With 3 members from Isis and the vocalist of the Deftones, the debut album (reviewed here) by Palms is one of the most anticipated records of this year. Our writer Michael B. Hayden sat down with drummer, co-writer, producer and engineer of Palms Aaron Harris and had a chat about the coming together of the band and the album.
(((o))): There are a lot of expectations for you guys due to history, especially since adding Chino [Moreno] to the mix. Did it affect your process at all?
AH: I don’t know, when we set out to do the band it was really just a matter of Jeff [Caxide] and Cliff [Meyer] and I realizing we all still live in LA and we should make some music. It’s kind of silly that we all live here and we’re not playing together. I wanted to play music still and those guys were too. We were still hanging out a lot and decided to just get together and jam and see what happens. We still had the practice space and we were paying to have all of our instruments there and set up but we weren’t playing. So we just started jamming, we didn’t put any expectations on it we just tried to write some music. It was a little awkward at first because it was 3 of us from Isis and that was now gone so we were trying to do this new thing in what was Isis’ rehearsal space. So that felt really weird. It’s like living in an apartment or a house when you’ve divorced your wife. It was just a really weird situation. It didn’t feel forced it just didn’t feel comfortable at first, because it was just a little awkward for us. Then a friend of ours had a rehearsal space he wanted to share, a really nice space with a window. We moved to that space and things really started to take shape then and we started to hit our stride and it started to feel like something new.
I guess when we realized that Chino was going to be involved and he wanted to sing on it, at the beginning we were just going to write some songs and put them out on Bandcamp. We didn’t have any big plans or aspirations. But once Chino got in there and we started realizing the potential of the music and the songs and Ipecac was involved. I would say I felt a little bit of pressure because I realized people are going to probably be interested in this, haha.
(((o))): How’d you deal with it?
AH: I just tried to block it out because I’m a firm believer that if you set yourself up with these expectations and aspirations and that’s all your focusing on you’re not going to write true music. It’s just going to fuck you up and discourage you. It’s one of those things we never talk about but I’m sure the other guys feel the same we just want to write the music we want to write and it comes out good and people like it. Otherwise you’re just setting yourself up for potential disappointment or frustration or whatever.
(((o))): How soon after Isis dissolved did the three of you start getting together? Was it pretty much right away or was there some time?
AH: I’m trying to remember, I got this question the other day as well. I want to say it was about a year that we weren’t doing anything. After Isis split up I think we needed that time to settle down and think about it. I mean there was a point where I remember talking to my wife and just being like “I don’t know if I even want to do music anymore” Just being uhm...Just being you know a little bit of a bitch about it, haha.
(((o))): How exactly did you get Chino involved? Was it a natural thing or did you specifically approach him about it?
AH: It’s a funny story. I had known Abe and Frank sort of casually. I had met them at NAMM and shows and shit like that but I had never met Chino. He followed me on Twitter and I followed him on Twitter. My friend Larry from Pelican told me that he had seen Chino hiking at Runyon Canyon a few blocks my apartment a lot. So I thought, I’m just going to hit Chino up, we have a lot of mutual friends I’m just going to hit him up and see if he wants to meet up for a hike. So I sent him a direct message on Twitter and said it’s me I’m from Isis, let’s hang out. He was like yeah cool let’s hang out. So we went for a hike and that’s where it started.
(((o))): Was Isis still a band at this point?
AH: No, Isis was no longer. We started hiking and he would ask what I was up to and I would tell him about the band with Jeff and Cliff and we didn’t have a name for it yet. We just had these songs and he kept saying he wanted to hear it. Then I was on tour with Deftones, drum teching for Abe, and we had a day off in El Paso, TX. Chino and I went out for a run and he asked me what was up with the new music, what’s up with the band. I told him I have a couple of demos back at the hotel and I sent him a couple of demos when we got back to the hotel. About 30 minutes later in my inbox there was a demo from Chino that he had done in the hotel room. I was like, oh shit he wants to do it. I sent it to the other guys and they thought it was so cool and it evolved from there.
(((o))): Had he given any indication that he wanted to sing on it before?
AH: Yeah, on the hikes he had said he wanted to hear it and sing on it and I was like, yeah right. You’re a busy guy I didn’t have any expectations.
(((o))): Deftones are on a completely fame level stage than Isis, as successful as you guys were you were never stadium huge. Did it affect you bringing in someone with as much clout and fame as Chino?
AH: I think in the back of my mind just being the engineer and the mixer on the record I felt a little bit of intimidation in that sense. In terms of having him in the band and making music with him it was honestly so easy. He’s just a nice dude, he’s easy to work with, he’s super musical and open to ideas. He’s just a musician. Other than him being busy he’s totally easy to work with.
(((o))): When you guys started actually writing music with the more stripped down line up, just the 3 of you, where Isis had 2 sometimes 3 guitars and keyboards, were you trying for a more open and spacious direction or did you just go in to the room and see what happened? Was there anything you were trying to stay away from?
AH: Honestly there were no rules or guidelines or preconceived notions. We recorded every single practice and we’d listen back. That was really the way we wrote just recording everything and listening back. That’s how we wrote the last Isis record and it became a very valuable tool for us. Adam Jones from Tool suggested it when I asked him how they write and he said we just record everything. You never know you may be playing something and think it’s not that great until you listen to it at home and realize that so and so was playing something cool, or you didn’t realize that there were some good moments in all of it. Once we got rolling it just poured out of us. We honestly had too much material so we had to go through it and pick out the good parts and stuff we wanted to focus on. The one thing we did know was that we wanted a vocalist, we didn’t want to be instrumental.
(((o))): Was it challenging to be more stripped down without all of the musical voices? Specifically personally from a drummer perspective, was it harder for you to fit in with less musical voices?
AH: It felt pretty natural, I’ve been playing with those guys for almost 15 years. It may have been more difficult if Jeff wasn’t there, us being the rhythm section. Even though Jeff plays like a guitar player he is still the bass player. I often played a lot off of Cliff as well so I basically had the two guys from Isis I played off anyway.
(((o))): How was it performing, recording and mixing the whole record?
AH: It’s the second time I’ve done it. When I did it the first time with Zozobra I said I would never do it again, haha. It’s so much work for one person. Beyond it being a lot of work it’s a lot for one person to do from a perspective of not wanting to fuck it up. It was a lot of pressure on me from that sense. I knew the songs had potential and with who was involved there was potential. Being the guy that’s mixing and recording and writing the songs it was hard to keep a creative perspective beyond just writing the songs. Making sure everything sounds good and recording every take and doing all of the extra work. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not like I’m out in a war zone or anything like that, haha. But it is a lot of work for one person. I mean I feel great and extremely proud, but like I said when I did that with Zozobra I probably won’t do it again, haha.
It was especially tricky due to the nature of the project. We had to come back to it several times due to personal lives and Chino was really working on the newest Deftones record. Palms would sit on my hard drive for months and I would think I need to work on it, but I’d give it a break just to not wear it out. It was really hard to leave it alone. Because I know, just from my personality that I would take it to a point where I would hate it. I’ve tried to do solo stuff that I just get to the point where I hate all of it and just erase it.
(((o))): So you guys are playing a four quick shows are there any plans for extensive touring or what’s the plan going forward?
AH: There isn’t really a plan. There is the understanding that Chino has Deftones and that is priority number 1 and we expect and want that. There is the understanding that Palms will do as much or as little as we can do. It all depends on what we can all fit in and just go from there. I’m really looking forward to the shows and it’s a good start and we’ll just have to feel it out from there.
We would like to thank Aaron for taking the time and have this interview with us. Read Mike's excellent review of the album here.
The album is out on June 25th through Ipecac Recordings and is available for pre-order through Palms' website.
