PREMIERE: Quench Your Pop-Rock Thirst With Pretty Thrills’ New Track ‘Sober’

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Ebony Story

There’s a new band on the block and they’re called Pretty Thrills! The quartet are Sydney’s latest pop-rock band and they’re not letting COVID-19 stop them. Think Hands Like Houses, PVRIS with a little dash of Panic! At The Disco.

Pretty Thrills are stoked to be delivering their second single ‘Sober‘ which features spacious, clean guitar tones, some sweet, sweet synths and vocals that show an impressive ability to range from soft to powerful.

We grabbed a hold of the band to find out a little bit more about them, the new single and how they’re handling being a new band in our virus ridden world.

New band on the block! Hello Pretty Thrills, let’s get to know you all: who are you, what’s your role in the band and tell us one thing you’re doing to survive isolation?

Hey! So I’m Max Donnellan the lead singer and guitar player in Pretty Thrills. We’re a 4-piece pop-rock band from Sydney made up of myself, my brother Bryce Donnellan on bass guitar, Kai Weinbeck on lead guitar and Josh Bernard on the drums. I’m going a bit crazy during this isolation period but I’ve been writing songs nearly every day to keep myself somewhat sane (laughs)!

Your debut single ‘Flames’ was released in October, how does it feel with your music finally out in the world?

With the release of ‘Flames’ it was a mixture of nerves and excitement to get our music out into the world, but it was well received and we were stoked at the response we got. With the second single ‘Sober’ we’ve tightened up as a band with the addition of Kai because he’s a great guitar player and an even better dude.

Let’s talk about your second single ‘Sober’ (which I am loving, by the way), how did this track come together?

I wrote ‘Sober’ a little while back about a relationship I was in a while ago which kinda fell apart and we’d both get drunk and say things we didn’t mean and rip the proverbial band-aid off instead of letting ourselves heal and give each other the space we needed to move on. Everyone says things they don’t necessarily mean or aren’t totally true when they’ve had one too many drinks and I tried to capture that in this song. It was written super fast and came together really well with our producer Nat Sherwood and I think we did a good job of capturing those emotions. Josh nailed this one on the drums and Bryce kept it super tight with his incredible rhythm.

You have some very sweet synths in there, who are you guys listening to at the moment?

I’m glad you mentioned the synths! That was one of the parts of the song which I really love and I think they really add to the vibe of the song. Right now I’m listening to bands like The 1975, Twenty One Pilots, Bring Me The Horizon, Oasis, The Beatles and I’m loving The Weeknd’s new record.

I’m sure that COVID-19 has thrown a spanner in the works for you guys along with so many other new bands, but how are you coping and planning for the future?

Yeah, COVID-19 has definitely thrown a spanner in the works for us. We were supposed to be playing our debut show at Frankies Pizza in May but that one has definitely been put on hold for the time being, but as soon as this is all over we’re definitely going to need to play because otherwise I’ll go mad (laughs).

Once we’re all allowed outside again and life can go back to ‘normal’, what’s the first thing you’d like to do?

The first thing I’m gonna do when we’re allowed outside again is to crack a beer with the lads and play some tunes because I miss it now more than ever. I’ve got a bunch of stuff written that I wanna get tight so we can debut it when this is all over.

And lastly, what’s something you’d like to achieve by the time this year ticks over into 2021?

When this year ticks over into 2021 we’ll have our EP out into the world and we’ve just finished the follow-up single which will be ready for release after the EP drops. This time next year I’d like to have played a bunch of shows and release a few more tunes into the world. These are weird times we’re living in but it’s given me a lot of time alone writing songs so we’ll definitely have dropped a bunch of stuff by this time next year.

Interview by Ebony Story

Check out the band on Facebook, Instagram and Soundcloud