Alright. I have to admit something right off the bat.

I’m in love with this band. There…I said it.

A few months ago, I had the distinct pleasure of walking into a show (remember those?) at The Fillmore in Philadelphia, and witnessing an opening act that I can’t describe as anything less than breathtaking. It was one of those moments where you go “holy shit….wow.”. They don’t happen too often anymore. It’s a rare moment in life that sticks with you. (I wrote an article about the entire show which is also on That Mag, also featuring fellow Philly acts Foxtrot & The Get Down and Saint Slumber).

In the time since that show took place, PHNTMS has released, in my opinion, one of the best songs that I have heard in quite some time. The song is called “Back Burner.” Suffice to say, I have it on repeat constantly. I have turned countless friends onto PHNTMS via this song, most of which share my exact sentiments and thoughts about it. A brilliant landscape of guitar work. Drums that signal a call to arms. And vocals that can flat out tear a hole through the heavens. It’s a song that you’d hear constantly on the radio. It’s catchy. It’s fresh. It’s real.

I had a chance to briefly speak with PHNTMS about this song and a few other topics…

First and foremost, for those that don’t know…who are PHNTMS? What is this band truly about? And who are they trying to reach with the message?

PHNTMS is a four-piece rock band from Philadelphia PA,” Gene Murphy begins. “Alyssa Gambino, Adam Jessamine, Mikal Smith, and Gene Murphy. The band is all about creating music we are emotionally connected to. We are inspired by everyday situations, relationships, and growing up, as songwriters, we try to capture these moments and make them as detailed as possible. We’ll always be fascinated by the fact we can freeze these moments in a song.”

Half of the band identifies as queer, so they hope to reach out to and support the LGBTQA+ community. “We openly talk about lesbian relationships in our music and we want to bring hope to anyone who is in the closet and doesn’t feel safe coming out. Whether you are out as queer or not, your identity is valid and if our music helps you escape heteronormativity for a brief moment.”

The sound that PHNTMS has achieved is something unique and special. This massive wall of sound that, at least from what I can hear, has such a wide array of influences. 

“We really appreciate you saying that and it means a lot to us,” Adam Jessamine replied. “We are pretty influenced by a lot of bands. Biffy Clyro, Kings of Leon, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Bring Me The Horizon, Deaf Havana, as well as vocalists like Amy Winehouse. We also draw a lot of inspiration from moves and directors like Nicholas Winding Refn, who directed ‘Drive’ and ‘The Neon Demon’.”

The lyrics. The melody. I mean goddamn…that’s…for a lack of a better term…fucking huge. Many times artists like to keep them open-ended for interpretation so the listener can use the song for connection to their own lives, but I’m interested to see if there was a specific moment in life that created these? It’s so powerful and caked in emotion that I can’t imagine something big didn’t spark them into being. Care to share as to what that might have been?

Haha! That’s awesome, big fan of huge sounding bands so again, thank you!” Alyssa Gambino exclaimed. “‘Back Burner’ is about two people dealing with bad timing and not being ready to take the next step into a relationship, despite there being a strong attraction. 

“I’ve always kept a safe distance when having feelings for someone new and the ‘flame’ represents just that. For me, being placed on the back burner is a lingering reminder that I will be here waiting.”

The music video for “Back Burner” is also brilliantly done. It perfectly encompasses the feel of the song, and even better is that Adam was the director. 

The band chose to keep everything in-house, but sometimes that can pose be prove easier or more difficult on film. Musicians are perfectionists so I can imagine that you nitpicked through every little piece of footage to get this right by your standards.

“Thanks, man. It’s the first video I directed and I didn’t want to settle at all in terms of the making of it. I wanted it to look like it was shot by my favorite directors Nicholas Winding Refn, David Fincher, and Denis Villeneuve,” Jessamine explained. “Not that it compares to any of their work. They are masters, but I wanted to ‘make them proud’ haha. My buddy Tom Flynn filmed it with us, who is awesome and a fantastic cinematographer. He actually owns the same camera that the movie, ‘Drive,’ was filmed with, so that was great for me. I was extremely specific on location, lighting, how it was shot and edited as well. If you think musicians are perfectionists I’m on a whole different level, I get OCD about things. It’s pretty intense sometimes, I go over every tiny little detail. Mikal always tells me I ‘Bring out the electron microscope..’ Which I get a kick out of.

The future is obviously bright for PHNTMS. 

Is there more music already recorded that we will be seeing soon as an encore to Back Burner? And where do you see this band in 5 years?

“We have a 6-song self-titled EP that is coming out. It’s all finished and ready to go,” Jessamine reveals. “The next single is coming out on May 8th (you heard it here first!) We are super excited about it. We were supposed to do another video for it, but with the state of things going on in the world right now, that’s on hold, for the time being. There will definitely be more music videos in the future. And after the EP, we already have other songs recorded and ready to go, very excited with the people we are working with for that stuff. Honestly, we just want to keep making music and just have people enjoy the music we make while reaching as many people as possible. Also, we can’t wait to just play shows again after all this.”

Talking with Garcia Peoples

Interview with Maria Arroyo

Rock n’ roll psychedelic jam band, Garcia Peoples, is officially a 6-piece band but has played anywhere from 2 to 6 band members, with one of their guitarists being from the Chicago area. The Brooklyn-based band is just getting started.

The band consists of songwriters and guitarists Danny and Tom, Derek on bass, Cesar on drums, and other members Pat and Andy.

My Skype interview was with the singer and co-songwriter of Garcia Peoples, Tom Malach. We spent a lot of time talking about the writing process and how fast everything was able to fall in place in such a short amount of time.

“We wrote the music over a long stretch of time… a lot of these songs that we are working on now are actually quite old, and a lot of the songs that are on the first, second and third albums are even older,” Malach explained, then adds, “There was a point a few years ago when Danny and I were both unemployed and we would get together very often and just kind of plan out these albums… and now they are actually happening.”

So…you really just had a lot of time to sit around and write music? “Yeah… kinda,” he answers.

The band is already on their third album in just a year and a half and is currently recording their fourth album in Philadelphia with Jeff Zigler, who also helped them record their second album.

As we talked more and more about the explosion of released songs, he elaborated on the recording process and how much they have learned and adapted to being in a studio.

“It was a great experience because we’ve always recorded in our own bedrooms and whatnot and done things pretty simple… like friends pushing the buttons and stuff,” he explains. “But going to a studio and paying someone who knows what they’re doing where you can ask them for things and they give you suggestions… I love working with people that give input. We have all these songs, so we said let’s pay the money and record these songs for real, and it turned out even better than we expected!”

As a musician myself, I know how many tons of books of songs that I’ve written, so to be able to publish almost all of them back to back in less than 2 years is very impressive!

“So do you and your band do music full-time?” I asked.

“We all still work 9-5 jobs… but from the beginning, we knew that if we were going to do something, we need to commit to it,” Malach admits. “We had a pretty strong sense of what kind of sound we wanted so we really didn’t have to search too much.”

We talked some more about the band’s approach to writing music. Malach told me that their ultimate goal is to have every band member have a hand in songwriting.

“We write separately and then bring it to the practice space and flesh it out as a full band,” Malach stated.

“Does your music take inspiration from anything in particular?” I questioned.

Now I thought the answer would be some major bands, huge moments in life, girl problems, etc., but their answer was definitely so much more meaningful than any of the above.

“Well, my father is a musician and has always been a big inspiration and I’m always trying to learn from him,” Malach replied. “We are definitely inspired by a lot of different music but more so influenced by our peers and other bands we hear… we can see their whole process, how they think about things, and how they execute them.”

And that… THAT moment… made my heart so full.

“So you have all this music, what are some venues that you’ve tried out?” I wondered.

“Well, Union Pool in Brooklyn is like a second home for us,” He admitted. “We also did a residency at a fantastic club called New Blue in Manhattan that was really fun. There’s also a place in Portland, Oregon called Doug Fir that is very comfortable and has a great sound to it.”

Since having played a decent amount of venues, I was curious to find out what makes a venue “playable.” I mean sure, having a sound system and some sort of stage is a given, but I love knowing all the little nuances that musicians look for when playing at a venue. What makes them WANT to come back and play at that SPECIFIC venue?

Malach slightly pauses, trying not to give an answer that makes some venues look bad, so much respect for that!

“I mean, some performances have felt like an uphill battle because soundcheck wasn’t that great, but any number of things can happen,” He begins. “When I

think back to venues that I like, I think back to our performance there and that would be why I liked it. There’s also something to be said for the people at the venue putting you at ease and giving you a space to be to wind down before we perform because that really helps.”

As I started wrapping up the interview, we talked about some possible collaborations that the band would like to have which included artists like Sarah Louise, the Oh Sees, Gang Gang Dance, and other New York bands. The band also had huge plans of touring Europe at some point before 2021 so be sure to be on the lookout for that!

“This is probably my last question, but what’s your favorite part of being a musician and some roadblocks you’ve hit along the way?”

“My favorite part? You can always get better… there is no end in sight,” He begins. “There are always new ideas and things to access and new music to explore. It’s always ongoing and evolving to be a musician… but the biggest roadblock? Time… or I guess the lack of time when things are really going and the amount of time we have on our hands when things aren’t going.”

“Anything else that you want readers to know?”

“Thank you for coming to the shows and thank you for picking music… what we do isn’t possible in a vacuum… it takes a whole village.”

Thank you to Tom Malach from Garcia Peoples for taking time out of your day to talk with me, it was a blast and I look forward to all of the amazing things that you and your band will do in the future.

by Olivia Baxter

We all encounter moments that play within and bounce between the dualities of life — the light and the dark and the spectrum of and between the two that make up the experiences within and around our lives. These experiences give us an opportunity to gain insight into who we are, how we feel, what we think, what we need, what we want.

They provide us perspectives about what is happening to and around us, to and with others, and within our individual and collective lives and environments. Music is often used as a medium for sharing these experiences; To express our pains, pleasures, and how they impact us, and how we transform those intricacies into the make-up of our beings and lives.  

As we anticipate the arrival of the band, and their show Tuesday, September 17th at the local Philly venue, Boot & Saddle, we can learn more about Gina and her project, Rose Of The West. She delves into how her newly released album, Rose Of The West, is a vehicle for expressing how she engages with and embraces the polarities in and around her life in an interview below.

Olivia: How would you describe your new album?

Gina:  A soft, dreamy landing in a lonely world. 

O: What are you trying to express, convey, share through the songs on this album?

G: I really just write about my deepest experiences in life. All of which are usually painful experiences that we all journey through — and hopefully recover and grow from…

O: Which song on this album was most impactful to write? 

G: “Count the Days.” I wrote it at a time in writing that record that had me by the throat. I was about to lose the matriarch of my family and I felt like I was standing on a cliff waiting for my emotions to just stop so I could breathe. It came out in that song in a hotel room in North Carolina where I would frequently go for work, it wrote itself in an hour.

O: What messages were most imperative to get out through this album and what personal experiences or perspectives inspired/influenced them?

G: The world feels especially heavy these days — I think this record acknowledges that, on that human individual level. I tie in all my whole heart in every song — hopefully, someone finds solace in listening to it. 

O: You said in a video (on your Youtube channel) that your music is ‘dark’– can you elaborate on what that means? Do you still feel that way about this new album? 

G: The darkness can mean many things. I think I am naturally drawn to things being a bit dark, but not so dark that I can’t see any light. We all need the slivers of hope and moments that lift us out ourselves, so we forget everything else. Making this record was a joyful thing for me. It reminded me of the feeling of being able to share a knowing smile with someone.

O: The song “Hunters Will” was featured on the Netflix show YOU — tell me how that feels to have one of your songs transcend creative platforms?

G: Really amazing. It such a strange sensation to see how someone else uses your art to enhance something else. I hope we have more opportunities for that kind of thing!

O: The EP, Hunters Will/Love & War, is very melodic. What spoke to you through the composing of that album?

G: That EP was something I had to force out into the world. The songs had been with me a long time, and I had a no or never feeling with them. I knew that would be the start of music becoming a bigger part of our lives for the band. The content was very personal, and I wanted to share it in a haunting and powerful way. I think the songs stand out in both those ways equally.

O: “Eye to Eye” and “Darkest Horse” — these songs, to me, sound like incantations. Do you feel your music plays within necromancy? 

G: I think your choice of the word incantation is spot on. And you might be correct, I had lost a few very important people and I really think part of the healing process for me is twisting my questions to them and the world into my songs what weaves a layer of magic into them. 

O: The name, Rose of the West, is inspired by an image you saw of a tree indigenous to the Australian desert — how did you come to meet this image and how does this plant best represent what you and this band and your music are? 

G: This came after the previous version of the band had broken down and I was left at the core of it trying to figure out my part in it as well as what moving forward looked like. The plant spoke to me because of its singular beauty, its a rarity and its name. It made me feel similar to how I feel when traveling through the Southwest, the spooky feeling that I know well that will follow on my travels there. It’s always a big creative draw for me, that feeling. It resonated with me and just made sense.

O: You have a few songs on your new album, like “Tiny Knives”, that transport me to the 80’s—is that an era of music you most resonate with? What other eras inspire you/the band during the creative process of song-making?

G: I do like the 80’s quite a bit, but I also find myself drawn to ’90s for the most part. That particular song was a collaboration between myself and Thomas Gilbert, our guitar player. He really loves his synths sounds, which are heavily present and dripping with that’s 80’s vibe.

O: Rather than genre, if you had to describe your music in terms of any artists’ sound, who do you feel your musical sound is most aligned with/influenced by? 

G: I tend to veer in the direction of things like The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Portishead, Siouxsie Sioux….and many artists along those lines. 

O: If you/the band had to pick one song from the new album to be the theme song to your year — which would it be and why?

G: Probably “Count the Days.” There is still a presence of what that song is lingering in my life personally. I think the band would all have different answers though….:)

O: What can we anticipate at your Philadelphia show? Of this tour? 

G: We want to share what this record is like live with you all! Hopefully, everyone will sway in the dark dreamy haze with us. The tour will be a couple of weeks, so fairly short, but the experience so far has been inspiring for the next release we do. I can’t wait to see what is born of it all.