Fruit Juice Parade Share Debut Collection + Interview

Te Papaioea emo duo fruit juice parade have shared their debut five track collection the more you don't know the less you know, ahead of a keenly anticipated all-ages tour of the North Island kicking off this Saturday. The team of Shannen Petersen and Tharushi Bowatte's songs get under your skin with their heart-on-their-sleeve lyricism, summery guitar jangle and angular percussive grooves. James Stuteley of friends and Papaiti Records label mates carb on carb caught up with the youthful combo for a chat about the new EP, musical life in Palmerston North and feelings around emo music - check out the tour details, listen to the more you don't know the less you know and read their conversation below...

fruit juice parade

Saturday 6th October - Palmerston North, The Stomach*
Saturday 13th October - Wellington, Upoko Alpine Resort*
Saturday 20th October - Palmerston North, Swampfest
Sunday 21st October - Palmerston North, Swampfest
Saturday 27th October - Auckland, Flying Out (afternoon)
Saturday 27th October - Auckland, The Vault*

Tickets available HERE via UTR*

Your all ages EP release tour starts tomorrow, how are you feeling about it?

Shannen: So excited! I’m very proud that the whole tour is all ages, I feel like it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to play R18 shows considering our age and how we grew up in the aa scene in party-north. I’m very curious to see how our shows at The Vault and Flying Out go actually, there seems to be a lack of aa shows in Auckland (at least compared to home). Also MEGA-HYPE to see Edie play!

Tharushi: Feeling very excited and grateful for the experiences we’ve had so far and will have. We’ve been playing for ages now so it’s nice to finally get to the next step and have music out and reach people in different cities.

You’ve played quite often over the last couple years, what is your favourite show you’ve played so far?

S: Is very hard to pick just one!! Hui Taurima a Papaiti #1, carb on carb’s album release show at Snails: Artist Run Spaces was probably the most wonderful show of my whole life. It was my 18th birthday, I got to see all my favourite bands in one place, carb on carb played 'Whaling' but switched out the words for ‘Happy Birthday’. Will never ever forget that one. I had a pretty great time at the Sad by Sad South Wellington show at Princess Bay in 2017, too.

T: I loved playing 'Sad' by Sad South. I think it was our first time playing out of Palmy and so in that sense was a big milestone for us. We got to meet a lot of new, interesting and kind people. It was also just a really beautiful day, our friends came along and we were taken care of so generously. I really felt like we were part of something wonderful.

I’ve grown to see growing up (and playing music) in small town NZ as a blessing in disguise, how you do you feel about it right now?

S: Palmerston North may look boring aaasss to the big city slickers, and they often underestimate just how fun it is. Te Papaioea is flat as! Good for riding your bicycle but no good for standing at the top of the hill to look at the view, because there is no hill (Porkchop Hill does not count – no one goes there to look at the view). We have The Stomach, and The Stomach has us. Take it from me, there really is no better place to grow up playing ya musics and slayin the game all while being under the age of eighteen. Without the support of the PN music scene I would still be in my bedroom songwriting shell. And for my solo things I still kind of am, but it is very comforting to know that I can play my set at Snails or at The Tummy and have people come to the show. That’s just the sort of place we live in. Ka pai, p-sauce.

T: I think there’s a big misconception that people in small towns are simple-minded and lead simple lives. In actuality, people here face the complexities of life just as much as any other person. We can just internalise them in our own time because things aren’t as fast-paced or distracting. Nobody is simple, but we aren’t over-stimulated. I’ve found that every aspect of a place like Palmy can be broken down into hundreds of nuances. It makes it a fascinating place because nothing is as frank or literal as it may seem. It’s all just layers of subtleties that you can strip down to a shared essence. Once you get used to unpacking nuance there is SO much material for lyrics and makes what we have to say just as unique as it is universal. Music that comes out of Palmy is very distinctly intelligent and contemplative.

Also, the sense of community is incredible and people really look out for each other. I think because it’s a small town and there’s nothing much to do, people develop hobbies and commit to them. There’s nothing distracting us from focusing on what really matters to us. Nobody is pretentious, everybody is well-practiced and the music is extremely varied in shape and colour.

How would you describe the main theme of the EP?

S: ’the more you don’t know the less you know’ is about growing up in Palmerston North. We wrote over the last year and a half or so, it is us getting ready to be adults and leave home for realskies. The EP is a bunch of songs that explore that; Tharushi’s lyrics are very personal to both of us and the way we write makes it very easy to put one million feelings into everything. The songs are things we felt, things that happened, things that shouldn’t happen but still do.

T: I’d say the EP speaks to adolescence itself. Some songs are just ruthless sarcasm whereas others are vulnerable and mellow. It’s a good mix of the head strong, cynical teen with the agitated, helpless teen. If you deconstruct it a little more I’d say that every single lyric was informed by living in Palmerston North. It’s both a conservative but progressive town. It pushes forward and then pulls back. I’d like to think that comes across in the EP.

What happens next? As a fellow emo band, what does ‘emo’ mean to you?

S: What happens next is we move to Wellington and get degrees! The end is not now.

I think about emo music being literally that – emotional music. Someone once questioned me about why we call ourselves an emo band, because we don’t sound like a typical 2000s Fall Out Boy emo band. It was kind of weird to have to justify it – emo is way more broad than Fall Out Boy (no shade, I love them – pre hiatus). It’s scary but exciting to be so open about things through your music, and I really like seeing how people react to ours. Emo music is music that makes you feel things, we make music that is based on our feels. We are the definition of emo, cos we say so.

T: We’ll probably just keep writing music and keep playing shows. We’re going to have to accept the weight of adulthood at some point but for now we can ignore it…

I love being “emo.” Emotions are a quintessential human feature and being able to translate them to music is an indescribable feeling. I’m grateful that we have a platform to express our emotions. A lot of people neglect them and let them built up, which is dangerous. We’re lucky to have this outlet.

I also think it’s a privilege in general to be a part of the NZ emo community. Everybody we’ve met is generous, kind and do things with this amazing sensitivity that is unique to the community. It’s quite exceptional.