From the moment the five members of The Last Dinner Party first banded together, their plan was resolute.
"We all aligned with wanting to try really hard and really see if we could do this properly," says vocalist Abigail Morris during the band's visit to World Cafe's studio. "That's why we put a lot of thought into it before we even played our first show — how we wanted to look and, not strategy, but how we wanted to be, as a band."
So far, that plan has been paying off for the London band. They've opened for The Rolling Stones and Florence + the Machine. They've performed at Glastonbury, and most recently, the indie rock outfit nabbed the 2024 BRIT Award for rising star.
That early success — all before the band has even released a full-length debut album — has led some people to accuse The Last Dinner Party of being an industry plant.
"I've had people message me, being like, 'Did you actually write and play the guitar solo on 'Nothing Matters'?' " says guitarist Lizzie Mayland. "Like, yeah. Why wouldn't I have? We're a band. That's what we do. That did annoy me quite a lot."
As you'll see in today's session, the band isn't letting that tired label stop them from killing it on stage. They stopped by WXPN during their very first American tour to talk about Prelude to Ecstasy, their debut album due out on Feb. 2, 2024, plus why they take so much care in curating their live shows.
"It heightens the sense of community and the world that we're inhabiting," Morris says. "A sort of extended universe that the audience is also involved in, so it makes it feel more theatrical and emotional — like we've all come to this party together."
Also, make sure to stay tuned for an extended version of this session after Prelude to Ecstasy comes out next year.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
Copyright 2023 XPN
