Matt 'Youngy' Young - King Parrot 'A WoS Reader's Guide To King Parrot'

King Parrot have been leading the charge for the Australian underground for well over a decade and that’s never been more true than over the last 24 months. With various stints supporting Pantera in the United States, UK and Europe and the Aussie leg of the 2024 Download Festival as well as overseas tours with the likes of Weedeater and Master, plus a series of Australian headlining tours showcasing local legends like Astrodeath, Choof and Potion, amongst others, King Parrot have been the prime example of what perseverance, hard work and just being a bunch of stone cold legends can achieve.

Now, FINALLY, King Parrot are unleashing a brand new album on the masses, A Young Person's Guide To King Parrot. The lads have delivered an opus packed to the gills with furious tales that push the boundaries of good taste, music that will bring an evil smile to your faces and if you’ve been lucky enough to see the Melbourne legends at any of the million shows they’ve played over the last couple of years then there’s every chance that you’ve already done a jig to these fine tunes. 

Wall Of Sounds resident bogan Duane James had a yarn with frontman Matt ‘Youngy’ Young to talk about supporting his heroes Pantera around the world, playing at the iconic Wembley Arena, sharing the stage with Jason Momoa, seeing Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson in Paris and the status of a certain side project he’s got cooking...

Watch the video or read on for the best bits...

Firstly, he lets us know why he has made the fans wait so long for this album.

Yeah, it's been a long time coming for sure. We wanted to have a bit of a strategy around releasing some singles and some videos in the lead up. Just to sort of build it up. It has been a while since we've released a record. So we wanted to kind of build the anticipation and we wanted to have some stuff out as well before we went over to Europe and did our big tour over there that we just got back from. So it's been working really well and it feels like things have just been flowing on for the band. We’ve sort of got the rest of our year planned out basically now with all the stuff that we've got coming up. So all that's got to happen now is the record's going to come out, which will on Friday and we can set it free.

It’s been an eventful buildup indeed but the most recent tour throughout Europe saw the lads ticking a few boxes while peddling their wares. For one, they finished the Pantera leg of the tour at Wembley Arena. Just seeing a band there would be an all time moment for any Aussie, but to take the stage, that has to be a surreal moment in itself.

Yeah, it was kind of strange, man. It was one of those moments that I just wanted to soak in. During that day, I just remember [thinking] there's Wembley Arena and then there's the stadium, which is where Queen and all that played right next door. And it was just incredible, man. I just walked around there and I was just sort of going, 'wow, there's just so much history and so many amazing artists and bands that played here,' and what a great way to kind of cap it all off and just enjoy it. We had quite a few Aussie people, friends from over the years came along to the show. So we got to catch up with quite a lot of Aussie expats, just all the people that come out to a show like that.

You got the guys from Pantera there, you got the guys from Power Trip there as well, their friends and all of that, it was just quite an amazing experience for all the bands really. But you can't help but kind of kick yourself sometimes.

Just this Aussie band that have probably never really set out to do stuff like that, and there we are doing it. It’s just one of those moments where I really took my time to enjoy that and just go, this is something that we never would've thought was possible, but here we are doing it and I'm really proud of what we've achieved.

If you’d followed their exploits on socials, you may have seen Youngy sharing the microphone with one Jason Momoa during Pantera’s song ‘Walk’.

He was cool, man. He was super cool and he hung out with us the whole night. He was great and he had his whole posse of people there because we were getting up and doing 'Walk' every night on the tour. That’s sort of the spot where the support bands or whatever will get up and sing the chorus on 'Walk', and on that night, obviously he wanted to get up.

The Pantera people sort of said, 'hey, you've got to look after Jason Momoa and show him where to go on stage so he doesn't get in the way and doesn't get in Rex's way.'

So when we ran up there, he was just sort of following me and he definitely had tipped a couple in by that stage. He was pretty loose man, and he was super pumped to get up there and do it. So yeah, it was just one of those [things] I didn't even expect. Then the next day people are sending me shit from the Daily Mail in London [saying], 'hey, you're on the front cover of the Daily Mail in London.' I'm like, 'oh my God.' So yeah, that was kind of a funny experience.

Then there was the time in Paris where Youngy was subbed out as the backing singer for 'Walk' and replaced by the icon Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden.

That was the one time we didn't get to get up there. We actually had to leave that night straight after we played because we had to catch a ferry over to the UK. But yeah, that was cool. So many people come out to the shows and want to see it and hang out with the band. We got to meet lots of cool people.

We met Mille (Petrozza) from Kreator and we met Jason Momoa and Bill Steer from Carcass was there one night. I think he was there at the Wembley Show. There's always people that just coming to hang out and say hello, which is really cool. It was just a surreal experience.

Then after we finished all the Pantera stuff, we got to stay on and tour with Master, who are a legendary death metal band in their own right. We got to do about 20 something shows with them all around Europe as well. All through Germany and mostly on the mainland of Europe and all through eastern Europe, which was in a crazy experience going back out to Romania and Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, places like that. It was amazing time, man. Really, really cool.

Upon their return, King Parrot announced the exit of long-time drummer Todd Hansen from the band and that he would be replaced by Max Dangerfield (Goatshaman, Singing Bird Studio’s). With a few gigs already under his belt with the Melbourne legends, it sounds like he’s settled in nicely.

Yeah, he's been awesome. Max has done four shows now and yeah, we're just sort of easing him into it. Yeah, he's been great. He's really just jumped in seamlessly. Max is a young man, he's 24 years old and he is one of those natural musicians that can kind of, just plays the drums with such ease and he's got so much groove and swing that it's unbelievable. He can do all the metal stuff, all the fast stuff, the blastbeats, the thrash beats, the D beats, all that stuff really easily. But he just has this real sensibility for the drums and for music in general.

He can play the guitar, he can play bass, he can sing. He's a sound engineer. He's one of those guys where he can just do everything easily. He's got that natural music ability and that's not something that I've ever had. So when I see people like him, I just love it and I'm super stoked that I get to play with someone that's so talented.

That’s great to hear, especially considering the large shoes he’s had to fill. Toddy is a hell of a drummer, and for a lot of KP followers, a fan favourite. So what were the reasons behind his exit we had to ask.

I mean, there was a few things. I just felt like we'd been trying to make this work, we did make this work, I should say for 10 years with Todd in the band, [him] living in Brisbane [The rest of King Parrot reside in Melbourne]. There's so many challenges that come from that. Even just to rehearse. You've got to spend all this money on flights and all the arrangements and all the different things that come with that. So that was always a massive, massive challenge. But there was just some certain things that were going on inside the band where I felt like maybe he was not as invested in it as what he'd previously been. We just had an adult conversation about it. We just spoke about it. We just put it all out on the table and we just sort of said, 'look, this is what we feel.' This is what we kind of want to do, and we'd like to be able to jam all the time. We want to jam every week. We want to be in the room, we want to be around each other more often. And this is sort of where we feel like we're going with it.

He sat with it for a couple of days and he came back. He goes, 'no, you're right... it's been a good run. We've done really well.' There's no hard feelings or anything like that. Certainly not from my end. And we just sort of came to that decision. I think the parting work that he did on this new record is awesome, but at the same time, it feels really fresh and exciting to be able to bring someone like Max in who's just got this youthful enthusiasm while we're going into this new album cycle.

He nails all these new songs so well, and all the stuff from Ugly Produce and Dead Set. It's kind of got this different feel to it now. It's definitely rejuvenated the band and given us this new energy that we've certainly been running with.

The other night we played in Townsville and we hadn't been up there for a few years and it was a great show. We had lots of people turn up. It was awesome. I could just see the way that they were getting into the songs and it's just a different energy now. That's just what happens when you change one of the elements in the band and it's really exciting for us. It's really, really cool.

We've already started writing some new riffs. We're jamming all the time now, and it's great. We've already started writing new material and it's happening, so we're just going for it.

That’s great news for KP fans, especially with the Aussie album launch tour they’re in the thick of now which wraps up at Thrashville on June 28th.

We've started the Aussie tour already. We've done Bendigo and Warrnambool, and then on the weekend we did Townsville and Mackay, which was great. So next we've got Tasmania on the weekend with Psycroptic. We are playing with a band called Eaten by Rats as well, which has got Tony from Blood Duster and Matt from Blood Duster. So yeah, this weekend's going to be awesome in Tassie, man. It feels like we're getting the gang back together.

I was just talking to Dave from Psycroptic and we've toured with those guys a bit over the years and we've become great friends with them. Me and Dave and Joe have a little side project called CrisisAct that we do. We've always been good mates, but we don't always get to hang out. I mean, we're all over the place.

When we got the opportunity to do these shows together, we were like, 'let's do it, man.' This is great. Then Dave was like, 'Tony and Matt's new band want to open.' I was like, 'fucking, let's do it man.' So we're getting the gang back together, man. There's going to be a whole bunch of dudes that don't get to hang out all the time together in Vans driving around Tassie on the weekend. So yeah, look the fuck out.

With that group of musicians, surely there's a chance that the lads get together and do a few CrisisAct numbers, right?

Fuck man. I would love to. We've tried a couple of times to do that and play live, but it just hasn't quite worked out. It hasn't happened. But I actually do have another record sitting here that I've kind of been neglecting that I've got to put vocals on. So I've done one song and then I kind of just put it to bed. But I think maybe after we've finished this tour, I've got a bit of time. Like a month before we go to America. So I'm going to try and smash out the vocals for the New CrisisAct album before we go to the States.

Then I'll give it to Joe and Joe can weave his magic on that.

Until then, we’ve got the long-awaited new King Parrot album out Friday 6th June. Do yourself a favour, get out to a show and catch these Aussie legends before they take off to America in support of Pantera later this year. Get in early for the supports too. There's some absolute maniacs in support. Should be truly epic.

Interview by Duane James @duanejamestattoo

A Young Person's Guide to King Parrot is out June 6. Grab it here

Get your tickets to their Australian tour here

King Parrot – A Young Person’s Guide To King Parrot tracklisting

1. Get What Ya Given
2. Fuck You and the Horse You Rode in on
3. Cunning as a Dunny Rat
4. It’s a Rort
5. Punish The Runt
6. Target Pig Elite
7. I Got the Right
8. Look Away I’m Hideous
9. Glazed and Diseased in Defeat
10. Pissing On the Fist of the Law