As we all know, waiting for a new album to drop from one of your favourite bands is painfully agonising – it’s like sitting around for Christmas times a thousand. It doesn’t help that the particular album in question is from erratic math/hardcore belters Palm Reader, who teased us with their excellent single Always Darkest earlier this year. So, what gives, boys? We hassled guitarist Andy Gillan to shine a light on Palm Reader Mark III.
It’s been a couple of years since the release of Beside The Ones We Love. Where’s this new album at?
“Jesus, right! So, we all moved up to Nottingham and moved into a house together, specifically to write this record. We were there for a good nine months or so and we didn’t really stop writing songs that whole time. I think in the end we ended up with 38, 39 songs, something like that. We’ve also been working with In At The Deep End for this record.”
How important was it to find a producer who understands your sound?
“It’s integral. We recorded with Lewis Johns again at The Ranch because he’s awesome and a top dude. He gets what we do. In my opinion, he’s one of the best producers for our kind of particular brand of noise in the UK. He’s really good at trying to understand what you’re trying to do in terms of writing songs and the vibe that you’re trying to put across. We have completely trusted his judgment and his input.”
How does it compare to your last two albums?
“It’s definitely the logical progression and has a lot more groove. I’m not going to say it’s a massive departure from what we’ve done before – that’s not entirely true. We all said that we didn’t want to release the same album twice. If you’ve listened to Bad Weather, Beside The Ones We Love and this one, you can definitely see an unsurprising progression which has manifested itself on this record.”
How do you think your fans are going to like it?
“Ummm, that’s a really good question! It’s not going to be what some people expect. I’ve been butt-hurt by that myself; expecting something from a band and them not delivering it. If people are like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe they did this to me! The one person who they’re supposed to write a record for,’ we’re going to be like, ‘Shut up, it’s really good!’ But you know, that’s just the way opinions go. Like arseholes, everyone’s got one.”
What with touring your insane show and writing this album, how would you describe the band’s work ethic?
“It does take its toll mentally and physically. At some point every tour, somebody is going to be tired, but we’re not there to try to please ourselves. People want to see us, so we can’t go, ‘Oh, we’re having a really shit time, here’s a 6⁄10 gig…’ Just fucking get on with it.”
You seem pretty excited. What should we be most pumped for on this album?
“Oh fuck, I don’t know! Ha ha! There’s so much stuff we haven’t tried before, it’s unexpected, I think, which is leaving it suspiciously vague. But all the stuff has come out really good. Hopefully it’ll be out by the end of the year. That’s the plan. I want you to hear it now, but I can tell you it’s chock-full of Kinder Surprises…”.
The new Palm Reader album lands later this year. The band play Lenmania in London on November 11
The facts
Album:Three
Producer:Lewis Johns
Studio:The Ranch, Southampton
Expect:Frenetic, scattershot hardcore
