INTERVIEW: Parachute Youth

In January, PARACHUTE YOUTH were the soundtrack to countless drunken New Year’s mistakes. When I call Jonny Castro for a phone interview and ask him what exactly they’d like their tracks to soundtrack, he turns to musical partner Matt K Von and repeats the question. “If someone’s listening to our music, what should they be doing?”

“They should be drunk,” Matt reiterates.

But really, their music is about much, much more than that, and Johnny quickly adds to their answer. “You can be anywhere. You can be doing anything. You could be with friends, or you could be in a club, or you could be, you know, the little boy from the video [for Can’t Get Better Than This]. Just so long as you’re somewhere doing something, and whatever it is you’re doing, it couldn’t get any better.”

This weekend the dynamic duo will hit Byron Bay for Splendour in the Grass. “It’s my first time at Splendour,” Johnny tells me candidly.

“Mine too!” I gush. We chat about our expectations for the event but ultimately, what I can expect from the event and what Johnny can expect are two vastly different things. While I will be drunkenly wiling away my three-day weekend and challenging my personal best for sheer volume of Mexican food consumed, Johnny will be expected to perform in front of a vast sea of people.

Fortunately, the boys of PARACHUTE YOUTH are no strangers to the spotlight, and prepared themselves for the spotlight long before it ever hit them. Before releasing their first single, they had a cohesive live show with a set-list chock full of original material.

“We didn’t want to come out and just be pushing buttons,” Johnny explains. “We wanted the live shows to be something really special. The reaction has been great, you know, considering that most people come to the shows knowing Can’t Get Better Than This or, you know, maybe one other track. Even the slower stuff, people react really well to. To be honest it’s been a lot easier than we expected.”

Even from the perspective of working with a label, it’s been easy for the two to get their way. “We certainly expected it to be a lot harder than it was. We expected to really have to put our foot down and say ‘no, this is the way we’re going to do things’. But really, the label [Sweat It Out] has been so encouraging and supportive, and it’s been great to have that opportunity to really grow as artists because of it.”

Perhaps the only thing that hasn’t gone as smoothly as could have been hoped for is the sudden dearth of information floating around purporting to concern the two boys. I myself committed the cardinal journalist sin when I asked Johnny how it had been living in Paris for some time, and if they would be returning after they had wrapped up their tour in a matter of weeks or staying in their homeland of Australia.

“Actually, we were only in France for a short while,” Johnny patiently tells me.

Awkward.

“There’s some really interesting information floating around out there, actually,” he reassures me. “I think they just want us to sound a bit cooler than we actually are. The other day I read that we were Lithuanian.”

“Have either of you been to Lithuania?” I ask.

“Nope.”

Parachute Youth have seen so much success on the back of Can’t Get Better Than This, which was truly the perfect track to fully encapsulate all of the duo’s talent, but for me one of the greatest indicators of their potential has always been the remixes that they’ve done for other artists, where they impart their truly unique and earnestly joyous sound onto the tracks of their friends and fellow artists.

Likewise, they themselves have been remixed by Australian heavyweights and favourites (most notably What So Not). “The What So Not remix is probably one of our favourites too,” Jonny intones.

“Do you ever hear a remix and say to yourself, ‘Damn it, why didn’t I think of that?!’” I ask. If I were ever able to piece together enough shreds of musical talent to produce a whole song, I know I’d listen to every single remix and take notes.

“Not really,” Jonny says. Clearly, a better artist than I. “I think everyone has their own spin on things. It’s great to hear those remixes; we love them. But we can enjoy what other people are doing and still be completely happy with what we’re doing.”

Check out Paces' remix of 'Can't Get Better Than This' HERE

As our time dwindles, we get to small talk about Splendour again, which seems to be the topic on everybody’s lips.

“You’ll have to come see us and say hi. We’ll stop the music in the middle of the set and remind you that you have to come see us.”

“Please don’t!” I insist. “I’ll cry.”

I don’t tell him that I would hate to be the one responsible if PARACHUTE YOUTH stopped the music for any amount of time.

PARACHUTE YOUTH playing Parklife 2012, visit PARKLIFE.COM for tickets and info

Words by Cheryl Billman

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