Interview Wild Palms: ‘We’re Not In Music To Be A Fad Band’

Wild Palms’ frontman Lou Hill takes a break from painting his bedroom to tell us about the band’s debut album, ‘Until Spring’, which came out this week.

You’ve been quite busy of late. Let’s start with the gig you streamed online at the end of last year. What brought that on?
It was the launch party for the our first single from the album, a double A-side with ‘Draw in Light’ and ‘To The Lighthouse’. I don’t really know how it came about really, it think it was through the label.

How did it go? Is it something you’d do again?
I was pretty oblivious to all the cameras if I’m honest, and I haven’t seen any of the footage since; but people who did watch seemed to enjoy it. I think it’s a good idea and I think it would be a good idea to do it again. It’s nice being able to give people that sort of remote access.

You’ve also not long finished your debut album. Where is it you worked on it? Was it all in one place, or did you record all over the show?
We recorded it all in one place: the studio that we built ourselves in Manor House. We spent four weeks altogether recording in that weird space, Gareth Jones and James Aparicio brought all their expensive equipment into basically a glorified basement. It was where we created our music, where we wrote the songs that would end up on our debut, so we really wanted to bring the actual environment into the record and so a lot of percussive elements on the record are pipes, water tanks, bins etc. that are part of the studio.

It was originally due out last Autumn, wasn’t it? These things always seem to take longer than first mooted.
Yeah they do, it’s always the way. It’s frustrating but what can you do, with a band like us you have to release at the right time and we didn’t want to rush the making or the mixing of the album in any way.

You’re all happy with the end product? How did you know when it was definitely, absolutely, 100% finished?
The record wouldn’t be coming out if we weren’t all happy with it. But it’s not 100% finished - there’s other things to do. We’ve just recorded some lo-fi versions of a couple of songs off of the album and have been learning to play it live, we’re looking forward to touring it. Also doing this record has given us a springboard ideas-wise to what we want to do next, so there’s no real cut-off point.

What do you think is the best thing about the record? If you had to pull out one AMAZING selling point, what would it be?
Its honesty and sincerity, and how resourceful we and Gareth had to be to create the end product we wanted: I think it’s an ambitious debut.

The deal you signed with One Little Indian, that was for three albums? That’s quite a commitment these days?
A commitment we were glad to make. We’re not in music to be a fad-band or to suck people in via marketing, we make music because it’s what we love to do, what we need to do; whatever we make it’s honest and means something to us as it hopefully will to others who hear. We want this to be a long-term career not just a phase.

So, where next for Wild Palms? What’s the next step following the album release?
We’ll be touring the album with our new member Bobby in tow. We’ve started writing the second album and will hopefully be ready to record that by the end of this year.

‘Until Spring’ is out now. Check here for the band’s upcoming live dates.