Palma Violets interview

Tackling album number two is a tricky juncture for any band, but before Palma Violets could even begin working on their new record, they had to learn to become friends again.

“We’d been on tour for about two years and we got signed pretty quickly after releasing about four or five songs. It was a bit frantic at first and so by the end of it we got pretty sick of each other to be honest,” reveals frontman Sam Fryer.

A malaise has settled deep within camp Palma and they knew it would be tough to return to their hometown of London.

Speaking candidly about the experience, Sam explains: “We decided instead to go to Wales, where a mate of ours knew this lovely couple who owned a farm. There was a barn there and we set up all our equipment, spent a month walking the hills of Wales and then learning how to be friends again – and even write songs again.”

Despite its hackneyed term, did the four-piece find themselves falling victim to the dreaded second album syndrome?

“It was pretty tough because when we were writing all of our songs as an unsigned band we didn’t have all of those outside pressures, but being out there in Wales took those pressures away and made us realise why we got into it all in the first place.”

With their new album all wrapped up and set for release in early May, the group are itching for a return to the live circuit.

After some brief warm-up dates around Cornwall and Scunthorpe, the band will embark on an 11-date jaunt across the UK with the NME Awards Tour, including a show at Rock City on February 24 – and Sam could not be more excited.

“It’s good to start with a UK tour because when you go around the world you tend to miss the British fans – they definitely are the best.”

Sam compares touring to a “never-ending festival”, and even though it can get a little overwhelming at times, the peaks definitely outweigh the troughs.

Palma Violets return to this year’s NME Awards Tour bill as headliners after playing lower down the pecking order in 2013.

“Headlining is kind of like a dream come true for most independent bands. I just hope all the kids that came to the NME Awards Tour two years ago come back and haven’t grown up because we had such a good response that tour.”

Sam sees the imminent tour as a perfect occasion to premiere tracks from their forthcoming LP.

He says: “We love to throw four or five new ones in, but we don’t want to bore everyone to death. We still love our old songs just as much as our new ones.”

The effervescent frontman also hints that they may play some tracks that didn’t even make the new record – largely due to the prolific nature of recent recording sessions.

“We wrote about 17 songs for this album campaign. We were a bit frantic with our writing because we wanted to put ourselves in the best position when picking for the album and going out on tour. We’ve got a huge catalogue now – about 35 songs.”

Talking about the follow up to their 2013 debut, 180, Sam reckons their fans could be in for quite a surprise.

“You can hear a lot of elements of the first album in some of the tracks, but quite a lot of it will come as a shock to fans. We’re breaking down boundaries. The idea is to write something that we would never normally feel as though we’d write in order to test ourselves.”

So are there any particular standout moments on the new record?

“The standout moments for me change and I learn new things about our songs all the time. We’ve focused on making this record well balanced,” responds the assured vocalist/guitarist.

Ahead of a return to Nottingham, Sam takes the time to reminisce about the band’s previous ventures in the city.

“Our earliest memory is playing a club night in Stealth and nobody had a clue who we were. There was only one person in the room watching us and I think he’d take some sort of psychedelic drug, but he seemed to enjoy it at least.

“Then the NME Tour at Rock City everything broke down and a beer fell into my amp, which ruined it. Miles Kane had to lend me his one so we could do the show!”

Despite their fair share of mishaps, Sam insists that Nottingham holds some very fond memories for the group.

When pushed to describe a Palma Violets live show, he says it’s “raw power mixed with intense, europhic emotion.”

Well now we know what to expect, let’s just hope there aren’t any broken amps this time.