The genre listed under Palm Spring Life’s Facebook bio simply reads “Descriptive Neologism.” That might come off as pomp until you actually hear the up-and-coming Boston band’s music. A neologism is a newly coined word or expression, which is an appropriate explanation of the band’s incomparable sound.
Palm Spring Life can best be compared to Young the Giant playing in a basement on a mountain of psychedelics. Their music has a foot in the familiar garage-rock sound of Boston right now with a hearty helping of their own breezy sun-soaked take on the style. You get the feeling they crawled out of some undersea Pacific college town to just jam and have a ball. Their debut album, SWIMSSWIMSSWIMS, is one of the best local records of the year, and practically any of its 14 songs is an automatic trump card for your favorite summer tune.
Palm Spring Life is the brainchild of Ted Chafizadeh on guitar and vocals, James Steinberg on bass and, up until recently, Marc Finn on drums. Finn now resides in California and the role of drummer has been given to Brandon Pirrone. Not much is known about the trio, so we sat down with Ted and James to get a better idea of what Palm Spring Life and their debut album was really about.
The two are eclectic, to say the least. Ted describes their ethos as being “really into plant rights,” while James adds, “we just try to play our asses off as much as possible and push against each other and just be totally crazy about everything that we do.”
For every question asked I received a maze of answers, some simple fact, others fantastical. They claim to have met each other in the ocean, on the internet and even at the DMV. One claims to be born of a whale and both suspect that their old drummer, Marc Finn, is secretly a dolphin.
But all that can be heard in the music. SWIMSSWIMSSWIMS is like getting lost scuba diving, only to come across an undersea city once lost to time but still populated by capricorns. It balances funky pop with jittery rock, lush vocals with chaotic guitars. Palm Spring Life may be a bit of an anomaly, but, if nothing else, they rock.
There is a great deal of love shared between them. All have nothing but the goofiest, most unbound respect for one another. Even from just conversing with them, their brotherhood is obviously present. Both James and Ted feed off of each other’s energy. When asked to describe each other’s role in the band, James depicted Ted as “a mad emperor,” affectionately adding that “he has an innate musical ability that you would not understand. It’s strange. And he’s fucking hard on himself for it so he goes really hard and makes better and thus crazy ass songs. So he’s the primary songwriter, and without even really thinking about it is a pretty nasty lead guitarist, though he tends to shun that role because it’s too in the spotlight.”
Neither of them have fat egos. Ted is hesitant to take up his position as a guitar-slinging frontman because it reminds him too much of the showboating, “Stevie Ray Vaughan” style that he picked up growing up in the South. “There’s a lot of shit that I learned growing up in Texas,” he says, “I don’t want to do it anymore. It’s hard to unlearn shit. I try to re-appropriate it into weird awesome noisy settings.”
He is eager to pass on the subject, choosing instead to praise his buddy. “James plays the bass and is really swell. He has an innate rhythm understanding and he does not understand music theory, but he knows it in an intuitive sense, which is all that he needs because it’s fantastic usually. James is the best. James is one of the best musicians I’ve ever met, because he’s just so intuitive and so in the pocket always.”
Marc Finn recently moved to the golden shores of California to pursue other musical interests, but is still loved and admired by his former bandmates. On the subject of their former drummer, the two have their laughs.
“We’ve suspected [Marc] of being a dolphin for about three years,” James jokes, to which Ted immediately adds “I want to make this a moment right now to tell Marc that we’re not prejudiced against dolphin heritage, he can just say it.” He pauses, then throws in a statement that he thinks Marc is one of the tightest drummers he has ever met.
The two acknowledge that a new percussionist can bring different vibes to the table. But they are solely in high spirits about the transition.
“We’ve played with Brandon for months,” says James, “He is fucking amazing. He also has got an insane work ethic. He just grills himself constantly. The thing is, a lot of our songs are, like, weird it turns out, to play along to if you didn’t kind of grow up writing them. So it’s like he’s getting them insanely fast and once he gets them entirely he’s going to open up like mad.”
Palm Spring Life seems to exist in flux, even from conception. There were no practice sessions or preparations for what they loosely refer to as their first show. The band had only jammed once previous, and played for a very drunk crowd, themselves included. They enjoyed the gig so much they kept playing together, eventually realizing they had something unique.
Originally calling themselves Palm Springs Life, they dropped the second ‘s’ (they were afraid of copyright infringement on the magazine) and from there the current band was formed.
But they are careful of painting themselves into a corner. Ted is always searching for new members to bring in as many influences as possible. He has a love for layered sounds and dense harmonies, something not easily done with just three band members. At one point, he asks, “is it stupid to have a band that has a billion people in it?”
James noted that larger bands tend to be structured around one composer and adding “I like being a three piece because there’s a lot of space to maneuver.”
Ted recalls that “at first we were like, let’s be a really light band, and we were gonna make it party and whimsical.”
“But we kind of just move wherever it tends to be going,” James adds. “Sometimes it tends to be all over the place.” Their isn’t a specific approach to their music—it’s a spontaneous effort that allows for each song to choose its own fate.
Ted explains his writing style. To him, “if the lyrics are off from the vibe of the song, then it’s not good, we’re gonna change the lyrics. We gotta ask the vibe of the song to change. We ask the song itself to change. But seriously, candles, seances.”
It isn’t hard to discern that he is a restless creative. He speaks often of his own effort to constantly rework Palm Spring Life’s music. He is planning on creating “more esoteric stuff” because he isn’t sure he is still “down to make pop music.” He hints that he would even want to try his hand at a conceptual album. The two mention that the band is working on a EP now, and when asked about it, Ted cooly responds that it is something different, and that there’s segments of white noise.
SWIMSSWIMSSWIMS came out in the spring, but had been completed almost a year prior.
At first, they tested the internet’s waters by putting their tune Sea Monkeys up for free on Bandcamp. It quickly garnered attention from several prospects, one of which being a man they refer to as Dakota Fanning. He offered the band a seemingly lucrative deal and promised them free mastering by Alan Douches, a very big name in the music industry.
At that point, it was June of last year, they had already recorded the album, but they decided to investigate the deal. Like many indie bands, they experienced firsthand the ease at which the industry can abuse or neglect them. The record was held from them for months, they had to hire a lawyer and the whole process delayed the album’s release for months.
Eventually, the band broke off ties with Dakota Fanning, called Alan Douches and had the album mastered themselves. Palm Spring Life ended up self-releasing SWIMSSWIMSSWIMS on their Bandcamp. The album title is an ambigram, meaning you can read it the same way upside down. Ted also enjoys that it looks like ocean waves.
In the end, James calls the whole project “well-articulated nonsense,” which does not seem far from the truth. Palm Spring Life is a couple of goofs making insanely vibey music under the sole condition of having a great time with their friends.
Palm Spring Life’s next show is July 31st at the Lilypad with Jude. and Sur Back. Go show them your support.