After spending the better part of the last twelve months tracking the progress PLTS have been making and turning into a fan of their music, it was a small reward to finally get to meet them in person. Though I had interviewed both Byron (guitar) and Kit (guitar,vox) on separate occasions I had yet to have the chance to meet them face to face.
Passing through a storm on the way to the small unit located in the industrial estate had reminded me of the ill-fated PLTS block party a couple of months beforehand (the evening had experienced torrential downpours to the extent it interfered with the power supply and the show had concluded early), with the difference being a few hundred less people jammed into the complex. Familiar tones greet me as I crossed the road and ventured through the carpark. I had forgotten the instructions given to me, but there was practically a painted audible line leading straight through the carpark into a door towards the source of the volume.
Four guys are holed up in a small room. It’s loud in here, but the vibe is thick. Mementoes from past tours line the walls, rugs line the floor and old pillows fill the gaps where the ceiling meets the wall. The wall itself has “Plts” painted in cursive on it’s face. Everyone greets me warmly and my first impression is they are a quintessentially Byron Bay bunch of dudes, and great Byron Bay dudes at that.
Kit offers to find me a set of earplugs and searches the room for a couple of minutes before returning unsuccessfully – but successfully – with a few sheets of toilet paper, and I spend the next two minutes crafting the exact size wad I need to fit my ears while exchanging banter with the band. After a couple of minutes Eli (bassist) is impatient to get into the “new stuff” and practice resumes shortly after. In what could possibly be a stroke of perfect timing, the first track to reverberate off the walls and through my makeshift earplugs is “On and On”. What a banger.
My initial intention in coming along to practice was to get to know the boy a little better to find out more about the people who make the band what it is. As it turns out though, the noisy concrete box is hardly the best place to do this so I settled for some imagery to try to capture the vibe of the hours and dedication required to bring vision to reality. After all, when we see a band killing it on stage as a cohesive unit it’s easy enough to forget about all the hard work and consistency behind the scenes that has lead to those moments we enjoy.
This year as you know, Falls Festival is allowing a band the chance to play the festival, and all it takes is your votes to make it happen. Voting is well under way at the moment, you can follow the link here and give our locals a chance to take an extra step towards their dreams.
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