagram

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Press Release June 20 (below) HERE

PIRRA
 announce new single
NEVER APART
+
 EAST COAST SHOWS

Listen: NEVER APART

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AMNPLIFY – DB