Scotland’s Frankie Morrow raise our spirits with their enchanting debut EP ‘Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel,’ a glistening and groovy people rock file stuffed with wealthy, heat harmonies and heartfelt lyrics.
for followers of Mt. Joy, Alabama Shakes, Lake Road Dive
Stream: “Sunflowers” – Frankie Morrow
It began the place most information begin – with a break up!
Frankie Morrow’s debut EP hits the ears like a late Autumn breeze: Gentle and refreshing, it’s a welcome change of tempo that immediately lifts our spirits and relieves our souls. Glistening and groovy, Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel involves life with candy rock and mild indie people, heat harmonies and shifting lyrics that show each totally enchanting and completely enriching.
Sunflowers on the station gate
You ask me the place to attend
I keep at platform three
Don’t be late for me
Let’s take a stroll outdoors
To the streets, with the passersby
And don’t you trigger a scene
I’m not doing this to be imply
We, we, we, we we’re tousled in mattress
You, you, you, you, you ask me when’s the top?
I, I, I, I, I’ve no reply for that
Independently launched October 28, 2022, Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel is a chic introduction to Scottish five-piece Frankie Morrow. Comprised of singer/songwriter Frankie Morrow (electrical guitar, lead vocals), James Smith (bass – previously Be Charlotte), Duncan Carswell (drums – previously The Vegan Leather-based), Neev (acoustic guitar, keys, BVs), and Samuel Nicholson (electrical guitar), Frankie Morrow’s music is a tapestry of smoldering, soul-stirring marvel. They excel at crafting moments of sentimental, light reverie and hard-hitting ardour alike, and so they’ve imbued their first launch with a wholesome dose of each.
But whether or not they’re jamming out with the overdrive turned up, or dwelling within the hush of acoustic people heat, on the coronary heart of Frankie Morrow’s music is a singer and songwriter rapidly coming into her personal and leaning into life’s heavy moments. As Morrow sings in “Satisfaction, “I’d bleed for you, I’d, however man I’m getting drained.”
Frankie Morrow’s story technically begins a number of years in the past, however the band as we all know it now took form someday in 2020.
“It began the place most information begin – with a break up!” Morrow laughs. “These songs are a group of my musings through the years – earlier than the band bought collectively I used to carry out as a solo artist – and so I suppose the impetus was actually simply me coming to phrases with a number of the adjustments and upheaval that had occurred in my life on the time.”
“To be sincere I’m not fairly certain there was a imaginative and prescient so to talk – which I do know sounds a bit unusual – however I’ve written songs since I used to be 14 years outdated, so the one objective actually was to lastly seize a group of songs and start this path as a recording artist and now band. As a result of lots of the file was engineered at my flat or good friend’s home’s (shout out to Neev and Samuel Nicholson for being such variety, great band mates) a lot of the songs started as acoustic tracks with Americana and people hues. As soon as we felt comfy with that as a base, by means of the method there was a pure growth within the sound, including completely different textures and components such because the string preparations in ‘Sunflowers’ or the electrical guitar riff in ‘Sirens.’”
From Morrow’s perspective, Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel is a one-stop store for attending to know her and her artistry.
The band held nothing again in bringing out the soul of every track, and if there’s one factor that may be stated of all six of the EP’s tracks, it’s that Frankie Morrow put on their hearts on their sleeves.
“I feel it’s positively a snapshot in time,” Morrow says. “It’s an excellent introduction to Frankie Morrow as a result of it showcases our songwriting, however our dwell present is unquestionably extra rock than on the file which has naturally developed from enjoying dwell collectively. That’s what we wish to concentrate on for the subsequent set of recordings – and the best way to seize the power we now have dwell in that course of.”
“For me, Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel is my ‘Sliding Doorways’ second,” she says of the title. “Have you ever seen that movie? The entire premise is predicated round Helen – who’s performed by Gwyneth Paltrow – and the way her life might dramatically change primarily based on whether or not she catches a prepare or not. I keep in mind feeling fairly misplaced after I was out residing in Sydney after I first moved there, me and my ex had briefly met on the BPPH and all of a sudden I used to be on this complete different journey I had no thought was coming. It bought me excited about how these tiny selections we make in our on a regular basis lives can have such large impacts on us later down the road, and I discovered {that a} actually attention-grabbing idea for the file.”
Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel opens with the softly candy “Sunflowers,” a lilting, scene-setting people track layered with intimate vocal harmonies, wealthy orchestral strings, delicate, smile-inducing oboes, and mild, heartwarming guitar melodies. Because the band lull us right into a restful dreamstate, Morrow’s storytelling lyrics inform a story of heartbreak and separation:
You should have left in a rush trigger you
Nonetheless had some cash
Mendacity on the kitchen bench
Shirt of purple on the carpet
Stains on it darling
How might I neglect?
To anyone else it was a pure scene nonetheless
Espresso on the counter however
Now solely the TV blinks at me
Solely the TV
We, we, we, we we’re tousled in mattress
You, you, you, you, you ask me when’s the top?
I, I, I, I, I’ve no reply for that
“I all the time envisaged the EP starting with this track as therapeutic from a heartbreak is something however linear, and so it felt very becoming to start with the story of the break up itself,” Morrow explains. “I’ve fairly a darkish sense of humour too and I favored the tragic comedy of sunflowers as an emblem of cheer and sunshine – although it was positively something however that on the time!”
Additional highlights embrace the groovy, invigorating people rocker “White Rocks” and the achingly wistful “Sydney Skyline (There’s By no means Sufficient),” two extra songs that increase the band’s artistry whereas showcasing Morrow’s skills as a vocalist, lyricist, and performer.
She herself notes the EP’s finale as a private favourite: “I feel it needs to be ‘A Signal of Promise’ for me. Two years in the past, I used to be nonetheless utilizing GarageBand and had by no means recorded a track correctly. So to have walked away with a observe that I had produced and organized, scoring clarinet components and co-writing string preparations felt fairly superb. I nonetheless really feel actually happy with that one. It’s additionally probably the most difficult track on the file – not the obvious selection for a single – however I like that about it.”
Let me converse with you in confidence
Might I steal a second of your time
And if not, why not, why not now
You’re not too drained are you?
Are you?
There however for the grace of God go I
Maintain me just like the river holds the present
As she swims into the sunshine
However who am I to like you
Who am I to evaluate
Who am I to like you
Who am I to evaluate
As a lyricist, Morrow cites the track “Sirens” as containing a few of her favourite strains. “That’s most likely the track that I really feel is a few of the strongest writing I’ve managed to seize to this point,” she displays. “The music that I really like and join with as a listener is normally primarily based in sincere and weak storytelling. Neev’s favorite is from ‘Sunflowers’: ‘And so I slammed the door / I broke the toilet mirror / Wasn’t even mine to interrupt / Guess I’ll be paying lease late.’“
I discovered all of the letters that I wrote to you
In a shoebox, within the cabinet hidden away from view
They had been weighted with phrases like love and reality
The paper weighed so heavy
So I put them out with the pizza bins
That had been build up for days on my counter tops and
I believed is that this actually what all of it comes right down to
Who paid that invoice was it me otherwise you?
Nicely you lie there on my sofa, I see you
However I really feel your physique leaving
Go forward strive pronounce my identify
However your eyes simply stare on the ceiling
And my coronary heart rises as much as the event
Finds a voice from manner past my means
And I ask when you nonetheless love me however you
Simply stand up, to stroll round
– “Sirens,” Frankie Morrow
It might ache all through with the sting of grief, loss, and alter, however Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel‘s chief emotion is catharsis: The EP in the end leaves its listeners refreshed, restored, and able to transfer ahead.
“I hope if anybody goes by means of a break up, it eases their coronary heart and comforts them not directly. Be variety to your self. Settle for what’s, settle for what isn’t. You can find your home,” Morrow shares. As for the band?
“We’re simply so excited!” she beams. “We’ve already begun demoing the subsequent set of songs which have a darker indie rock really feel to them. We will’t wait to share them with you!”
Expertise the complete file through our beneath stream, and peek inside Frankie Morrow’s Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel with Atwood Journal as Morrow (the individual) goes track-by-track by means of the music and lyrics of the band’s debut EP!
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‘Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel’ – Frankie Morrow
:: Inside Blue Parrot Backpackers Hostel ::
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Sunflowers
Sunflowers is the opening observe to the file. I all the time envisaged the EP starting with this track as therapeutic from a heartbreak is something however linear, and so it felt very becoming to start with the story of the break up itself. I’ve fairly a darkish sense of humour too and I favored the tragic comedy of sunflowers as an emblem of cheer and sunshine – although it was positively something however that on the time!
I keep in mind coming again to clear the flat that we had shared collectively and it felt like a museum – all of our issues deserted there simply how we had left them: “You should’ve left in a rush / Trigger you continue to had some cash / Mendacity on the kitchen bench”
White Rocks
White Rocks truly began out as a totally completely different tune. I had the primary phrases “I do know you’re taking it to neglect / However you find yourself forgetting me” and the unique track hung about for some time as a really low and gradual type of mournful lament. I forgot about it after which a pair years later it got here again to me. I began enjoying round with it once more in early 2020 and located the bass riff which tied it altogether. As soon as I had that I knew it needed to be a full band track – it was a extremely necessary second in creating our sound from the extra acoustic tracks.
Satisfaction
Satisfaction is about watching somebody discovering it exhausting to manage, and self-medicating with the intention to take the ache away. One thing I’m certain we now have all been responsible of. You see the individual that you’re keen on and their wrestle – you wish to assist, however you possibly can’t get by means of.
I wrote the bridge for this track years after I had the unique verse/refrain, as soon as I used to be in a position to make peace with the scenario, and present compassion and understanding: “Can’t see a manner out of this one / Didn’t meant to put in writing you as a villain / We had been simply kids”
Sydney Skyline (There’s By no means Sufficient)
I feel Sydney Skyline actually offers with themes of codependency. The phrase ‘There’s by no means sufficient’ actually stands out to me as a result of I feel at first it comes throughout as fairly saccharine however I feel it has a little bit of a double which means.
I keep in mind going out after I was nonetheless deep within the midst of heartbreak and making an attempt to maneuver on manner earlier than I used to be prepared: “There’s been a Peter; there’s been a Paul / I believed they’d assist me / However actually they made it worse”
Sirens
The physique of the track – lead vocal and acoustic guitar – was recorded as one dwell absorb my front room by myself one drizzly Saturday afternoon. It is advisable to be in fairly a particular head house to ship this track in the way in which it was meant to be heard – and in precise truth we had tried to file it a couple of months prior however fireworks stored going off outdoors our window!
It’s probably the most cathartic track I feel I’ve written so far, and my favorite of our dwell present – for the band model we correct rock out. I hope we are able to launch a dwell band model of this track within the coming months.
A Signal of Promise
This observe centres round themes of acceptance, therapeutic and forgiveness. The title of the track got here from my brother truly. He got here into my room one evening after I was riffing the refrain of ASOP and he stated ‘This seems like an indication of promise, it’s an indication of peace.’ I believed A Signal of Promise was such an attractive title and actually captured how I felt on the time. I even managed to get the precise voice word of him saying that into the observe (it’s proper earlier than the bells go off on the finish.)
The bells within the observe had been truly recorded on my iPhone – it’s the bells of St.Paul’s in London on a Sunday morning – I stood there mesmerised listening for hours while passersby shuffled previous me. It’s a extremely non secular factor I feel, to take heed to these bells. There’s something so historical and divine about them.
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