MNZ Interview: Pieces of Molly

Christchurch rock ‘n’ rollers Pieces of Molly are back with their sophomore album, Don’t Take Me To The Disco, a loud, gritty, and unapologetic collection that captures the raw energy of the band’s live sound. Recorded at The LAB in Auckland and mixed by Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith (Motörhead, The Darkness, Jet), the album sees the four-piece embracing their heavier, more unhinged side. Following a hometown album launch in Christchurch, the band is heading to the UK in November for a seven-date tour supporting British heavy metal outfit ASOMVEL. We caught up with Pieces of Molly to talk about the new record, taking their sound overseas and what comes next.

Congrats on the release of your new album, Don’t Take Me To The Disco. Was there anything you wanted to do differently this time around, or was the idea to capture what Pieces of Molly does best and turn it up a notch?

Yeah, that’s the idea, we live and breathe rock n roll… so turning it up is usually always the ethos haha. I think with every record we really sound more and more like, well, us, if that makes sense haha. There is one track, All I Can See, the last track on the album, where we went a bit pretty and got to draw on some of our other musical influences. It also has a beaut trumpet solo by Finn Scholes.

The band has always had a strong live identity, and you’ve talked about wanting to capture that energy on record. How did you go about translating the chaos and intensity of a Pieces of Molly live show into the studio?

Well we recorded it at the LAB in Auckland with Oliver Harmer. Olly loves beefy loud rock n roll just like us, so that made it really easy! He understands where we are coming from – none of this “turn it down a bit” nonsense – he’s all about full noise rock n roll haha. We even blew up one of his amps! which he then promptly whipped out his tool kit and repaired on the spot, legend, haha.

You recorded the album at the LAB in Auckland before sending it to Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith in Austin for mixing. What did each stage of that process bring to the record, and how did you keep the sound feeling distinctly like Pieces of Molly?

Recording with Olly gave us the groundwork of a killer sounding album. Then we tracked vocals in Christchurch with Adam Hogan, which was killer, Adam gets us. Then off to Frenchie – Frenchie is a legend. I connected with him a while back and mentioned that we would love to work with him. Frenchie was super up front and honest. He told us “If I work on something I have to love it” so we nervously sent over the rough cuts, and thankfully he loved it haha. Initially we were only asking Frenchie to mix some singles for us, but he actually had a chat with us and insisted he wanted to mix the whole album. That was amazing for us. Chris was totally on the same page as us, a real rock n roll junkie. Our zoom chats would often morph into us just yarning about classic rock albums haha. Frenchie has worked with some of the best! Motörhead, The Datsuns, JET, the list is epic.

Where do the lyrical ideas tend to come from? Are you drawing on real people and experiences, or is there a bit of creative licence involved?

Bit of both really. Mainly real experiences – those ones are easier to write. I tend to be pretty secretive about who or what a song is about, I like to leave the song open to interpretation, it allows people to make their own connection to the song. But if ya wanna know maybe catch me at the end of the night after a few rum and cokes haha.

The album title Don’t Take Me To The Disco feels like a statement of intent in itself. What’s behind it?

It’s referring to the waters being muddied when it comes to rock n roll. You hear the question all the time “Is rock n roll dead?” and our response is always, absolutely not! The way rock n roll is defined these days in our opinion tends to be a bit wobbly – we are just saying “Don’t promise me rock n roll and then drag me along to a disco” haha. Disco is unfortunately cannon fodder in this instance, it just sounded cool.

Tracks like Skinwalker, Alligator and Gatecreeper each have their own character, but there’s a consistent sense of menace and mischief running through them. How do you approach writing together?

I’m writing riffs constantly, it never turns off, there is a guitar no less than five feet from me for most of my time awake haha. So I’ll write the songs and then take them to band practice and then we get stuck into them. Sometimes it’s good to go, sometimes we tweak it here and there.

Christchurch has a strong musical identity, but bands still have to work hard to get their music heard beyond their hometown. What has the journey been like for Pieces of Molly so far, and how much has coming out of Christchurch shaped the band?

I think New Zealand has some of the hardest working musicians because of exactly that. We have to be pretty loud to be heard. The journey for us has been nothing short of amazing. We work constantly to get our music out into the world and heard.

You’re heading to the UK to support ASOMVEL on a seven-date tour. For a band built around high-energy live shows, this seems like a pretty ideal opportunity. What are you hoping to get out of the tour, and is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to?

We are hoping to kick open the saloon doors and make ourselves known to the UK/EU scene. Our music has a much bigger market in that part of the world and we’d love to head back over there to play some big festivals. Some of the venues we are playing are crazy, KK’s Steel Mill is the venue for the first show – KK Downing is one of the founding members of Judas Priest and that’s his venue. The Underworld in London is another killer spot! We are really looking forward to the lot!

You’ve had support from stations including Hauraki, The Rock and Bayrock, alongside streaming interest in the recent singles. Has the response to the new material changed anything for you, or are you still approaching things with the same DIY, get-out-and-play mentality?

It’s always the same mentality for us. It can be a real mindf#@ck being in a band these days – you gotta be a social media expert, booking agent, playlist curator, manager, video editor… the list goes on. You have to dive in and embrace that, but you also have to keep doing what got you to the dance – playing music.

With the album coming out and the UK tour on the horizon, you’ve got a big few weeks ahead. What are you most looking forward to about getting Don’t Take Me To The Disco out into the world?

We are all so proud of what we have created. We sat around a week or so ago and listened to the record on vinyl for the first time, and we were very happy chappies. We just can’t wait to have it out for everyone to dive into.

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The band are playing an album launch gig in their hometown Christchurch on November 6 before they head to the UK to open for / support British heavy metal band ASOMVEL on their seven-date UK tour, which kicks off in Wolverhampton on Friday, November 13.