INTERVIEW: Purple Drapes On How Sitcoms Inspired His Debut Single ‘Richard’
Purple Drapes. Photo by Jordan Munns.
There’s no doubt that Sydney musician Purple Drapes has been raised by TV. His artist moniker is a nod to The Simpsons, while the title of his debut single, Richard, is a reference to Friends. Richard is a lo-fi gem of a track that really does chuck a whole host of genres into a blender, with a healthy splash of pop sensibility to top it off. It’s undeniably catchy.
I spoke to Purple Drapes about his favourite sitcoms, as well as which 90s TV character he most identifies with. It’s a really interesting chat, and one that’s full of nostalgia, so check out Richard and read on!
Ben Madden: Firstly, can you introduce yourself and your music?
Purple Drapes: Hello, my name is Jared and this is my project, Purple Drapes. Purple Drapes is the love child of lofi and pop, with a good old splash of 90s Hip Hop. It’s a solo project that I’ve been working on for the last 6 months. I write these songs in a home studio I’ve built in a dimly lit wine cellar underneath a house in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It’s filled with crappy gear that I love to death.
You’ve just released your debut song, Richard – can you tell me about the inspiration behind the track?
Richard is a tongue-in-cheek, desperate love song that deals with one topic - your true love leaving you for a better person. It came from two main inspirations; the first is the fact that Richard can be shortened to ‘dick’, and I just couldn’t find a better way to say ‘you’re leaving me’ - than saying you’re leaving me for a dick.
The second inspiration came from the sitcom Friends. To all the avid sitcom watchers out there - Richard is inspired by the character Richard, who appears in Friends. Overall Richard is someone whom I deem to be a pretty classy fella, someone who really has his life together. As someone who personally identifies as a little bit of a smart arse (think more of a Chandler), Richard is someone to look up to. A better version of myself, and that’s who my love is leaving me for. Screw that guy.
What are your top 5 favourite sitcoms and why?
The Simpsons
Without a doubt my favourite by far. That's actually where the artist name Purple Drapes came from - if you know you know. It’s definitely the most iconic show from my childhood, I have too many memories of waiting for the Fox 8 marathons they had on Saturday mornings. It’s just so good and way too quotable. I actually have a tattoo on my ankle on the ‘Stonecutters’ symbol, a matching one with my sister. I can watch everything up until about season nine on repeat.
Seinfeld
I can’t not include this. The most classic out of the classics. A beautiful show about nothing. This is another one that I would watch sporadically and have random memories pop in and out of my brain referring to it. I don’t think I’ve ever bought soup (or anything that’s close to soup) and not said “no soup for you”.
My first proper electric guitar that I bought about 10 years ago has a sticker of Kramer on the inside of it. It’s the scene when he sculls a beer while smoking a cigarette with the quote “here’s to feeling good all the time”, and I just think those are some damn wise words to live by.
Friends
As previously mentioned was a big inspiration for my debut single Richard. This is one I always watched sporadically as a kid, with random episodes playing every now and then. But recently I sat down and watched all nine seasons of this bad boy and it solidified my love of sitcoms. That was hours of my life that I can say I happily wasted. The characters are great - Chandler is my personal fave, followed closely by Rachel. Just gotta love a bit of humour in the big city.
BoJack Horseman
A bit more modern, but no less of a future classic. This one plays on some damn heavy themes and sometimes makes me think about life a little bit too much, but I love the way it’s animated. Will Arnett, who voices Bojack, is also a fave of mine - Arrested Development just missed out on this top five! Also having a theme song by Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) is one of the biggest baddest moves ever. Every time it plays I get some big ol’ goosebumps.
How I Met Your Mother
A pretty close show to Friends but still great nonetheless. I didn’t think I’d enjoy this show as much as I did - only watched it for the first time over the COVID lockdown period last year, when binge-watching Netflix was pretty second nature. However, I love the characters and the humour. You ever want to just find an Irish pub in New York and call it home?
You’ve previously played as part of a new-wave band – when you’re producing, what lessons carry over from playing live into your production?
I played with my new wave band Doko for over 5 years, including a heap of monthly gigs. I think having experience playing live really made a big impact on how I write songs and what instrumentation I now incorporate into my music. Having only really played guitar for a long time, I now like to venture into different electronic and digital sounds with production on the newer songs.
There’s this old Casio keyboard that probably spent the last 15 years in my garage gathering dust and now I put it on every song. Just sounds warbly and whack but so damn nice! Playing live has definitely shown me a big perspective into what flows the best in terms of song structures and catchy melodies - ‘less is more’ will always be my philosophy now.
If you could soundtrack any classic sitcom, which one would you choose?
Daria. Without a doubt. Not gonna lie, the music in that show is probably the farthest thing from the music I have released and plan to release in the future of this project. However, I would be freaking beaming from ear to ear if I could thrash out some good old punk music. It’s my guilty pleasure to just distort the absolute shit out of my guitar and play it loud as my ears will take it. Plus Daria is my favourite type of person, blunt. Great show, great music and a sprinkle of 90’s.
The song draws from pop culture of the 90’s – what is it about this era that inspires your songwriting, as opposed to more modern touchpoints?
The 90s are definitely a staple when it comes to music in my books. I’ve been pretty heavily influenced by a lot of the hip-hop and RnB sounds of that time. There’s something about the use of sampling and the overall soundscapes in the recordings of that era that translates really well into the more ‘lofi’ sound of today.
I think it’s the repeated chords that I enjoy so much and like to build on. It’s great finding a loop and building from there - trying to make every section sound different whilst keeping the same underlying sounds. That’s definitely what steers my attention, the most amazing tracks in the 90s just had great hooks that are all so memorable.
The project is inspired by pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Ariana Grande – if you could get any popstar on a track, who would it be, and what would the song sound like?
Fergie. I just want to make The Dutchess Pt.2. Every song on that album is timeless. So please Stacey Ferguson, let’s make some lofi-hip-hoppy-pop tracks together.
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Finally, what are your next few steps, both personally and music-wise?
The next steps are to collaborate with as many Sydney songwriters and producers as my mind and soul can physically take - so anyone who’s interested or just wants to make some fun sounds hit me up! Along with that, I’ll have more singles released towards the end of the year, so you can keep your eyes and ears looking out for that. You’ll also just find me on the couch watching sitcoms.
You can follow Purple Drapes on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.