We Feel Like it’s Uniquely Ours: Palmyra Chats About ‘Restless’
Palmyra is a band that should be on everyone’s radar. Their debut album, Restless, is wonderfully exquisite, with beautifully honest songwriting, stunning vocal harmonies, riveting instrumentation, and earworm choruses.
Mānoa Bell (he/him), Teddy Chipouras (he/him), and Sasha Landon (they/them) of Palmyra chat with OFM about Restless.
Finding a Genuine ‘Palmyra’ Sound and Working Collaboratively
“I think Restless, for us, was a big step in finding our own sound; like, before, we were very much searching and trying other things,” says Bell. “Restless, it was kind of an epiphany moment in that we felt like we found something that felt genuine—We feel like it’s uniquely ours.”
Palmyra songs are a collaborative effort as they work together collectively on each song. “Generally, one person has an idea for a song, like lyrics or a couple of chords, but we work on them together, and it doesn’t really become a Palmyra song until everyone is bought into it and is excited about creating this thing together,” says Chipouras. “Sometimes it will be a couple of hours of arranging, and then we start playing it live. Sometimes it will be a year of revisiting a tune to continue to work on it to all feel good about it and all feel excited and creative, and then we play it for a couple of years and then record it.”
Vocal Harmonies and Utilizing the Banjo and Mandolin
One of the best things about Palmyra’s music is the unbelievable vocal harmonies from the three members, with “Buffalo” being one of the main standouts. “The vocal harmonies were right from the start of Palmyra,” states Bell. “It is core to our identity. When we are working on a song, adding the vocal harmony is a stage for writing the songs. Every song is considered, like, ‘Will there be harmony here or will there not be harmony here?’”
Another strong part of their sound on this record is the banjo and mandolin. Landon, who plays the mandolin, loves playing the instrument. “I just love the sound of it so much,” they say. “It’s a beautiful instrument. I think it’s one that kicks my butt all the time. It sounds so good with the banjo. I don’t play the banjo but love hearing them together. I have an instrument called the mandocello. Our ‘secret weapon’ live, we talk about the mandocello plus the banjo. Together, they just sound amazing.
Having a Bigger Platform and Working with Libby Rodenbough of Mipso
Restless was released by Oh Boy Records. Palmyra loved working with them. “Them putting out the record, I think, made us a little less nervous and in some ways a lot more nervous because we’re like, ‘The platform is bigger than we’ve ever had,’” explains Landon. “People are investing resources in this record we made that we’re very proud of. It’s not just the three of us doing everything. So much of Palmyra until now has been the three of us doing every tiny thing. We have been just really excited to see where it goes, and cool to see who’s listening and where they are listening.”
“We’re definitely not used to releasing something and doing interviews like this or for people to be coming out to shows who we’ve never met before and singing the lyrics,” grins Chipouras. “Stuff like that is really unfamiliar to us and really cool. We’re just grateful to have people on our side helping us make that stuff happen.”
The members of Palmyra love the band Mipso and have actually gone on tour with them before. Throughout Restless, Lily Rodenbough of Mipso plays some incredible fiddle. “Libby is incredible, super creative, uses crazy effects on her fiddle, and is all around a great player, so we asked her to track on the record,” comments Chipouras. “We sent a couple of tunes to Libby and didn’t give her any notes. We sent it to her and said, ‘Do what you do on these songs.’ She sent them back with the parts you hear on the record. They ended up being some of our favorite parts of the album. We try to replicate them live. We don’t have a fiddle player live, but Sasha will play some of the fiddle parts because they’re just so core now to what those songs are to us.”
Musical Influences and an Eclectic Sound
One of the biggest musical influences for Restless was The Backseat Lovers album Waiting To Spill. “They’re a band we saw at Newport Musical Festival a couple of years ago and just fell in love with them,” comments Chipouras. “They put out this record that is an indie rock record, but it has lots of DIY elements, really creative sounds, amazing songwriting, and more than anything else, it feels very cohesive in like, ‘This is the project we wanted to create and set out to create.’ It felt very intentional. That is something we took into the studio, more than the sounds or songwriting. We just wanted to create something, being our first record, that was very cohesive, made a lot of sense to listen to, and took the listener somewhere.”
Restless is an eclectic album that pulls from many genres, including Americana, indie rock, folk, emo, country, and post-rock, among others. These genres wonderfully combine together. “On this record and everything we’ve done, the three of us have tried our best to make the songs speak as best they can,” says Landon. “On Restless, with the help of our co-producers Danny Gibney, who engineered it, and Jake Cochran, who played drums and produced it, we had the freedom, resources, and knowledge between everyone to see really cool ideas to fruition. So, if somebody wanted to record a whole section of a song on a shitty tape player, we could do that, or if we wanted something to be really epic, we could do that. I think we went for more thematic things on this album, which is cool. We busted out every tool and toy that we have.”
“Our previous recording experiences were very run and gun,” adds Chipouras. “We recorded Shenandoah with a couple of mics, and Belladona, I think we did in three days. Restless, we worked on it for a year and a half, so we were really able to, like Sasha was saying, play around with a lot of dumb ideas we had, and a couple of them worked.”
Opening Up the Album with “Restless” and “Palm Readers”
From top to bottom, Restless is phenomenal and loaded with beautifully mesmerizing songs. The title track perfectly opens the record. “We realized, I think, even in the demo stage of ‘Restless,’ that it was a really good song to tie the whole record together thematically and sonically,” reflects Landon. “It was also really important to us that the record started with the three of our voices. ‘Restless’ is one we were already playing live for a while. We wanted it to start and get the scene set for the album from the jump with the three of our voices and the lyrics ‘The older I get the more restless I get.’”
“Restless” also came quite easily for the band. “So clearly there’s a harmony here, this big chorus here, like sometimes songs just fall into place, and that was one of those,” exclaims Bell. “That song went from being a very folky based around the harmony song to kind of an anthemic moment once we brought it into the studio.”
“Palm Readers” had a much different process than “Restless.” “It didn’t really get arranged in a full form until we started playing it with drums,” states Bell. “Our producer, Jake, we were just at a lake house and just running through things together, and we did that one, and it was right from the get-go just this immediately rocking song. It never had the life that ‘Restless’ had where it went folky into what it is now. It’s just always been very up-tempo, almost like a pop-punk experience.”
Demos and Arranging/Adding New Things to Songs
Most of the demos are quite different than their recorded versions. Usually, a demo would start with someone writing a song, recording it on their computer, and then sending it to the others. “They started changing a lot when we started playing them as a trio live,” comments Landon. “Then we did this lake house session where we cut demos. The only song in its demo state, the one that didn’t change hardly at all, is ‘Carolina Wren.’ We recorded the demo for it, and it felt emotionally right and sonically right. We just left that one as is.”
Sometimes new things got added to the songs, after playing them live a few times, like the instrumental break in “Can’t Slow Down.” I think it was just verses and choruses, and from playing it live a couple of times, we went back to the arranging room, and we kept working on it,” recalls Chipouras. “I remember working on the chords for the bridge and Sasha learning that really hard mandolin arpeggio that goes throughout that outro, and I think that part to me is really the core of the song. The bridge up until that last chorus when all of our vocals come in especially live it, just feels so good. I think we captured that in the recording and added even more in that with overdubs, big electric guitar strums, and some crazy fiddle stuff that Libby does. We just played it enough live that it needed this emotional build towards the last chorus.”
Catharsis in the Studio and Concerts and Music as Therapy
“Shape I’m In” is a powerfully euphoric track with many raw, cathartic moments on it. “I think there is catharsis in the studio, but I think for us, there’s so much catharsis when we play the songs live,” comments Landon. “It is such an emotionally heavy song, and we tried really hard in the studio to get a take where everyone was on the same page emotionally. It was more important that we capture the emotional center of the song than a perfect take. We could only do it so many times because you can only put yourself in a headspace of like, ‘I got to really go for this, and it’s hard and vulnerable to do.’ You can only do that so many times before you’re exhausted by it. I think there was something cathartic about doing ‘Shape I’m In’ that way in the studio, but we were just trying to capture the song in its most honest form.”
The songs from Restless address many themes, including mental health, and depression. “Writing music is a very cathartic experience for your mental health, and then performing it is also very cathartic,” reflects Bell. “The process of releasing it kind of almost feels separate from your experiences because you’re seeing people in the audience at times being moved to tears and really connecting with the emotion. It’s just so beautiful to see it become their own experience.”
Favorite Moments on the Record
There are many great moments, lyrically, vocally, and sonically, on Restless. Each member of Palmyra shares their favorite moment from the record. “I really love the beginning of ‘Stones Throw,’ and that whole song, I think, is so cool,” comments Bell. “That’s one I’ve listened to since the album has come out, which is like a big thing for me. I usually don’t listen back to the music, but I’ll listen to that song and be like, ‘Wow! This song really went somewhere.”
“I’m kind of with Mānoa with ‘Stones Throw,’ especially the last chorus to the outro, which is something that changed a lot in the studio,” remarks Chipouras. “We changed the chords in the last chorus, and the slowdown transition into the outro is something I’m really proud of that we were able to do.”
On the other hand, Landon’s favorite moment is verse three of “Shape I’m In.” “It came together after we got the violin parts, and we were listening to everything, and we’re like, ‘What if we tried taking away everything but the voice and violin,’” they state. “That is a really cool moment on the record that was pretty much all Libby’s doing.”
Concluding Comments
Palmyra is very proud of Restless. The album means a lot to each member. “The record means like 25 different things, but the word that keeps coming to mind is validating,” comments Bell. “I think I can, and I can imagine most people feel this way, but I can feel embarrassed easily and like if someone put on my music, I would cringe. But with this record, I don’t feel that way. I still can listen to it and feel really stoked about it and that’s hard for me to do.”
“It’s like a diary of these really great and really bad moments that we’ve all been through,” adds Chipouras. “These songs have lived a bunch of different lives already and being able to listen to say ‘Palm Readers’ and recall 10 different memories of that song over the past couple of years of like being on the road, working together on it, listening to it on vinyl for the first time. It’s just cool to have all these amazing memories and some terrible stuff, too, but it’s special to have that body of work we’re really proud of and that we have so much attached to.”
“I know we are all proud of this record and to have a full-length project out in the world that we are fully invested in, and I think that’s been true of Palmyra since we started,” smiles Landon. “The three of us love each other a lot, and we buy fully into everything we do together. This record is the most beautiful and full picture that we have all painted together since we started. I’m just really proud that I can see that record in my record collection and play it and be like, ‘Me and my buddies made this, and it’s awesome.’”
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