After months of waiting, Woking hardcore group Palm Reader release their new album this week through In At The Deep End Records. ‘Beside The Ones We Love’ is a dark, menacing and intelligent hardcore record that subtly takes in elements of trash, death metal, and prog rock throughout. It is certainly a record that is worth the wait, and sees Palm Reader stepping to the forefront of the UK hardcore scene.
As much as we love listening to ‘Beside The Ones We Love’, we wanted to know how the album came together and what it is all about. Thankfully Palm Reader were kind enough to spill the beans and give Already Heard their thoughts on every track on ‘Beside The Ones We Love’.
I Watch The Fire Chase My Tongue
Andy Gillan (Guitar): This was the first track we wrote for the album. We deliberately started off writing on a tangent to see which way down the rabbit hole we’d go…
Dan Olds (Drums): This was definitely one of the darker songs on the album but it’s contrasted by a lighter section towards the end.
Sam Rondeau-Smith (Guitar): ‘Bad Weather’ started off pretty slowly, so we wanted to make sure this album kicked it’s way out of the womb.
Pedant
Andy: This harks back to the sound we captured on Bad Weather.
Josh McKeown (Vocals): Yeah – Greed. Despair. Hope. All that and more!
Andy: There’s that stupid video of a big group of us doing clapping our hands for the mid section! haha.
Dan: Yeah, I like to think of it as a homage to bad weather.
I think it also draws inspiration for bands we’ve played with on that cycle.
Sam: Gotta have a punk rock belter haven’t yer?
By The Ground We’re Defined
Josh: It’s about the feeling of surviving and the desperation to survive through everything.
Andy: Probably the most upbeat song we’ve written. It’s almost happy in some places (haha).
Dan: This is our version of a straight forward song.
It features sections that repeat themselves, which is a big deal for us!
Sam: The end section of this song was one of the things I’m most proud of on the album.
Sing Out Survivor
Andy: This was written at 3am while we were writing in Birmingham. The weather was miserable the whole time we were there and we only saw daylight a few times a day. I think this captures the mood perfectly.
Josh: This was a particularly tenuous time in the writing process and the song reflects the struggle we were going through. Keep in mind what keeps you going.
Dan: Dark.
Stacks
Josh: There’s a lot of money flying around these days. There’s also a lot of lies.
Andy: Musically I think this is quite a “heart on sleeve” kind of song – and like Pedant, this is another homage to bands that have inspired us.
Dan: Yeah – A lot of the bands who influenced us have all came out in this song. On this album we tried to veer away from some of the technical aspects that our influences use, but we had to stick one in there.
Sam: Hands down one of my favourite tracks to play live.
Travelled Paths
Andy: Josh & me wrote this while we were recording in the studio. It kind of captures the bleakness of the writing process. The guitars were re-recorded with a friend who added the ‘sub’ sample which is a recording of a building collapsing he accidentally captured while on a project in Cherynoble.
Josh: This song is about the lack of actively encouraged creativity there is. Success is not just a memory test.
Dan: I like how the track breaks the album in to two parts. It’s brings space between two of the more “full on” songs.
Sam: I think the lyrical content and the melody of this song marry up perfectly.
Stone’s Blood
Josh: The environment that bands work in, play in, survive in and fail in.
Sam: This song basically sums up what it’s like to try and get blood from a stone, just relentlessly hammering away.
Josh: It’s like drawing blood from the best stone haha.
Andy: Having a chorus is kind of a rarity for us, but having a samba beat to it really makes it fun to play and a nice reprieve from the full pelt aggression of the rest of the album.
Dan: I think choruses are something we’d like to try out more in the future! (haha) This could be a glimpse into the future of Palm Reader!
Resolution
Josh: This is about decisions, plain and simple!
Dan: Fast and short. This song is influenced by two bands we are very good friends with and had toured with on the Bad Weather cycle.
Sam: Fast and furious. R.I.P Paul Walker.
Andy: (Haha) This song was originally titled “Meth Dettol”.
Black Hand
Andy: To say this song was a labour of love would be a complete lie. This was the hardest song to piece together both melodically and rhythmically. We’re all really happy with the end result, but the writing process was far from amicable.
Dan: This song was almost like a journey through a bad relationship musically. Everything’s soft and loving at the start and by the end it’s all falling apart.
Sam: One of the rare occasions you’ll hear us using clean guitars. An absolute shit to piece together, let alone learn to play.
Unabridged
Dan: This song was a test for us to see how we could write more of a “rock” song. We wanted something completely different to the rest of the album to wrap everything up.
Sam: My favourite song on the album. A good old fashioned rock song. I think the size of the sound perfectly reflects the gravity of the song’s meaning and what it means to all of us.
Andy: For the longest song on the album it actually came together the fastest. The gang vocals came together in the studio really nicely and it ended up being our favourite on the album.
Josh: It starts as a speech, directed at the ones we love. Time passes. Things change. People come and go. Just make sure you surround yourself with the ones you love.
‘Beside The Ones We Love’ by Palm Reader is out now on In At The Deep End Records.
