The Brag

World’s End Press
The Next Step
By Benjamin Cooper

To those who think World’s End Press started out with those sexed-up pop beats, frontman John Parkinson reveals a little secret: it wasn’t always this way. “When we started out we were a five-piece making fairly esoteric tunes that were this weird mix of post-punk and bizarre pop,” he tells me. “It was a lot of fun, and because it was so low key I was able to do individual artwork for all of the releases. The trade-off now is that we get to use really cool equipment. It’s not bad, not bad at all.”

The Melbournians have enjoyed a stellar touring career since announcing their arrival on the dance music scene with the Faithful EP in 2010. They’ve supported acts like Primal Scream and !!! and played to massive festival audiences, all the while working on their debut full-length album. “The first time we played a big stage was at Falls Festival a few years ago, and it was quite shocking,” Parkinson says. “We had only ever really played smaller rooms where you have the opportunity to connect with anyone, and then all of a sudden we’re looking out at tens of thousands of people. We’re acutely aware that there is very little room for error in that kind of an environment.

“Luckily, we played Golden Plains Festival shortly after as a wild card entry,” he continues. “[British psych act] Hawkwind had played just before us and were quite divisive, so we pretty much just walked on at 2am in all our pop glory and blew the munters away. After that, we knew we could play any stage.” World’s End Press’ fanbase extends far beyond just festival goers; they’ve also found a place with fans of British act Pet Shop Boys, for instance, a cover of whose 1984 single ‘West End Girls’ features on the band’s EP and is a frequent live highlight. “We were playing with Primal Scream in Coogee, and were completely inundated by Pet Shop Boys fans during that track and after the show. There were middle-aged, gay English men dancing everywhere that night!”

You’ll be able to hear material from the band’s imminent debut album on their upcoming mini-tour, before they decamp to work with a mystery British producer in Wales, where they’ll be bringing even more energy to their already bristling tunes. “We’ve actually written most of the album already, so what we’re going to do is travel to a really remote location and give ourselves cabin fever,” Parkinson enthuses. “We’re going to jam on the songs for ages and then just smash them out in the studio once we’ve all gone insane.”

Their first single ‘Second Day Uptown’ indicates a continuation of their dance-centric rhythmic hustle – but Parkinson warns that it’s not indicative of the whole record. “We have continued with some of the bright and snappy grooves of the EP,” he says, “but things also get a bit darker on the album. We’ve started to take things in quite a deep and spacey kind of groove, so while the single sits on the brighter side of the aesthetics of the album, everything else has quite a cosmic character going on.”

But don’t worry: although there may be more adventurous, moodier sounds on the debut LP, they won’t be going back to the more experimental incarnation of the band: “We want our music to be heard by as many people as possible,” Parkinson says. “That’s not to say we’ll bastardise our sound or sacrifice art or anything like that. We just love pop, and the classicism of singable melodies. We want to continue that time-honoured tradition of making pop that people can keep on loving.”

What: ‘Second Day Uptown’ is out now
Where: GoodGod Small Club
When: Friday July 6