Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Pallas Athene, who discusses her new single, “The Wall,†as well as her creative process and goals for the future.
Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?
Pallas Athene: My mother had this sad old acoustic guitar collecting dust in her bedroom so when I was young I’d steal it away and try to learn Neil Young covers. Later in high school, I met a friend who had written some poetry and wanted to make some art together and so we experimented with the words and spent the night recording an album on a little black Mp3 player. We called ourselves Le Caffelons (because we would take lettuce and condiments from the Cafeteria when we didn’t have a lunch). After that, I started playing solo folk shows in Toronto and played in a couple of bands (Spirit Oak + ILUMINAS ). It wasn’t until 2016 that I started to explore electronic music production after recording my song “What I Want” (using only my computer keys as a midi keyboard and my iPod headphones as a mic). Now I have a lot more tools at the ready and it has really opened up my creative world.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Athene: I usually work inside of Ableton or sing mumbling ideas on my voice memo iPhone app. I begin by auditioning sounds from my midi or synth library until I find a sound that puts me in a sort of altered state. Often I will create a bass drone loop and allow myself to get lost in the music. That’s when I’ll start mumbling words ( I’m careful to always press record as the first take usually has the best lyrics). Later I will listen back and transcribe my mumbles and carve out a sort of song structure using the bones of the first take. Everything else is built on that first layer and requires a certain state of non-judgement.
Review Fix: What inspires you?
Athene: I’m inspired by nature and all the existential funk that comes along with a being a microscopic human on a tiny planet in the vast universe. Most of the time I’m super depressed, but the moments where I feel most inspired are when I see people doing good in the world and people making a difference whether locally or globally.
I’m listening to a lot of 80s new wave at the moment and I find it melts away some of the seriousness and depression of life. I find the release that I get from listening to good music is one of the few things that keeps me inspired enough to keep creating music. I feel that music is a form of therapy for me and I’ve learned that sometimes the only way for me to get inspired is to just sit down and force myself to start something.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Athene: I’d say I make melancholic alternative pop. Some of my music is more instrumental featuring droning lo-fi synths. I work in a pop structure naturally but the instrumentation is generally less commercial or less upbeat–more existential and open to interpretation.
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Athene: In the studio I’m able to layer multiple synths, bass parts and samples in multiple takes and things are very set in stone (in terms of structure). In my live set, I’ve created more space by taking things away and focusing on the essential elements. I’ve stripped it down to just me on my synthesizer, live looping drum beats and samples with a midi controller and really playing with the physical space and the delay and reverb on my vocals. The live set is more atmospheric and free than studio work, but the live show comes with its own limitations as well (I have a lot of anxiety and feel much more pressure being a solo artist than I did when I was playing with a band).
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Athene: The Wall was inspired by a sense of loneliness I feel in the day-to-day. Maybe it’s just me–but I feel that social media has really changed the way we interact, and I feel like it’s stealing time from me and the people I love. I mean, I’ve spent countless hours with people who are glued to the phone, addicted to the scroll hole. I’m sure that I’ve also been that person who’s not truly present and I’ve certainly used my phone as a way of separating myself from others in public. I think I’ve just reached my threshold of how much real-world time I’m willing to lose out on and I think this song is a reflection of that frustration.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019?
Athene: My goal is to play some shows in the next little while, focus on the visual components of my set and start to prepare the next batch of songs for recording in 2020.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Athene: I’m also working on an ambient record project that features field recordings I’ve taken of wildlife that I’ve converted into digital instruments. The goal is to create an atmospheric ambient record with all of the proceeds going to the local wildlife sanctuary near my home (I’m hoping to have this ready for release mid-winter).
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