Alan Palomo

0:12Hello and welcome to the special episode of the Monaco Weekly. I'm Fernando Gusto Pacheco, and for today's show I speak with Alan Palomo, former New Indian. We discuss his upcoming album, World of Hassle, and he tells me why the change of name.

0:42process of trying to find lyrical inspiration you know i was in a bit of a rut for a moment and i tend to curate very carefully what i'm consuming when i'm uh when i'm working because it will inevitably make its way into the work, like movies I'm watching, books I'm reading. And I kind of fell down this rabbit hole of watching these Leonard Cohen interviews right around his album, I'm Your Man. And I was so thoroughly impressed at how he had been able to reinvent himself at age 50. You know, he's wearing this black suit. You know, it's funny because in that era, he makes a cameo in Miami Vice and it's so perfect.

1:17He was the sharp-tongued as ever and quick-witted, had a lot to say. And that album also is kind of where he stops taking himself quite as serious and his sense of humor really comes out. And I think I kind of had that moment of like, what is my album lacking? And I realized it was like, oh, it's the humor. And that's something that I've always kind of come back to is like, if it's not fun, then don't make it, obviously. But in this context, you know, I wanted to kind of start laying the groundwork for what I want to ultimately do for the rest of my life. And I think I try to imagine myself, you know, my 50s, you know, like Las Vegas, kind of fat Alan doing like a residency, you know, still is Neon Indian, you know, just like, you know, you guys are a sexy crowd.

2:02Should have taken acid with you. But like, I just don't have, you know, that to me doesn't sound nearly as appealing. It's just starting to go by my own name and not using the moniker, you know, that I donned when I was 20 years old. You know, it's like I'm living in a totally different epoch in my life. I look back on those times very fondly and I look back on that first album. But it's very interesting that sometimes the things you put the least amount of thought into can come to define you the most. Because that album I made in less than a month, you know, that first album, it'll never quite happen like that again.

2:32It's like they say you got your whole life to write the first one and then it just sort of comes out of you. But since then, you know, it's been three albums. And I completed what I thought was, you know, a trilogy. And I said in interviews even back in 2015 when Big International came out that if Neon Indian was to continue, that I would have to or it would have to undergo some complete aesthetic overhaul in order for it to remain interesting to me. and I was trying to write a fourth one that felt kind of forced and then the pandemic started. So when I began writing a new collection of songs, it just felt like time.

3:09And can I be honest, still talking about name, I think there's something about Palomo. Your surname is great, actually. So you should definitely use it. It sounds Italian, it's funny. Yeah, I don't know, I think of a drink. I don't know, maybe I'm thinking of Palomo, but you know what I mean, right? Well, definitely the Paloma is, you know, that's a grapefruit soda and tequila. That's like a classic. And I love the fact as all you're saying that you wanted to inject humor to your music. But what I love what you did at World of Hassel, you did humor, but in such a sophisticated way because the album, it feels lush.

3:45There's something sexy and lush about it.

3:58Tonight, you're friends who are on the right, divine

4:05Tell us about some of your other inspiration for the album. You know, I think I was reading the press release, a little bit of Brian Ferry there, but there's some Italo disco. There's so many cool influences in it. Well, it's definitely an amalgam of what I've been listening to in the past five or so years. And even just the core influences of, you know, throughout my 20s, I really loved like the Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout, you know, but I, with Neon Indian, it never quite, it couldn't quite work its way in because that project was so textural. And I knew that, you know, my fans, they know you know how to program a synth.

4:42They know you know how to make, you know, these sort of soundscapes, but what haven't they heard from you? And for me, this album really was just like really sweating the lyrics and kind of really sweating the songwriting aspects of it. And that's something I've always really loved, you know, from artists like Brian Ferry and Patty McAloon from Prefab Sprout. But even on top of that, like a lot of the influences, I mean, I kind of just imagine in my head, like, I mean, there's certain, you know, like the one instrumental track, Alibi for Petra. You know, I was looking at a poster for this really bizarre Ridley Scott movie called Black Rain.

5:20And I call it one of Ridley's Believe It or Nots because his career has all these weird duds that are still fascinating to watch. But it's in that era, right around that time, where those albums are dropping and you have these really sort of sleazy saxophone film scores. And it's all about this undercover cop. He's like an American cop in Tokyo. And I never seen the movie, so I was like, let's just try to write what you think the soundtrack to this film would be. I mean, the record was intended to feel cinematic in that way, because I was also watching like a lot of Adrian Lin stuff, a lot of erotic thrillers.

5:58And what's interesting about Adrian Lin, like his New York is so slick. And it's like, you know, everyone's wearing these like Cloud Montana suits and Yves Saint Laurent stuff. It's so dressed up, you know, that version of the 80s that's like everything's kind of hazed out. And there's a story to tell in every song as well. For example, one of my favorites is The Return of Mickey Milan as well. Can you tell us a bit more about this song, actually? Because it is about a pop star, a fictitious pop star, right? Yes. You know, in some ways, it's sort of like a call to arms to my father, actually, because, I mean, he put out records in the 80s.

6:33And I know what that is. I mean, I kind of grew up watching. It's like, you know, when someone's no longer actively recording or they kind of go into this hiatus or different priorities come into play. And it's obviously, you know, it's not literally about him, but I kind of empathize with this sort of narrative of like, sort of slowly plotting some kind of comeback, waiting for your moment to sort of return to the limelight. He sort of plays this like prototypical American pop star. Like think a big lyrical inspiration for me in that one was just the film American Pop, this Ralph Bakshi animated movie that really has no business being animated.

7:10Like it's just a straight story about these like kind of multiple generations of musicians. and each one gets a little bit closer to fame and a little bit closer to fame. And then finally, you know, the great-grandson in the 70s, who's like a cult dealer for some like rock band, is able to talk him into playing one of his songs and he finally achieves like pop stardom and the movie just ends on that note. So I kind of wanted to write something, you know, that captures that feeling of just like, you know, you've been hiding for way too long. There's a really great Prefab Sprout song. I think it's Jordan, The Comeback, that's he never says Elvis but it's so obviously about him and he's like waiting to drink from the River Jordan you know which I I think is like this mythical river that that kind of restores your youth you know and he's got this great line he's like I'm just waiting for the right song and then I'm coming back you know but I think yeah I think if you're a musician and you've been kind of doing it for longer than a decade like you'll have these little dips or these moments where you start to doubt yourself and start kind of plotting you know some kind of fictitious comeback, even if it's through the eyes of some late middle-aged, kind of washed up pop star.

8:19And Alan, when I think of music, I do think of synthesizers at times, but I think for this album, you did learn to play piano, right? I mean, tell us, which instruments do you play? And is it true? Is that the case about the piano? You know, I realized that my skill set with the piano was kind of stuck for many years. I realized, or sorry, my skill set just playing the keyboard, you know, most synthesizers. And I realized that it's because they're not weighted. So the resistance that you get when you're actually sitting down to play a piano is making your hands stronger. I realized that as much as I kind of fiddled around and, you know, I really tried to kind of reject the idea for so many years that I was an actual musician.

9:01It's like, oh, God forbid I'd be a real musician. You know, I kept seeing myself as like a quote unquote producer or like, I'm just going to make one more record and then I'm going to go on to making films or something else. And eventually, you know, I had to confront it. It's like, sorry, dude, you've tested positive for musician. You have to just reacclimate to this reality and actually grow your skillset as opposed to butsing around with, you know, just with synths. And I knew that I, you know, during the pandemic, I mean, everybody kind of had their little pet project in terms of what they were going to devote their time to.

9:33And for me, it was buying a piano and finally learning how to sight read and kind of building that skill set out. And it was the best thing I really could have done in terms of for my musical chops. And not just because those ideas grow, but you really you get to this place, you get to this brick wall where like your hands can't keep up with your ideas after a while. There's more things you want to do, but you're just not capable of them. And, you know, a piano doesn't have MIDI. You got to actually learn to play it, you know. And that, for me, really kind of opened up this world where I didn't want to turn my back on making an electronic record.

10:09Like, obviously, I still want my records to be chock full of ear candy and fun little eccentricities. But it was cool to kind of get to command it from a more traditional role, just sitting down and playing with different voicings and playing with key changes. And a lot of that desire also started on the last record when I kind of revamped the band. And a lot of the players, my brother included, way more experienced than I was. They'd played in all these different genres, and they really knew how to do pickup gigs. And I realized that I was the least musically adept person in my band. And they can't fire me because I write the songs, but it really kind of put a little bit of a fire under my ass to just be better.

10:54Well, it's funny you were mentioning that you wanted to keep some eccentricities and still some kind of electro fun vibes. And one of my favorite tracks as well is, sorry if I'm pronouncing incorrectly, is Meutrière. Oh, yes. I love the kind of, it is electro vibes as well. That's a fantastic track as well.

11:29Well, I can tell you that I did the entire song on a Jupiter 8. That was one, I mean, which is, you know, that's like the Holy Grail, you know, synthesizer of the 80s. It appears on all these kind of like canonical pop records. And it's so funny. I used to own one in 2012, 2013. And I sold it. I traded it for a memory mode because I was like, this is too clean. It's like it sounds too like it sounds too high five. It sounds too pop. And the answer really was just that I just didn't know what I was doing then. You know, I really didn't know how to kind of get the sound I wanted from it. And I bought a Memory Moog instead, which which did wind up being the sound of Vega.

12:07But I tried to reacquire one when I started writing this record. And then something happened over the pandemic where just like the price on anything vintage just completely skyrocketed. and I saw that the Jupiter rate had gone up to like$36 ,000. Which is just completely insane. But my friend had one, my friend Michael Stein, who I've known since Austin, when he was in this band, Survive, and now him and one of his bandmates, Kyle, they do the music for Stranger Things, and he's got just, you know, God's synthesizer collection. He's been like collecting since back in the day, because he used to be a repair tech at this place, which is like a music shop in Austin.

12:48and he had a Jupiter 8. So I hit him up and I was, you know, I spent a couple days there using primarily that. And the Jupiter 6, there's definitely a lot of, you know, it's a very Roland kind of record. But as far as like the inspiration of the song, I mean, I really love this kind of sub-genre of like, it's not a, it's a tallow, but made in France. And a lot of DJs call it Fritalo. I love the name. But it's, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's, it's, you know, it's a lot of, it's French singers. I mean, I love a lot of just kind of French boogie and disco from that era. And I love that, that in more recent years, I feel like suddenly France kind of became nostalgic about its own 1980s.

13:32And you're seeing, you know, kind of bands like, you know, L 'Imperatrice and Louis of Man, you know, La Tham. You see that their 1980s, again, is kind of this more sort of dressed up endeavor, you know, The chords are a little bit more interesting. They're taking elements from funk and boogie and a lot of records coming out of the United States and also injecting Algerian and Moroccan influences. And it's just, it's really, I don't know, it just has a very international vibe. You know, that was very much so the impetus for wanting to write something in French, you know? And as I started kind of, I'm not fully fluent, you know, but I, well, you know, Spanish being a first language, I definitely was able to fake my way through a lot of French exams in high school.

14:17But I started kind of putting together this lyrical story about, and it's basically like kind of like a classic Kubrick, you know, Shelley Duvall, The Shining kind of thing where the director's just pushing the actress too far. And, you know, she's having to die and die again. And the song is kind of about that reckless abandon. You know, obviously it's a metaphor for more of like a relationship. You know, maybe it's a little bit of a reference to like Le Petit Mort, which is, you know, I guess like the French euphemism for orgasm. So I don't know. It was like I was in this kind of erotic thriller sort of state of mind.

14:50And I was like, you know, let's let's explore that. Let's let's write it about, you know, an actor from a director. And I was lucky enough to have some friends of mine that live in my neighborhood who had this band called Pearl and the Oyster were a great band. They put out a record recently on Stone's Throw. You know, they knew Fleur from L 'Imperatrice from back in the day and they were nice enough to connect me to her. and sure enough she dug the track and she sent me some really incredible vocals

15:33and yeah that was kind of the story of how that song came together I love you mentioned Erotic Thriller a few times because I love them they are also kind of an inspiration for me and I think perhaps there might be a little comeback as well of Erotic Thrillers perhaps starting with your album I hope so you know it's funny there's a song well this is a little bit of an exclusive but there was a song on the record that didn't quite it didn't fit the sequence so I kind of want to maybe build out an EP around it but the song was called Erotic Thriller and now I'm just sort of like man should I just you could take all the titles of the best ones you could take like Crimes of Passion Law of Desire what is it there's that remix sorry not that remix that remake of like The Postman Always Rings Twice you know obviously you've got like nine and a half weeks yeah and it's like the list goes on and on but I'm just sort of like man maybe maybe I should just you know have a little four or five song EP where each one's just like a different film title you know can you please do that can you please do that because and you should send it to me firstly because you said it here exclusively yes exactly exactly oh what a fantastic idea listen Alan what a pleasure talking to you I love the concept for the album the music I'm a big fan here so thank you so much for chatting with us thank you so much

16:55that was Alan Palomo there World of Hassle is out on the 15th of September the show was edited by Sami Suisi and I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco