THE PREATURES
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- Yours & Owls Music & Arts Festival
- October 3-4
- Stuart Park, Wollongong
- Tickets: yoursandowls.com.au/festival/
It took Isabella "Izzi" Manfredi a little while to feel comfortable listening to her own music.
The frontwoman of Sydney pop-rock band the Preatures says she would "recoil" if she heard her voice coming out of the speakers in the supermarket or the radio, but has since learned to embrace it.
"I remember right after the album [Planet Blue Eyes] came out, it really bothered me, I used to get really queasy about it," Manfredi says.
"I'd think that people were looking at me or something, or not want to be around in front of the sound of my own voice. But now I listen to it and I'm like, 'Yeah, I did all right'."
She has managed to remain anonymous to an extent, recalling a recent encounter in a Surry Hill shop where the sales assistant failed to realise that the voice behind the album she was pumping over the stereo belonged to her customer.
"This girl at the shop was playing the whole record, like, picking songs and choosing which songs she wanted to play," Manfredi says.
"She obviously knew the record, it wasn't like she'd just popped it on, and it was really strange because she served me and she was, like, kind of rude [laughs].
"Like, she had no idea and I was like, 'That's awesome. She has no idea'."
It won't be that way for too long though, with the Preatures' profile steadily rising since the release of Planet Blue Eyes in September last year.
The impressive debut, which combines a modern take on '70s rock with '80s pop, made its debut at No4 on the ARIA chart.
Manfredi formed the band in 2010 after meeting Jack Moffitt (guitar) - who is also her boyfriend - and Thomas Champion (bass) as students at the Australian Institute of Music, with Gideon Bensen (guitar/vocals) and Luke Davison (drums) completing the line-up.
The irresistibly catchy single Is This How You Feel? won praise not only in Australia but internationally, leading to appearances at Coachella, Glastonbury, Bonaroo and South By Southwest.
Somewhere in between all the touring, the band managed to set aside three weeks to write and record the debut album in Austin, Texas.
In hindsight, Manfredi says the timeline was not exactly ideal.
"We were in the middle of a lot of pretty heavy touring, so the recording was kind of sandwiched in there," she says.
"It was like 'OK, you'll go and make your debut record in this little pocket [of time] and no, you won't fall over in a heap and want to die. It will be great!'
"All up the record was made in about seven weeks.
"I just remember being so shattered afterwards. It almost killed me making that record. Which is funny because it's such a happy record."
The band is writing for its second album, which it aims to begin recording early in 2016.
In the meantime, the Preatures are hitting the road for a final lap around the country in support of their new single, Cruel, before retreating to the studio.
A natural frontwoman, Manfredi is a firecracker on stage.
"I love being on stage, I've always loved it."