Palma Violets Are Making Their Second First Impression

At the time with only a single to their name, Palma Violets spent 11 days in February introducing themselves to North America. And it was a necessary introduction; the next month, Rough Trade issued their debut LP, 180, and following a European tour with Django Django, they'll return to the US to play Coachella. Even though the idea of booking their first American tour without an album seemed like a reckless idea, it turns out, that's exactly the introduction the band wanted.

The following conversation happened in their van parked outside Glasslands on the band's last night in New York.

Noisey: Can you tell me about Studio 180?
Chilli Jesson: It’s a squat kind of thing.
Sam Fryer: It’s not like a real-studio-kind-of-place. It’s a real run down house and we’ve been given a room. A really tiny room.
Chilli: In a quite affluent area of London. But it’s great; we’ve got our rehearsal space there and we play shows downstairs, but it’s tiny, man.

"Best of Friends"

Do you notice any big differences between New York DIY spaces and things happening in London?
Sam: Room to dance.
Chilli: There’s more space over here. It’s ironic; I thought you guys weren’t supposed to have any space.
Sam: There’s not that much that’s DIY in London right now, and that’s why we like New York so much.
Chilli: There’s still a vibe here.
Sam: The bands are doing it for themselves and it’s really refreshing. Rock 'n' roll is really, truly alive in New York, which is really fun.

So you’ve been here about a week?
Will Doyle: 11 days on Wednesday.

Is this everyone’s first time in New York?
Harry Violent: I was here once on a school trip. I was 17. We just did the MoMA. The MoMA’s overrated. I wanted to go to the Met.

Is New York meeting your expectations so far?
Will: Totally passing it.
Chilli: Beyond. I fucking love it here.
Sam: The music scene over here is fucking incredible. The general standard of bands over here is—
Chilli: They give a fuck, man. They travel two hours from state to state.
Harry: And there’s some balls in what they play too.
Will: We had a band play here for like 40 minutes. They drove from Toronto, played, and then drove back the next day. That’s like 10 hours. You would never get that in England. A ten hour drive, you’ll be in Scotland and that’s the furthest you’ll ever drive. But it’s more like, anything over two hours and people will be like, “Mmm, I don’t know.” So much more passion over here.

"Last of the Summer Wine"

What did you guys do before the band?
Chilli: I was working in a clothes shop.
Sam: I was doing a gardening course. I worked at the British Museum, and then I did a gardening course for about two weeks before things changed.
Pete Mayhew: Way before that, we were hanging out playing Nintendo.
Harry: I was charity fundraising.
Will: I was lifeguarding. I was saving peoples’ lives at swimming pools.
Harry: That’s a big loss.

Did you design the single cover?
Will: Well, we selected it.
Sam: The first one was way too expensive. It was a Beatlemania thing.
Chilli: I think it actually worked out. It looks great on t-shirts.
Pete: It was from an Elvis concert actually in the 1950s.
Will: Even though it looks like Chilli.
Chilli: You think I fucking wore braces? Look at these teeth.

What was it like coming over here with only one single out in the US? Was that daunting?
Chilli: I like it. It’s like starting again.
Sam: We have loads of other songs that are way better than “Best of Friends.”
Chilli: That’s the worst of them all. We don’t know why it’s the single.
Will: It’s good though, you have the chance to win people over again from scratch. Start from the beginning, no one knows who you are.
Sam: It’s more fun. Playing shows and things like that, it’s way more exciting than daunting.
Chilli: I can’t believe Sam went in the crowd the other day.
Will: You got in the crowd? Fuck, I need to look up more. I completely missed that.
Sam: I played the whole “Best of Friends” solo in the crowd. I’ve done that about three times in this whole career. I feel bad though. If I try to jump on people, they get flattened.
Chilli: So much muscle, right?

"Step Up For The Cool Cats"

A lot of people talk about how you didn’t have an Internet presence before you started playing shows. Was that something you consciously did?
Sam: We didn’t know how to use the Internet, to be honest. All we want to do is play live shows, we never thought about the Internet at the particular time. We didn’t want to record, because we don’t really like recording studios.
Chilli: We don’t like much.
Will: If we recorded stuff and put it up online, it would have been a really bad recording. Someone would listen to it online, and be like, "This is rubbish." Instead, they could come down to our studio and see us play live, see the whole house, and be blown away by that.

What are you guys thinking about playing Coachella?
Chilli: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman!
Pete: I’m looking forward to the Wombats.
Harry: Shut up, are they playing? I still want to hear “Little Miss Pipedream” live; it’s a good song. [3/4 of the band starts singing]
Sam: Stone Roses and Blur. I saw online a lot of people didn’t know who the Stone Roses were. Like the Tumblr, whoarethestoneroses.tumblr.com. I was like, “That’s crazy.” What’s going to be good about that is they’re going to play and a lot of people will be blown away, for sure.

What are some bands you think people should hear?
Everyone: Childhood.
Sam: Gabriel Bruce. For Gabriel Bruce, think Bruce Springsteen meets Leonard Cohen. His voice is amazing.
Will: He’s better than Bruce Springsteen. Leonard Cohen is pretty damn good.
Sam: No, no, no, you can’t say that in America. You can’t say someone is better than Springsteen. He is an idol.
Harry: Do you know what we saw the other day? Bruce Springsteen’s boots. It’s rock 'n' roll; you can see where all his music comes from.

What else are you guys going to work on after the album’s out?
Everyone: A horror film.
Chilli: Scandal and the Junkyard Dogs side-project.
Sam: We’ll be busy for most of the year, but I think the horror film is the one. We’ve talked about doing it in the house.

Follow Matt on Twitter: @patt_mutrino