As they release their new EP ‘The Rising Tide’, alt-rock trio The Matt Palmer Band tell Chris Sharpe about the Exeter scene, why Greta Thunberg is an inspiration and where Taylor Swift is going to support them
Words By Chris Sharpe
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Chris) Hi guys, can you tell Lost in the Manor readers your names and where you’re from.
Matt: Hi, I’m Matt. I play the guitar and sing in the band. I live just outside Exeter and grew up in the southeast of England.
Niall: I’m Niall from Glasgow, I live near Exeter. I play drums in the band.
Alex: Hi, I’m Alex. I’m the bass player and I produced the record. I live in South Devon.
How long have you been making music and what drew you to it?
Matt: I started playing guitar when I was 11, having dabbled with a few other instruments, including violin, piano and cornet. Ever since then I’ve been in bands, writing my own music and songs. I felt compelled to start learning guitar when my cousin introduced me to Slash’s playing on Appetite For Destruction. My dad had got me into early Eric Clapton, Cream, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, so that laid some foundations but Slash really lit the fire in me.
Niall: I’ve been playing music since I was seven or so. I started on piano and then played clarinet for years, before starting to drum when I was a teenager. I also play guitar, banjo and Indian tabla. Drums has always been my main instrument but I think learning multiple instruments is really good for your playing.
Alex: I started playing bass guitar when I was about 14, learning rock and metal to start with. I went on to study jazz at university and have gigged all sorts of music in various bands over the years.
How did you meet and what bands were you in previously?
Niall: I’ve been in bands all my life, playing everything from heavy rock to jazz and folk. Since I moved to Devon a few years ago I’ve played mostly folk stuff, including the Rosie Eade Band and some recording on the Edgelarks’ last album.
Matt: Like the others, I’ve been in bands pretty much all my life. The most successful to date was a sort of prog-pop-rock band called Anemo, based in Brighton. We released a couple of studio albums on an independent label based in New York and made a couple of videos. We had some airplay on Radio 6 Music among others and gigged throughout the UK. I met Alex in a function band a few years ago. We lost touch for a while, so it’s been great to reconnect in the making of this record. I met Niall through local folk musician and mutual friend Rosie Eade, and before long we had started jamming and playing a few gigs.
What’s the music scene like in Exeter?
Niall: I moved here after growing up in Glasgow and living in Manchester, which both have great music scenes. Obviously Exeter is a lot smaller but I’ve actually found that that makes it easier to get to know and find other musicians than in a big city.
Matt: The music scene around Exeter is pretty good. It’s a bit harder as a band playing original songs rather than covers but there’s a really supportive community of musicians here. It’s been great working with local promoter Pik Rawlings in organising gigs, and having the support of Exeter Phoenix arts centre. The local radio stations have been very supportive too.
Which artists are you inspired by?
Alex: Bass players Anthony Jackson, Steve Swallow, James Jamerson, Justin Chancellor, Timmy C and Cliff Burton are big inspirations for me.
Matt: I’m inspired by musicians who use their reach to champion humanitarian political causes, whatever the style of music. Some examples would include Rage Against the Machine (Tom Morello in particular), Pearl Jam, Tool, Stormzy and Plan B. I’m inspired by Greta Thunberg and the school climate-strike movement – I think it is amazing. Musically, my biggest inspiration comes from the blues, and the expressiveness on the guitar that true masters can create: BB King, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan and more recent artists such as Gary Clark Jr, Doyle Bramhall, John Mayer and Derek Trucks.
How do you go about writing songs?
Matt: The basic ideas usually start with me. Most often I write the guitar riff or chord sequence first and then think about vocal ideas. Once I’ve got something with a basic structure I’ll record a simple demo – usually just vocals and guitar – and share it with the band.
Niall: Matt and I developed the song ideas over a few sessions at a local rehearsal studio. We tried out different drum ideas and song structures, and Matt wrote new sections when we felt they were needed. Once we had the structures nailed it was time to start recording.
Your new EP is ‘A Rising Tide’. What’s behind the title and how did you record it?
Alex: Matt and Niall came to me with the songs they’d worked on – I’d already heard the demos and rehearsal recordings, so I knew roughly what to expect. We recorded the drums live with a scratch vocal and guitar track over a few evening sessions, with Niall and Matt playing in the same room. After that, we layered the various other tracks one-by-one. You can read more about the process in the blog posts on our website (https://mattpalmerband.com/blog).
Matt: We decided that we wanted to go with a live feel for the record so we didn’t use click tracks on anything. The recording itself was a mixture of hard work and a lot of fun – it’s pretty amazing to hear tracks develop as we added the different layers. The philosophy was to keep the number of tracks minimal and record each part as well we could.
Matt: The EP title refers to the track ‘The Flood’, which is about long-term sea-level rise and some of the politics around climate change at the moment. That track turned into something really strong – it was sort of the “dark horse” of the record, the one I was least sure about initially. We also made a cool video with filmmaker Tim Loe that includes time-lapse coastal-wave footage and image overlays to tell the story of the song visually: (https://mattpalmerband.com/videos).
Do you have any gigs coming up?
Matt: We’re planning a follow-up to our EP launch gig (which sold out) at Exeter Phoenix, probably in spring next year. We will start approaching festivals for next year too, so keep an eye on our website for updates.
What would be your dream venue to play and who else would be on the bill?
Matt: It would be amazing to play a sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall! I’d like to do that thing where you invite a guest musician up for different songs and bring up our various musical heroes throughout the gig. Maybe we should get Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift to play support. Lol.
Any cool new bands we should know about?
Niall: The Edgelarks are an amazing folk duo – Phillip Henry is an incredible guitar player.
Matt: I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve heard from Sœur, who are based in Bristol. I’m a big fan of Tool and I hear similarities but Sœur definitely have their own thing going and it’s cool that they have two female guitar players/vocalists.