FEATURE: Spotlight: The Last Dinner Party

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

The Last Dinner Party

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EVEN though they have released…

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

the one single, Nothing Matters, there is a certain irony in that title – as everything matters about the group and their rise. The Last Dinner Party comprises vocalist Abigail Morris, bassist Georgia Davies, keyboardist Aurora Nishevci and guitarists Lizzie Mayland and Emily Roberts. They gained huge excitement and acclaim from their live shows. Even though they are the genuine article and a group that are going to get far, there has been a lot of backlash and cynicism. Many accusing the group of being industry plants, given their very slick and sudden rise. The truth is that this professional, talented and tight-knight group are slick and almost too good to be true because they have experience and a natural ability. They have had to face comments and doubts – and they have done so with grace and calm. The truth is this: Why should a great and genuine group of women have to defend themselves when a male group in the same position would not have received the same flack and lack of respect? Writing for The Independent, Jessie Thompson exposed a double standards in the industry:

“If you haven’t heard of The Last Dinner Party, or heard anyone arguing about them, then they have been compared, variously, to Kate Bush, Sparks, Florence and the Machine, Queen and Abba. They dress like extras from Pride and Prejudice (the 2005 version), tearing about the countryside in floaty white dresses in their music video, and they feel like the kind of band tailormade for over-crammed basement gigs with sticky floors and sweaty dancing. I encountered the discourse before the buzz, which was discombobulating, but when I actually listened to “Nothing Matters”, my verdict was swift: total banger. “It just sounds like Abba,” my boyfriend said, before telling me to stop playing it so much. (In fairness, I did get self-conscious about singing a chorus that goes “and I will f*** you, ’til nothing matters” in earshot of my nice neighbours.)

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I’m not a “music person”, and in the past that’s made me self-conscious about my taste. I’ll never forget the time a man sneered at me for wearing a band T-shirt to a gig (I was happy to be there!) and imagine how I felt when, aged 12, I learnt that Avril Lavigne was “a poseur”? Complicated, indeed. I was even, for a while, hesitant to admit I really liked The Last Dinner Party’s song. Am I, I pondered, simply tacky, gauche and basic? Yes, but the point I’m trying to make is that music world snobbery about “authenticity” can be just as oppressive as the PR-confected hype about hot young things that it is so affronted by. But not only does it make people – often women – feel as though the things they love should be looked upon with disdain, it also regularly results in something more depressing: female artists having to defend themselves.

The Last Dinner Party have already addressed accusations that they were put together by a label, saying on Twitter that “this is just a nasty lie. We weren’t put together like a K-pop girl group, we’ve known each other since we were 18 as we met during freshers week, there are videos of us playing live as an unsigned band all last year and we got signed from those.” For whatever reason – the mind-blowing sight of, I don’t know, women out of the house late at night playing musical instruments? – it is female artists who are most often accused of not really being successful on their own merits, or in command of their own creativity. Wet Leg faced similar criticisms as The Last Dinner Party, while Scandi pop star Sigrid last year admitted questions about her verisimilitude had upset her. “That feels like I’m being discredited, both for my talent but also for all the f***ing hours I’ve spent at the piano working,” she said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

What’s even more frustrating about the pushback to The Last Dinner Party, though, is how it undermines recent – justified – outrage at the ongoing lack of women getting festival headline slots. That, and the fact that no female artists were nominated for this year’s Artist of the Year award at the Brits. Many agreed that the problem was structural – not that women aren’t good enough, but the industry isn’t doing enough to develop them to the heights of their male counterparts. And yet, The Last Dinner Party have been given its backing, and that’s not seen as a positive thing.

Anyway, no number of slick, glossy PR campaigns or media hype can really make people like something. I’ve watched enough heavily trailed “voice of a generation!” debut novels sink without a trace to know that you can lead the public to your heavily publicised product, but you can’t make them buy it. Whether The Last Dinner Party’s second song is as good as their first, we’ll have to wait and see. But a young, talented female band, having to justify their existence in a landscape where female artists already find it hard to get heard? Nothing matters, they say – but I think perhaps that does”.

Even though the debut single has only been out a short time (it came out on 19th April), there is talk of a debut album. The group have said it is coming, which will further add to the excitement and buzz around their music. Normally, when you get a group of women in a group, they are called a ‘girl band’. That is a distinct sound and type of music. The Last Dinner Party are less Pop and R&B-driven - and they are more Indie. I want to get to some interviews – and a live review – with the group. The London group of sisters (in the friendship sense, rather than the literal) are putting down their mark and announcing themselves as worthy of all the hype that has come their way. Expect them to release one hell of a debut album! Before getting to the first interview, CLASH wrote about the attention surrounding The Last Dinner Party. They highlight at some industry truths that affect a lot of artists – and they also discuss how there is definite sexism being the ‘industry plant’ claims:

“In hype terms, however, what goes up must come back down. With plaudits fluttering underneath their wings, cynics emerging online to bring the band back down to Earth. The rollout was all too slick, too planned, too finessed – something must be amiss. “Aha – they’re an industry plant, don’t you see…?”

The case – or so the naysayers believe – is open and close. The Last Dinner Party are managed by a huge company – Qprime, who also look after a plethora of rock gods, from Metallica to Muse, and back again. They’ve just signed to Island Records. They gained the front page of BEAT without releasing a single note of music – surely a sign of Machiavellian conversations. And they supported the actual Rolling Stones last summer.

This last point is the easiest to refute. The Last Dinner Party were booked to play BST Hyde Park, which is in essence a festival. They were bottom of the bill, and appeared alongside such heavyweights as Vista Kicks, JJ Rosa, and Kelly McGrath. It’s an opportunity a lot of other groups have grabbed with both hands – Clash saw sleaford mods play a very similar support slot to The Who in 2015, and nobody calls Jason Williamson an industry plant. Plus, who goes to a Rolling Stones show to see a bottom-of-the-bill support act? You spend half the day queuing at the bar.

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

It’s all part of a wider conversation on privilege, one amplified by the lack of opportunities. Recent statistics showed that around 75% of musicians lose money on their releases – from just-about-breaking-even to thoroughly bankrupting themselves in pursuit of a dream. Media outlets have tumbled – PAPER Magazine shuttered overnight, for instance – meaning that there simply isn’t the press landscape required to filter all this music. It’s no surprise that people are angry – they’re losing money hand over fist, while some seem to rise effortlessly out of the darkness. It is – absolutely – a broken system. The Last Dinner Party received a much-needed hand of assistance from their management company, and most don’t.

And perhaps this is the part that sticks. For many bands, spending 12 months touring, rehearsing, working on your music is a dream almost beyond belief. For most musicians, the art becomes something they attend to in the wee small hours, when the hustle and grind of the day-to-day has been dealt with. It’s working shit jobs, on low pay, and trying to find an affordable rehearsal room with electrics that actually work which becomes the issue.

Some poked fun at their rise, and the associated social media bluster. Yet others aren’t as charitable. Some of the vitriol and venom aimed at The Last Dinner Party by online accounts feels woefully over the top, long since detached from facts. Indeed, the term ‘industry plant’ itself is hopelessly vague, and more a criticism of opaque marketing, and a general, undefinable sense of inauthenticity, than any actual intersection with the music. It’s reminiscent of old rockist thinking – we mean it, man! – and as such it’s little wonder that this libel is so frequently lobbed at young female musicians”.

Around the release of Nothing Matters, there was a lot of press interviews and spotlighting. Releasing one of the best and most original singles of the year, The Last Dinner Party could be on a trajectory that sees them win awards and headline festivals! DAZED spoke with the group around the release of their debut single:

“Despite the pressure of the hype machine, the group – who all met at university in London – remain confident and undaunted. Their long-awaited debut single “Nothing Matters” is a seductively crude and unashamedly vulnerable love song, produced by Last Shadow Puppets’ James Ford, who has previously collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine. In the captivating accompanying music video, directed by Saorla Houston and the band themselves, they invite us into their world of gothic high drama, complete with masterfully placed references to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and Mulholland Drive. It’s a lavish, theatrical insight into the depths of the feminine psyche.

Following the release of “Nothing Matters,” we caught up with The Last Dinner Party vocalist Abigail Morris to discuss the new single, the importance of styling, and what the future holds for the band.

Firstly, you guys sound like you were born to make music together. How did you all meet each other?

Abigail Morris: We all met in our first year of university and bonded over our obsession with the London live music scene. Our friendship and the genesis of the band formed over many nights of going to gigs together.

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

You recently released the music video for “Nothing Matters”. How did you come up with the concept for the video?

Abigail Morris: It was inspired by a lot of our favourite films; The Virgin Suicides (1993), Daisies (1966), Black Swan (2010), Mulholland Drive (2001). We wanted to create something visually striking, rich and decadent to go with the music.

How important are fashion and styling in the identity of your band? Do you have any style inspirations at the moment?

Abigail Morris: We’ve always known that our visuals as a band are just as important as the sound, so that’s something we put a lot of care and effort into. At the moment we love Chloë Sevigny and the medieval-core wave.

You’ve been in the studio working alongside James Ford. How has that been?

Abigail Morris: Incredible. It was a complete honour and experience of a lifetime to work with someone who is not only absurdly talented, but immensely kind and encouraging.

You have had such a sudden, electric emergence in the music world. Are there any big dreams in particular that you are working towards?

Abigail Morris: One day we’d like to make a concept album with a short film to go with it – something in the folk horror realm. And to tour Australia!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

NME are big fans and champions of The Last Dinner Party. With a remarkable debut out in the world, there are eyes on the stunning group. I think they are going to have a very busy next year or so. Let us hope that there are no more doubts about their authenticity and place in the industry:

“You mentioned you’ve been recording quite a bit. Is there a finished album hidden away somewhere?

Abigail: “I don’t know if we’re at liberty to answer that question. It’s coming, you know, it’s alive. We did it in Church Studios in Crouch Hill, with [Arctic Monkeys and Foals producer] James Ford, who’s a fucking wonderful, kind, talented man, who really just understood us in a way that no one else has musically. It was just a complete dream come true. There’s been so much intensity around us for so long, so it was nice to have that month of peace.”

Georgia: “We’ll have more music by the end of the year.”

Aurora: “Some things that we play now are not on there, but they might come back in the future.”

Abigail: “I feel like the album, in its state now, wouldn’t be the case if we hadn’t been playing live for so long. We were really able to do a lot of experimenting and feeling the emotion of the songs live, and I think that’s informed it.”

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We’re right around the corner from The Windmill, where you played one of your earliest shows. What kind of role has that venue and the scene around it played in the journey of The Last Dinner Party?

Abigail: “When we first moved to London, we would go every week. Something felt exciting and alive about it, especially with bands like Black Midi and HMLTD. They were also doing it in this way that started with playing live first, and there’s this whole mystery around it”.

Georgia: “I feel like The Windmill scene is going to be looked back on as this musical ethos, and its own genre and scene. It felt like being part of something going to those gigs. We didn’t really realise it at the time, but it was like conducting research.”

Abigail: “I wouldn’t say we’re a south London Windmill band, per se, but I think it’s definitely informed our history. Our M.O. is maximalism, having fun, trying really hard, at all times.”

That sense of fun seems to be the total anthesis of a lot of very earnest indie bands, whose whole schtick is being very nonchalant and accidentally talented, almost…

Abigail: “Nonchalance is a dirty word! We just want to have fun. We want to be happy. And I think that’s what we want people to take away when they come.”

Aurora: “And not being apologetic about it!”

Georgia: “People are always going to try and drag you down for trying hard, but so be it”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Press

Before ending with a live review of one of their shows, I am going to turn it over to DORK. They put them on their cover in April. I didn’t realise that The Last Dinner Party were sort of coming together and starting out during lockdown. Through that time, there must have been frustration about not being able to launch their music into the world:

“Nothing Matters’ is, according to Abigail, “the truest love song I could have written at the time. I wanted to capture that sense of unbridled, untamed love that’s also a little perverse. I set out to write the best love song I could, and this is what we ended up with.”

Full of “Americana vibes”, the band liken the track to Nicolas Cage film Wild At Heart. “It’s got that energy of a runaway horse in a desert,” says Abigail. What about musical influences? “The songs take more inspiration from cinema and how they feel than bands,” says Georgia. “It’s more nebulous than saying ‘let’s do a shoegaze song’.”

As for that absolutely ridiculous guitar solo which Abigail calls “fucking iconic” and “definitely one of the best live moments of the show,” that came about after a producer put a load of glitch stuff over the original classic rock-inspired solo”.

“I realised that might be a sign that it wasn’t good enough,” says Emily, who went away over Christmas and worked on it. “I knew what I didn’t want to do. By eliminating those things, I found the thing I did want to do.”

The Last Dinner Party formed like a lot of groups do – five friends attended a bunch of gigs and wanted to do something similar. “We wanted to look like we were having more fun than some of the bands we’d seen at the Windmill, though,” says Georgia with a smirk while a formative moment for Abigail came while watching Lucia And The Best Boys. “I was in awe of her,” she explains. “Seeing this really fucking powerful woman who was also incredibly kind and joyful was really inspiring.”

Lockdown meant that the first couple of years of The Last Dinner Party’s existence were a bit of a struggle. “It was so demoralising having one practice, then not being able to see each other for three months,” says Lizzie. There was also a period where the band would just play ‘Burn Alive’ over and over because they “couldn’t get past that first song.”

They persevered, though, and now “everything really feels like it’s in its right place,” says Georgia. “After the tumultuous beginnings, it feels like things have come together.”

“Oh, something’s going to go wrong,” warns Lizzie with a smile. “It’s going to be chaos.”

The Last Dinner Party are speaking to Dork the morning after a commanding headline show at The George, which just so happens to be the same venue where they played that very first gig in November 2021. “We’re a lot more confident now,” says Georgia.

“Every time we’ve played since that first gig, we’ve just added more things,” adds Abigail before listing off five-part harmonies, guitar solos, mandolin, and flute sections. “We just keep trying to step everything up.”

“We’ve become a lot closer as friends,” she continues. “We’re more comfortable onstage, more intuitive of how everyone’s feeling and know what everyone can bring to the band. That’s really just done wonders for our sound.”

So why have The Last Dinner Party waited until now to release music?

“We wanted the interest to build up a bit more organically. We wanted the live show to be the centre of what we were about, rather than a song or two we’d released on Spotify,” says Abigail. The idea was that by the time it came to actually releasing music, “it would be more meaningful for us and the people who’d seen us live.”

After keeping people waiting, the band aren’t fazed by the hype. “People talk about us being this buzzy thing, but no one’s saying it to our faces,” says Lizzie, who prefers it that way. “We do our shows, we hang out, we make music. It doesn’t feel like too much pressure. Hopefully, the song will get a good reaction, and people will care about it. That’s good enough for me.”

“We’ve worked so hard on it and feel so good about the whole album. We do just feel confident, peaceful and ready to put it out,” adds Abigail. “We’re not worried about living up to anything because this is just what we love to do. There’s no other reason we’re doing this than pure joy.

“Come back to us after we’ve dropped a few singles, though – we’ll be so fucking jaded,” she adds with a laugh.

“Our own expectations are the most important thing to match,” continues Georgia. “And we surpassed those fucking ages ago when they were ‘it would be nice to play some gigs’.”

The Last Dinner Party’s ambitions now involve “keep going, keep getting bigger and Wembley”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie MacMillan for NME

On 25th April, The Last Dinner Party played in Camden. With many people watching them to see if they would be able to translate their incredible music and chemistry to the stage, NME extinguished all doubts with their review. It was a triumphant, electric and memorable gig that showed that The Last Dinner Party are very much here for the long run:

“A glut of fancy dress costumes wouldn’t typically raise an eyebrow in any one of Camden’s characterful venues, but the attire on parade at the Assembly this evening (April 25) is quite extraordinary. Glittering eye masks refract against a giant mirrorball, which twirls around above a sea of giant pearls, bowler hats, corsets, and steampunk goggles. Hell, even the roaming photographer is decked out in black tie.

But at The Last Dinner Party’s biggest headline show to date, costume isn’t so much encouraged, but practically obligatory. The five-piece have crafted an aesthetic that drips with a level of dark excess, donning Renaissance-period gowns for all of their press shots and using gothic font for their visuals. Their arrival on stage is already foreshadowed by expectation; on paper, the band have had just one track out, but this 220-capacity room is sold-out, likewise every UK date they have announced for this spring.

Last week, after a year of building word-of-mouth buzz from touring the London circuit – and opening up for, er, The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park – the band put out their hotly-anticipated debut single, ‘Nothing Matters’. A lightning-in-a-bottle hit, the track has dominated timelines and caused a press furore; tonight, it is greeted with eye-wateringly loud screams, to the point lead vocalist Abigail Morris resorts to singing through laughter, momentarily pausing to cover her mouth in disbelief.

A level of intensity was to be expected. The Last Dinner Party’s earliest gigs were recorded professionally and uploaded to YouTube last year, offering fans an early taste of their Sparks-indebted pop melodrama, which is accentuated in a live setting by surprise flute solos and meticulously rehearsed arrangements. Resplendent in a black leotard, Morris plays up to the poorly-hidden film cameras tonight, acting out the lyrics to the brooding ‘Burn Alive’ with her hands, and blowing kisses to the crowd while the band indulge in some monastic chanting on ‘Beautiful Boy’. She’s a wickedly confident leader, unflinching as she embodies the group’s commitment to fun.

Even better is ‘Portrait Of A Dead Girl’, a storm of forthright sexuality and humour. Morris’ voice rings out, lustful and carnivorous, while the rest of the band seem to have devised a way of creating a faintly preposterous – and yet undeniably lively – racket that could have been ripped straight from Fantasia. They can sound composed and majestic, or conjure up wild masses of noise, often within the space of the same chorus.

The Last Dinner Party’s ability to go straight from something as potent and wrenching as slow-burning ballad ‘Mirror’ to hamming up the theatrics of ‘Lady Of Mercy’ is a hugely impressive skill: even this early on in their career, on stage, they prove to be masters of contrast. It’s impossibly beautiful, ecstatic and ridiculous all at once”.

I am going to end it there. Go and follow The Last Dinner Party. They are making their first steps but, following the reaction to Nothing Matters and their live clout, this is a group that are going to deliver a lot more remarkable music. Abigail Morris, Georgia Davies, Aurora Nishevci, Lizzie Mayland and Emily Roberts are so tight and close. You can tell their friendship is pure and unbreakable! This connection and chemistry comes out in the music and their live gigs. If The Last Dinner Party send out their invitation, be sure that…