Hot off the heels of their brand new album Memory of a Day (read my review HERE), we caught up with Sarah and Jon of New York’s Phantogram. We talked about the cinematic new record, the influences behind it – as well as their recent tour in North America with Kings of Leon.
Firstly, congratulations on Memory of a Day. It’s been a joy to listen to. What do you hope fans take away from the experience of their first listen this week?
We want the fans to listen to an album that is fun and interesting, as well as take them through an emotional journey and connect to the lyrics in their own way
You’ve talked about the album as an “awakening” – and in part, that awakening seemed to be that to go forward you often need to look backwards. Does that resonate with you? And can you talk a little bit about what initially compelled you to revisit some of those earlier methods of recording – and even beats from the past?
In a sense we were forced to look backwards when the world shut down and had to remember that we had normal human lives. Life does not always have revolve around work and the constant grind. Without being able to predict the future, we really went back to making music for the fun of it, with no expectations or pressure – similar to how we felt when we made our first album.
Using beats from the past is something we’ve always done. We have a caché of beats and music ideas that we hold onto and scroll through to find inspiration
I feel like there’s such a push creatively to always explore “new sounds” – Did the quality of the product surprise you at all given your direction? Or did it still feel like a new way to explore your sound, so this round of questioning doesn’t apply?
Given the nature of how we write music, we are constantly experimenting with new sounds. We are ever evolving and trying out fresh ideas, while still maintaining a sound that feels very Phantogram. This album felt like a very natural progression to who we are as a band, as all our albums have.
The album is truly cohesive, cinematic and paints clear visuals – did you have visuals/an aesthetic in mind when creating the album?
We didn’t have anything specific in mind while creating this album, other than creating cool songs that we would want to listen to. As the music came together, we felt it was more colorful feeling than records we have made in the past, and that helped inform the artwork and overall creative with the high contrast and bright and chaotic coloring juxtaposed with the calming imagery. Both of us are very visual and often find direction and sonics of the music come from daydreams we may have, or things we see and hear and read in our every day.
On the cinematic note, were their any non-musical influences for the album (movies, books etc.)?
We are constantly inspired by things we see, hear and read. We’ve been inspired by movies such as Le Planète Sauvage, Enter the Void, and Beyond the Black Rainbow, to name a few.
You just came of your with Kings of Leon – as well as a few headline dates. What songs off the new album have you been enjoying playing the most live? And has anything surprised you about the tracks in that environment?
We got really great reception of all the new songs we played on the road and had such an enjoyable time getting to play them for you all. Happy Again is especially fun to play. We are really excited to play the rest of the new album on our next tour!
When you’re on a long run of dates, it can all start to blur together – a confluence of no sleep, buses and backstage areas. What moments snap you out of that blur, so speak, and really bring you into the moment? What are the moments that stick with you long after a tour is over?
We really love getting to explore all the different cities we get to visit on the road – whether it’s a big metropolitan city or a small town. We love eating at local restaurants, finding cool coffee shops, and checking out strip clubs (laughs). It’s best when we have a full day off to do these things, but even when we don’t, we try to leave the venues for a couple hours when we can to walk around and have those moments to snap us out of the blur of tour life.
Memory Of A Day is out now. Listen to it HERE.
Photo by Tim Saccenti. Questions by Larry Heath and Sarah Duggan.
