Music > Interviews

Palma Violets

29/09/15

Wild and proud pub rockers Palma Violets are a chaotic bunch of young gentlemen. Their gigs are a sweaty and unreserved love-in and their latest album an absolute winner. I caught up with drummer Will, and had a chat about Wales, Nice Cave and working with John Leckie.

I spoke to Will about what was good about Reading this year and the best time of his life in Wales.

You’re the drummer; how did you start off?

I started when I was six; I saw a kid playing drums in school, he was the cool kid, and I was kind of lame, and I decided it was my calling.

Were you in other bands before Palma Violets?

No, I left school for a bit and then Sam asked me in my last year of school to join the band.

You’ve been together as a band for 4 years now. What have you learnt about each other in that time?

A lot! Learning how to live together and learning tolerance I guess. It’s not easy being on tour, but we’ve found ways of coping. We’ve all got our own bad habits. You just give up after a while in making yourself presentable to others, ha ha. We’re very frank with each other.

You built up a huge fan base online before your first single came out…how did that happen as I know you didn’t release anything yourselves digitally that early?

We didn’t put anything online, nothing at all. It was still at the time when everyone expected it of you as a band and that was the only way you could do it. We’d been together for a few months and we’d been getting some attention from playing live and we didn’t want to just put up some naff recording.

Who do you find inspirational in terms of a career in music?

Always Nick Cave. Some people continuously change, like Bowie had different personas and was able to be someone else magnificently. Nick Cave has become a better version of himself whilst still staying the same. He blows me away.

Your debut album 180 came out in 2013. What challenges did you have in making that album compared to the new one?

Apart from just about being able to play our instruments, it was also a bizarre experience going into the studio for the first time. It changes everything when you do that for the first time; when you play live you play a song and then it’s gone, but when you’re in the studio working on it you go back and can hear everything. We had a lot to learn.

Pulp’s Steve Mackey produced your first album and John Leckie your second. How did their working styles differ and how did the band react?

The first album was about capturing where we were at that point, either side of a tour. With John, he made us rehearse the songs. He came in and listen to us and he’d have an input into some of them. He fine-tuned a lot of it as he knew what would sound good and it gave us confidence when we were writing the songs.

Danger in the Club is your second album and it came out in May. You went out to rural Wales to work on it…what was that experience like?

I would say that it was one of the best times of my life. The others might tell you different as it was very difficult. We’d just come off tour after two years. Friendships were being rebuilt, we were learning how to write again, but at the same time you just want to spend some time on your own and decompress but it was amazing for me. It was the perfect place to do it, and we spent a lot of time writing songs, some of which we didn’t use, but it was so important to get back into the cycle of things.

It’s kind of a shambolic album; the title track feels almost drunk. I really like that kind of wildness amidst all the neat electronic pop that’s out there right now.

We’re definitely like that, on the chaos side of things. Most people at our age are like that, whether they know it or not. The whole playing in time thing is so hard. The whole point of us is we push and pull against each other; we’re all going forward but we’re not all aligned. We’re a swirling mass, just kind of charging forward.

It looks like the video for Danger in the Club was shot all in one take?

Yes it was. We’d just watched the film Birdman. Sam said we should do a music video like that in the The Pineapple in Lambeth as it’s a perfectly circular pub. It’s done in one take. It took a day to do and we had Roger Sargent who’s worked with The Libertines on their videos helping us out.

I’ve read that you consider yourselves a pub rock band. Who else would you put in that genre?

Um…I dunno. The closest one are Public Access TV but they’re American so I don’t know if they fit into that due to where they come from. Maybe we’re the only ones!

You were nominated for an Ivor Novello last year for best song for Best of Friends. What do you think it is about that song that just really works?

The fact that you can sing everything on it word for word. It’s catchy and it’s a perfect pop song. Good melody, nonsense lyrics, it’s a straightforward song.

You’ve played Glastonbury and Reading this year amongst other festivals. How did the two compare?

I was a lot more impressed with Reading this year. When I went when I was 16, the Saturday night was like a scene out of fucking Apocalypse Now! At 16 it’s the best thing in the world though. But when you go back you think, oh they’re still burning the tents. They’ve opened it up more this year, have added more stages and they seemed to be branching out now. It’s not a small Glastonbury but the music’s more eclectic. I went to see Limp Bizkit. That had to happen; I was a massive fan of them and they were sick!

What’s the most memorable gig you’ve played thus far? It looks like things get pretty hectic.

One of our first gigs was actually in Norwich upstairs at the Waterfront. I went downstairs and looked at the main room and thought, oh blimey, this is a big room for a first gig. The rest of the band had me going, saying yeah, set up your kit downstairs mate. Then the support band came along and told me we were playing upstairs but by that point all my kit was all over the floor! I was a little baby then, I was unaware.

I recently saw a photo of you meeting Flavor Fav! How did that come about??

He rolled up at a festival in San Diego that we were playing at. They were headlining. He came over and said hello; he’s a funny little guy. He smelt a joint so that’s why he came over, hahahaha!

Who would you recommend we check out in terms of new or upcoming bands you’ve come across?

Life, and Ming City Rockers who have just done an album with Steve Albini.

What are your plans for the next year?

We’ve got a tour with The Vaccines in November and then a tour in Europe with Florence and the Machine after that. It’s going to be pretty good, man.

Palma Violets play at The Owl Sanctuary on 10th October as part of the Dr Martens Stand for Something Tour 2015. Support act Best Friends will play instore at the Dr Martens shop at 18:30.