Local faves The Gooch Palms unveiled their new LP III a few weeks ago via Ratbag Records/BMG. The duo, who bring the party to garage-rock, have been touring overseas quite a bit in 2019 — gaining a whole heap of new fans across the world in the process. To celebrate the release of their third album, Leroy takes us through the inspiration behind it.
Batman Forever
If you don’t think Val Kilmer is the best Batman then we can’t be mates. Batman Forever has the best soundtrack ever and boy did I play the shit out of it!! The best song U2 ever made in my opinion is on this soundtrack. It’s called "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” and of course there’s Seal's 'Kiss From A Rose', what a banger. The chord progression on both of these songs inspired me to write the last song on our album called 'I Get Out'. I tried to write it as if it was going to be on that soundtrack. I’m really happy with how it turned out!
Touring
Touring as much as we do, we get to see a lot of stuff. From beautiful beaches, forests and wide open roads. We also get to see the ugly side of humanity and all of that helps motivate us when it comes to writing lyrics. Our songs 'Coast to Coast' and 'Hi-Rise Lo-Times' are good examples of that!
Small Hot American Summer
It was about 45 degrees in LA and I decided to go into our bedroom (but don’t think bedroom, think more like walk-in-wardrobe) to write some music. It must have been at least 50 degrees in that goddamn room. But despite the heat I started making an 808 drum loop then came up with 3 chords, followed by a vocal melody. It all happened so fast because I wanted to get out of that room. That song became 'Marfa Lights'. The version you hear on the album is the version made on that hot day.
Each Other
We are so lucky to be a couple and in the band together. This might sound gross but we love being around each other 24/7. It makes it easy with songwriting because at any moment we could spring into action and smash out a new song. We are also in no way passive aggressive and we say it like it is. Yes, sometimes that results in a screaming match, but after we are done its back to normal and sometimes we have a new song!
Society
Fuck we live in some dark times but the only way we can get through it is if we all rally together and stand for what we believe in. For us we are sick of seeing beautiful old buildings being torn down to make way for a multi-story cheap ass apartments. It's so bad in Newcastle right now. There are going to be apartments and nothing else. No culture, no character, no history. I fucking hate all theses out of town developers coming into our city and fucking it! We got to air our frustration about it in our song 'Hi-rise Lo-Ttimes'.
Listen to III by The Gooch Palms below:
Watch the video for 'Are We Wasted':
Follow The Gooch Palms:
