PREATURES ESCAPE DOLDRUMS WITH CLEARMOUNTAIN
I’ve brought The Preatures’ producer/ guitarist, Jack Moffitt, to a BBQ joint… and he’s a vegan. It was a rough start, but he feigned a real interest in his bowl of house-made pickles like a true gentleman and we got stuck into the beer and conversation.
Around five years ago, he and fellow Preatures, including vocalist Izzy Manfredi (who’s guested on a couple of Flume tracks, including the Holden ad-powering tune Trust), set up camp in a Surrey Hills warehouse. “It’s one of those innocuous buildings near Central Station,” said Moffitt, who explained it’s been in the hands of the Sydney music scene for some time. “It was a performance space called Doldrums [a name they’ve kept] where we used to go see bands play. It was run by a friend of ours who moved away and Seekae moved in with Ghoul. Then Izzy became friends with Alex Cameron from Seekae, who were thinking about moving on from it.”
Originally it remained a collective; Seekae’s John Hassell was living there at the time, and the space was split between Seekae, The Preatures and another band called Bear Hug. When the others vacated, The Preatures took on the lease, Moffitt pooled his collection of gear and they began recording demos for their EP, Is This Is How You Feel?.
Five years on, and the Preatures have turned it into their own creative hub. “Izzy has a little office as you walk in the door,” described Moffitt. “She’s a writer, and great
