Preatures frontwoman reveals secret weapon
What looks like a plain white T-shirt and jeans is actually armour to The Preatures frontwoman Isabella Manfredi.
The singer considers her simple style, worn with an oversized denim jacket, as a way to keep her "real self" safe.
"I think having a uniform really helps. Like having something you wear that you just wear for every show," she tells AAP.
"It's kind of like putting on your armour before you go on stage."
The singer's signature style is purposefully plain, a look she says allows her to put in the energetic performances she's known for.
"Nothing should get in the way of what the performance is, and I tend to run around a lot on stage and jump around and do cartwheels or whatever," she says.
Manfredi sat down with The Preatures' guitarist Jack Moffitt in the band's studio space in Sydney on Monday as they gear up to launch their debut album.
In the process of talking about her onstage style, the duo also get on to talking about the band's forthcoming album, recorded in Austin, Texas with producer Jim Eno (drummer from Spoon) and finished in their own Sydney studio.
The result, Blue Planet Eyes, has been hotly anticipated since the band released their hit single Is This How You Feel last year - a song they say changed the course of their lives.
The Preatures pocketed $50,000 thanks to the song when they won the prestigious Vanda & Young songwriting competition.
"It (the prize money) just got us overseas pretty much and back," Manfredi says.
"It was a huge deal winning that for us I don't think we can really say that enough, how much it changed us."
That overseas trip got the band in front of labels, agents and managers, and helped them make their mark on the world of music, playing festivals such as Glastonbury, Coachella, South by Southwest and scoring them a slot on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.
Manfredi, as the band's songwriter, admits the only problem with writing a hit song is the expectation to write more of the same.
"We haven't really tried to write Is This How You Feel again. Maybe that was a mistake," she says.
"Maybe we should have gone and tried to make a record like Is This How You Feel, but as it was we're just not that sort of band."
However, the song is included alongside nine other tracks for their debut offering - 34 minutes of pop music by way of some soul licks, blues and a modicum of rock.
No doubt much of the album will feature when they support the Rolling Stones at Hanging Rock and the Hunter Valley during their tour Down Under in November, and when they headline their own national tour soon after.
"It's pretty surreal," Moffitt said of the prestigious support slot.
"They're such a glaring obvious paragon of popular music and that you're going to go and open a couple of shows for them, it's just a bit much."
It's a long way for a band who can put their first meeting down to some plain old-fashioned classroom behaviour at the Australian Institute of Music, where they were students.
Moffitt remembers sitting with the band's bass player Thomas Champion, at a window where the students went to smoke, when Manfredi came out and started quizzing them about blues music.
"We kind of scoffed at her, kind of like `what would you know' just very arrogant sort of 18-year-old male behaviour," Moffitt said.
"And then we started playing together not really sure why we were doing any of it, just that we were having a really good time."
Since then the band has found two more members, guitarist Gideon Bensen and drummer Luke Davison and at least they still seem to be having a really good time.
But they're under no illusions, particularly when it comes to their status as rock and rollers, admitting they probably won't be able to keep up with the Rolling Stones when it comes to backstage partying.
"They don't really make kids tough these days," Manfredi says.
"We're all sort of bred a bit weak," Moffitt agrees.
Blue Planet Eyes is released on Friday, September 26 and The Preatures will kick off a national tour on November 13 in Canberra.
