How The Preatures Took On Triple J And Won

18 September 2014 | 11:07 am | Staff Writer

"It wasn’t like if we got rejected by triple j it was a big deal"

More The Preatures More The Preatures

Triple j listeners almost didn’t get to hear The Preatures’ breakout hit Is This How You Feel? after people around the band thought the track was too clean and poppy for the station.

The band, who ushered in a new sound when they changed their name from The Preachers to The Preatures in 2012, received “resistance” from those around them who felt that the influential youth broadcaster would shun the track.

Vocalist Isabella Manfredi recently told The Music, “It wasn’t so much resistance, it was more hesitation from our team and people around. The friends that we played it to loved it, they were like, ‘Oh, this is great,’ but there was a bit of hesitation that it might not be right for triple j and that it might be too poppy and too clean.

“There was a big resistance against the cleanness of the track because the big trend at that point in time was a lot of lo-fi, a lot of garage, very distorted, the more distorted you were the cooler you were, so for us to then turn around and go, ‘No, we want to do something that’s quite minimal and clean,’ it was a risk. We were at risk of seeming, what’s the word? I want to say schlager.”

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

The track went on to catapult the band onto the national psyche, coming in at nine on the Hottest 100 and winning them the Vanda & Young Song Competition. It’s also proved the catalyst for international deals and festival appearances.

The band’s Jack Moffitt said, “We were so confident and happy with it, it kind of felt like it was worth the risk. If it fell flat it was like what difference does it make?”

Manfredi added, “And we weren’t anybody, we didn’t have anything to lose so it wasn’t like if we got rejected by triple j it was a big deal, we’d just go back and keep writing.”

Today The Preatures have announced a national tour, details here and dates in The Guide below: