RAVE catches up with DAN CUNNINGHAM from Sydney talents PARADES, currently co-headline touring with The Seabellies and soon to release their debut album, Foreign Tapes.

If you could be in a parade right now (music, floats, you name it) with five people, living or dead, who would you choose?

Ian Mackaye, Nick Cave, Gob Bluth, Wes Anderson and, by default, Bill Murray.

Temping as it is, I’m not just going to ask you more ‘parade’ questions – we’re also interested in your music.  You have a new album and tour coming up, what can fans expect from this?

Hopefully people can expect something that goes beyond what’s expected from a young Australian band. There is too much acceptance of this non-existent “what you can and can’t do” criteria for bands of our size in terms a live show, and since there was a huge amount of effort put into the album, it’s only right to do it justice in the live context. 

How would you describe your music? Do you agree with the ‘art-rock’ categorisation

“Art Rock” is fine because it’s sensible, and it’s better than “chamber pop” which is just completely off yet gets thrown around way more.

Are you enjoying touring with The Seabellies? Sounds like an interesting show structure...

The Seabellies are an extremely tight band. Totally professional to the point where it’s vaguely intimidating to a band like ours, but they’re very, very cool people. Neither band is really sure where the coin flip idea [to decide which band plays first on the bill] came from, but it was basically thrown out on the first night ... We decided to just see how each was feeling on the night, and it’s been really sweet so far.

Having already played Homebake, are you excited about the prospect of playing more festivals in the near future, or do you prefer more intimate gigs?

There’s more control at smaller club shows, which is amazing because it’s easier to build a vibe and people can grasp what you’re trying to do. At festivals everything and everyone gets lost a bit too soon if the mix is shot, so smaller shows are working pretty well for now. 

PARADES play The Cubby Hole (Rosie’s) on Thursday Apr 1 alongside The Seabellies. FOREIGN TAPES will be out Apr 23 through Dot Dash/Remote Control. www.myspace.com/parades

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