You may remember Pronto as the self-dubbed “first world power punk” band that delivered one of last year’s best tapes; their decidedly pop-skewed album When You’re Gone. The Pronto live show has always tended to be more aggressive than their recorded output, but the band has finally captured that energy with their new release PRONTO/PRONTO.
Recorded live in a day at an old Geelong ice-cream factory; the record is produced by Living Eyes frontman, Ausmuteants drummer, and curator of fine punk, Billy Gardner.
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Prior to it’s release on Slovenly, Noisey had a chat to the band about writing and recording PRONTO/PRONTO.
Noisey: The album was recorded super quickly. What effect do you think working with Billy in that space had on the sound of the record?
Jimmy Webster: Well, if you’ve ever been to Geelong, you know how it can affect you. The studio had this dank underground basement vibe, just with lots of expensive recording equipment. Sort of what I assume Berlin feels like. I think that juxtaposition, mixed with the stale $1 7-11 coffee really drove the whole process. Ice cream is very important to Pronto, collectively it’s our favourite food. We were all really excited to have some ice cream with Billy on the day but it turns out they stopped making it there years ago and they only record bands now. We were all pretty mad about the whole thing and Billy did a great job capturing our anger and aggression.
The LP is definitely a lot harder and dirtier than your first. How much of this was a concious decision to move away from the power-pop sound of the first album?
It was a very conscious move, but at the same time, Pronto are not moving away from pop music. This record still has hooks. I think this record captures a sound that is far more reminiscent of our live shows than the first record. And as much as that is down to the environment in which we recorded it, we all discussed creating a record that is sonically different than the first. That decision definitely bled into the way we wrote the songs from this record too – there was always that intention, with these 10 songs, to present them in a way that was unlike the first record. To be honest, we never really assumed that these songs would be presented on an LP.
International garage label Slovenly are putting out the record. How did that relationship begin?
Pete saw us play a show with The Real Numbers and Personal and The Pizzas in late 2013. He’s a real jet setter and obviously a man of fine taste. He gave us his business card and it seemed legit – plus, he got Tim Warren from Crypt records to master the record, which is probably beyond the capability of any of the members of Pronto.
‘PRONTO/PRONTO’ is available on vinyl, compact disc and digital download from Slovenly Recordings.
Catch them at the following shows:Nov 6 – Melbourne – Upstairs at The Tote with Midnight Wolf
Nov 11 – Ballarat – The Eastern with Acid Baby Jesus, Lime Lagoons
Nov 12 – Melbourne – The Curtin with Acid Baby Jesus
Nov 20 – Sydney – Roxbury with Ghastly Spats, Tim & The Boys
Nov 21 – Brisbane – Trainspotter with Eyes Ninety
Nov 22 – Brisbane – Underdog with Teva
Nov 27 – Adelaide – Metro with The Yabbies, Gentleworms, Hierophants
Nov 28 – Melbourne – The Tote with Hierophants, Ghastly Spats, Exek
