Raissa Pardini plays drums with UK quartet Loaded, whose demo last year for “Little Girl” immediately captured our affections with its perfect breezy Velvet Underground haze and attitude. It’s not a coincidence that the three gents who comprise the rest of Loaded—Jack, Henry, and Louis—all share the surname Wickett-Padgham; they are brothers. The band recently premiered the video for “Solitude,” the first single from an upcoming debut EP. Many thanks to Raissa for answering a few questions for WTSH.
Raissa,
how long have you been drumming? Do you play any other instruments?
Hi! I got trained as a piano player when I was
eight and I kind of tried to play anything I could since then really. Piano
gave me technique and rhythm, discipline and joy towards music. I still love
playing piano scores, it makes you feel great, as it feels like you are part of
the instrument. My dad taught me how to play bass a few years later and bought
me a Cort. Then I bought an electric guitar off a friend and started playing
power chords, similar to blues riffs, and little britpop melodies. I can play
the flute and the trumpet a little bit but wind instruments I'm not very
passionate about.
I eventually started to join some bands and was
attracted to the drums. It was a new world for me that I hadn't experienced
before. Early on, I would find myself playing drums while everyone was out of
the practice room for a cigarette. I joined a band as drummer for a few months
while I was living in Berlin a few years ago, but we were pretty punk, it was
easy. I started being a proper drummer just when Loaded formed, less than a
year ago.
How
did you get connected with Loaded? Had the three brothers been working together
as a group for a long time before you joined?
They have always been doing music together. They
used to be in another band before and they were looking to do something closer
to the music they were currently listening to, so they decided to start
practice on a new music project, looking for a drummer, which is always a
pain...ha. They couldn't find anyone for months. But being in the same circle
of friends made us connected and I eventually met them and told them I could
give it a go. I was playing organ in Charles Howl before
Loaded and I was looking for a different band. It seemed like perfect timing.
They've been friends for so long that they have
created an honest and clear confidence with each other. Confidence means
communication and communicating helps the band in the process of making things
better through constructive criticism. On the other hand, I was new to this
language when I first joined them, so I needed to know them better to be part
of it. It all worked well in the end.
Tell
us about the current single. How did “Solitude” come together as a song? What
prompted the band to pick that track for the upcoming video? Any cool stories
or fun had that you could relate about the process of doing this video?
Solitude was like a different page to the songs we
recorded when we started. It sounded so loud and heavy and it was what we were
looking for, more of a representation of our live shows. A good song to be
released as our first single. It feels like the right song to show what we are
worth, the right chance to get back in a studio and prove our talent. It has
all the influences we love most, a punk attitude played through a repetitive
melody.
Jack, our main guitarist, made the video so it was
fun to follow his updates. We would all sit in the living room drinking on
weekends and listen to our new records and he would just tell us, "Oh, by
the way, I worked more on the video today, want to check?" Ha. Of course
we would, people die when curiosity goes!
Can
you tell us about the upcoming EP? When can we expect that?
We are recording now our last two tracks of the
EP. It will be out soon. It will be called Starside.
