Phantom Planet
Back to the Grind
2008-04-02
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Phantom Planet is one of those groups that maybe you know a little bit about for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you knew that Jason Schwartzman used to play drums in the band; maybe you heard that frontman Alex Greenwald had a role in Donnie Darko; perchance you’ve watched The OC and heard the title track, “California”; or maybe, just maybe, you own some records and know Phantom Planet as a regular old band. In any case, the LA-based four-piece is currently pumping their first release in four years, Raise the Dead, and is soon bound for extensive touring with Panic at the Disco. Synthesis caught up with drummer Jeff Conrad before an Orlando gig with Paramore.
So you guys just got back from South By Southwest.
Yeah, that was crazy. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was like getting hit by lightning or something. We did a show a day, which I guess isn’t that crazy; some bands do up to three or four shows a day. But we were doing press and all that other stuff the rest of the time, and then just hanging out, drinking and getting a lot of free stuff. The food is great; everybody was in a good mood.
Raise the Dead is Phantom Planet’s first release in four years. How does it feel being back in the swing?
I don’t think I realized how great it was gonna feel until we were actually back. I think it was worth the wait. We went through a couple producers, we got a new label, new management; everything just feels right now. I’m definitely glad we waited to make this record because the record we would have made about two years ago just wasn’t nearly as good. For whatever reason we just weren’t ready to put it out. We’re so proud…I really think it’s gonna do things for us.
Do you feel like your songwriting has matured compared to a few years back? Are you drawing upon similar influences?
I think we’re still coming from a lot of the same places. I think it’s a good balance between The Guest, which is very sunny, California pop, and then the album after that is much more aggressive, which was probably closer to how we sound live, but I think it was missing a lot of the hooks that we’re maybe known for. I think this is a good balance between the two. I think if you hear the record you’ll think it sounds like Phantom Planet. There are a lot of overdubs, but there’s also a lot of just the four of us playing in a room together. It kind of took us a long time to make an exciting sounding record that sounded like us playing live but still was interesting to hear over and over again.
The drum tones on the album really stand out.
Our engineer was this crazy kid from Canada named Sean Everett. He would never record our drums the same way twice. He was just coming from a very creative place. It reminded me of hearing about old Beatles records where they would just try stuff that was totally unorthodox. Like, “let’s run this microphone through a guitar amp…” I mean he wouldn’t even record a clap track the same way twice, which is like a very standard, you know, you just put [up] a mic and people clap, but he would find a way to twist it and make it sound a little different than it should.
I read that lyrically you were drawing from a bit of cult reading?
Our singer, Alex [Greenwald], spent a long time researching Jim Jones and Charles Manson and a few other cults, and he just became fascinated. They actually made quite a bit of music…and if you take away all the horrible things that ended up happening to them, the music is actually quite hopeful. And knowing what happens afterwards kind of paints this dark undercurrent to all the music. And [Alex] was definitely trying to achieve that kind of layered effect with his lyrics.
Obviously, a lot of people will know your band through the fact that “California” runs as the theme to The OC. Does it bother you to think that Phantom Planet might be overly associated with that song and show?
No, I think it did for maybe a brief time, but the past couple years it’s been great for us. We can play for complete strangers—people that have never heard us in the middle of nowhere, and we play that song and they just instantly light up. And uh, no…I mean, no. That song has been so great for us; we’re grateful for all of it.
Being that you guys have your own various careers aside from music—film, modeling—do you ever find that people are maybe hesitant to take you as real band initially?
I don’t think so. I think we’re kind of beyond that right now. I think we’re pretty focused on touring for the next couple years. People will see our live show and that should be enough for them to take us seriously. Alex was in Donnie Darko, but that was so long ago. And Jason’s been gone for a while, so I think our focus has been on the band for quite some time.
So you guys just got back from South By Southwest.
Yeah, that was crazy. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was like getting hit by lightning or something. We did a show a day, which I guess isn’t that crazy; some bands do up to three or four shows a day. But we were doing press and all that other stuff the rest of the time, and then just hanging out, drinking and getting a lot of free stuff. The food is great; everybody was in a good mood.
Raise the Dead is Phantom Planet’s first release in four years. How does it feel being back in the swing?
I don’t think I realized how great it was gonna feel until we were actually back. I think it was worth the wait. We went through a couple producers, we got a new label, new management; everything just feels right now. I’m definitely glad we waited to make this record because the record we would have made about two years ago just wasn’t nearly as good. For whatever reason we just weren’t ready to put it out. We’re so proud…I really think it’s gonna do things for us.
Do you feel like your songwriting has matured compared to a few years back? Are you drawing upon similar influences?
I think we’re still coming from a lot of the same places. I think it’s a good balance between The Guest, which is very sunny, California pop, and then the album after that is much more aggressive, which was probably closer to how we sound live, but I think it was missing a lot of the hooks that we’re maybe known for. I think this is a good balance between the two. I think if you hear the record you’ll think it sounds like Phantom Planet. There are a lot of overdubs, but there’s also a lot of just the four of us playing in a room together. It kind of took us a long time to make an exciting sounding record that sounded like us playing live but still was interesting to hear over and over again.
The drum tones on the album really stand out.
Our engineer was this crazy kid from Canada named Sean Everett. He would never record our drums the same way twice. He was just coming from a very creative place. It reminded me of hearing about old Beatles records where they would just try stuff that was totally unorthodox. Like, “let’s run this microphone through a guitar amp…” I mean he wouldn’t even record a clap track the same way twice, which is like a very standard, you know, you just put [up] a mic and people clap, but he would find a way to twist it and make it sound a little different than it should.
I read that lyrically you were drawing from a bit of cult reading?
Our singer, Alex [Greenwald], spent a long time researching Jim Jones and Charles Manson and a few other cults, and he just became fascinated. They actually made quite a bit of music…and if you take away all the horrible things that ended up happening to them, the music is actually quite hopeful. And knowing what happens afterwards kind of paints this dark undercurrent to all the music. And [Alex] was definitely trying to achieve that kind of layered effect with his lyrics.
Obviously, a lot of people will know your band through the fact that “California” runs as the theme to The OC. Does it bother you to think that Phantom Planet might be overly associated with that song and show?
No, I think it did for maybe a brief time, but the past couple years it’s been great for us. We can play for complete strangers—people that have never heard us in the middle of nowhere, and we play that song and they just instantly light up. And uh, no…I mean, no. That song has been so great for us; we’re grateful for all of it.
Being that you guys have your own various careers aside from music—film, modeling—do you ever find that people are maybe hesitant to take you as real band initially?
I don’t think so. I think we’re kind of beyond that right now. I think we’re pretty focused on touring for the next couple years. People will see our live show and that should be enough for them to take us seriously. Alex was in Donnie Darko, but that was so long ago. And Jason’s been gone for a while, so I think our focus has been on the band for quite some time.
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