INTERVIEW W/ Prima Queen: "It’s like having a secret you’ve been holding on to for years"!

Trans-atlantic Indie-Pop duo Prima Queen is a project built with friendship. Their spellbinding melodies, poignant songwriting and soft, yet powerful soundscapes comparable to HAIM are enrapturing. Yet, it is the relationship between Louise Macphail and Kristin McFadden that gives the band such a rich character.

Having just released their debut record ‘The Prize’ via Submarine Cat Records, they are set to embark on a UK tour including an album launch show at The Jacaranda, Liverpool on May 3rd (tickets available here). We caught up with the duo to chat about the feelings behind a debut album, a lifelong friendship and the first time touring your record.

Photo Credit: Kiera Simpson

Q. Can you put into words how it feels to finally reach the point of releasing your debut album? 

"It’s like having a secret you’ve been holding on to for years - we recorded the album at the end of 2023 so now that it’s finally coming out it feels a bit surreal, but it was so nice to have time to really be intentional about the entire thing - the title track “The Prize” wasn’t written/recorded until 6 months after we thought we finished the record! Our relationship to the songs always changes once they're out in the world, so it’s very exciting now that people are hearing it".

Q. How do you feel you have developed and grown as a band since your debut single? 

"The album has a lot of themes around growth because all the songs are stories and conversations from a 9 year stretch of time in our lives. There are different versions of ourselves within these songs, and we think you can hear that as you listen through. There’s a lot of coming to peace with yourself and the past. While we were recording this album we were able to experiment more than we ever had before and our producer Steph Marziano really enabled us to find our most authentic sound. We just had so much fun in the studio and throughout the entire process and we grew so much as a band in so many ways". 

Q. Is there a track on the new album that defines the whole project in your mind? 

"Probably the album track 'The Prize' -  we really struggled with coming up with a title for the album, we knew we wanted it to be short and punchy and we wanted it to represent the accumulation of strength we were feeling while we were finishing the album. We had lots of ideas but nothing felt quite right. Then a few months later, we went into the studio with our producer, Steph Marziano and wrote the song “The Prize” which felt like it summed up the album so well. It ties the album together and feels like subconsciously we knew that it was what the album was missing almost like the album is an essay and it was missing the conclusion. So even though we thought the album was finished, we knew we had to add 'The Prize' and that it was the perfect name for the album". 

Q. How important is friendship to Prima Queen?

"Friendship is at the heart of all that we do - it’s hard to imagine doing what we’re doing alone. Doing it with your best friend makes the wins feel sweeter and lows feel less low because you can pick each other back up again. Everything feels easier when you’re doing it with someone you love!".

Q. Can you tell us the story of how you decided to stay together and make music even when you were on opposite sides of the world? 

"It didn’t feel like there was another option. We texted and factimed every day and started writing songs remotely".

Q. What kind of moments would you say you make music for? 

"Seeing people singing our lyrics back to us at gigs!".

Q. What album track are you most looking forward to playing live? 

"After touring our EP ‘Not The Baby’ we were thinking a lot about which songs we loved to play live, and how we wanted the album to feel when we played it. We were really inspired by shows that were high energy, fun and left you feeling amazing after you left. Wanting to make a show like that made us think a lot about the songs we wanted to choose for the album and how they would be produced. You can see that on the higher energy songs like “The Prize,” “Oats,” “Ugly,” and “Fool” and we love playing all of these live. We wanted to keep storytelling at the heart of the album but we also wanted to create a whole world, which can be challenging within the time constraint of an EP. 

Q. Do you write songs with your live performance in mind?

"Before the album we’d always written our arrangements with the view of being able to play them live with just two guitars, bass and drums but making an album for the first time allowed us to pick songs that we knew we wouldn’t have to play live or be singles so we were able to be more creative with those songs. For example, we brought Sunshine Song in as a stripped back simple song and then we decided to add a crazy section in the middle with 7 key changes and wild glitches which would make it a bit of a nightmare to play live. It was freeing to be able to show different sides of us as a band with both upbeat and more intimate and experimental moments".