Local punk rockers Laura Palmer (Members of Outsiders/Sommerset/PCP Eagles) have kicked off 2016 pretty strong with the release of their new EP Old Souls just two weeks into January.
Traversing familiar power pop/ punk ground (a world they know so incredibly well), the EP is a follow on from their 2014 effort Summer’s Over and it sees they guys enlist the assistance of recorded in Melbourne, Australia with the help of producers Greg Allan and Pete Lawry (Freak Wave) and was mixed by J Robbins (Against Me, Coliseum, Blueline Medic) at The Magpie Cage in
Baltimore, MD.
Having formed in mid 2013 the band have become favourites on the local Melbourne, touring scene. That said, they’ve toured extensively around Australia and the United States including recent appearances at Big Pre-Fest in Little Ybor and THE FEST in Gainesville Florida alongside bands such as Andrew WK, The Menzingers and thousands more.
To celebrate the release of this record we caught up with guitarist/ vocalist Niam Hegarty who gave us a little track by track run down of the EP, check it out below and if you like what you’re hearing pop by the band’s Facebook page for more info on upcoming shows and releases. Buy the album at laurapalmermelb.bandcamp.com.
I hope that you remember
This is the last track we wrote before we recorded – it sort of came out of nowhere. We demo’d it and it sounded good and ended up being one of the stronger songs. I don’t think we had ever played it live before we recorded it.
Lyrically it is about thinking about someone (friends, lost lovers) who are far away and hoping they remember the good times too even though you may not have seen them in years.
Forgotten Songs
This is a song I wrote trying to write a fast punk song but it slows right down and turns on its head halfway through. This song is about looking back and kind of being like “where did my youth go, I used to be fucking 17 running around listening to punk music and being an asshole?” It is kind of recreating that spirit.
One of the lines is “So Tonight i’m drinking for free, alone in my room with my hopes and my dreams”
Undecided
With this song we were trying to pay tribute to early 90’s alternative rock and punk bands a sound that bands like Violent Soho do so well these days.
I managed to get a sample by Trippy Psychologist CJ Jung into the bridge of the song where he is ranting about consciousness that is pretty cool. I would like to re-record this for a full length record I think.
Lyrically it is pretty open ended but the opening line is a homage to a Billy Brag lyric – It says “I can’t survive on what you send, every time through every trend”
Old Souls
This is an upbeat punk rock song that is sort of paying tribute to the whole Fest scene. We travel to Gainseville, Florida most years and play The Fest, for the uninitiated The Fest is a big worldwide good vibes punk/rock festival that basically takes over the entire town.
This is a “I won’t give up i’ll fight the darkness through music and goodtimes” kind of thing with plenty of “woah oohs” thrown in for good measure.
