Ready To Blurst

"Man, I just woke up so I haven’t started the day yet,” Parsons croaks down the line. “We’re spending the day driving to Belgium. It’s our first day off in two weeks and we’re gonna be spending it driving.” He manages a little chuckle down the phone as he attempts to compose himself.

It’s been a crazy few months for the DZ duo, who have been working their way across the continent in support of their latest album, Black Rat. It’s taken a bit of time, but Parsons reckons they’re finally seeing the rowdy side of their Euro audiences. “We’ve been coming over here since 2011 and it takes a while to get things moving. We didn’t go over to the UK at all last year, but this year was our fourth tour over here at the moment and we have another still to go. The crowds are starting to pick up and become a bit more what they’re like at home. You can see things starting to change, and that’s just a result of spending time over here. It took up three or four years in Australia before anyone started moshing at shows, or crowdsurf, or go crazy. People used to mostly just stand at the sides with their arms crossed and clap. It’s just one of those things, you have to invest heavily and just chip away at it, so hopefully people will come out and you’ll get that fanbase going.”

"People used to mostly just stand at the sides with their arms crossed and clap."

Both Parsons and his bandmate Simon Ridley also play with a largely numbered band called Velociraptor, who will be playing The Blurst Of Times festival with DZ Deathrays. While the latter band headlines the event, Parsons is certainly keen to be back playing with the former. “I recorded all this guitar stuff for their new record and I’ve not had the chance to play it yet, so I definitely want to get up there and play the parts I wrote – it’s always a lot a fun and they’re all dear friends of mine, so I figure I’ll definitely make an effort to get to some shows.”

Parsons has no illusions about the wonderful opportunities he’s had as one half of DZ Deathrays, though: “Getting back to Australia to play Blurst will be a great opportunity to do that stuff and play some of the new songs. Hopefully we’re tight because we’ve been playing a show every single fucking day. It’s been awesome, meeting people is one of the best things you can do. We have a great time touring… I mean, we played a show on an island in Norway – we had to get a boat out there, so doing that was amazing – at 1am it was still daylight. It’s hard work, but every so often you get those moments where you’re like, ‘Man, it’s so cool to be playing it a band and meeting all these people and going to all these amazing places’. We’re gonna write some tracks, and hopefully come back over here for a tour early next year.”