The two founding members of Nashville’s Pale Houses have long been fixtures in the city’s indie rock landscape. Singer/guitarist Aaron Robinson and drummer Ryan Rayborn’s college-era band Imaginary Baseball League burst onto the scene back in the early aughts, filling clubs and being selected to open for various influential tours. Infighting and clichés halted what to many seemed like inevitable success.
In 2012, Rayborn and Robinson began casually working on songs via email. Thinking they might actually have something, the pair recruited two other Nashville vets in Joshua Hood (guitar) and Aaron Yung (bass). The once bare-bones demos grew much wider in scope and sound, giving way to 2013’s broody, dynamic self-titled EP, produced by Patrick Damphier (Mynabirds, Jessica Lea Mayfield).
The band reconvened in early 2017 with engineer/producer Brandon Owens (Mutemath) to record a follow-up. The result is Songs of the Isolation – a unique & dreamy mix of indie & rock sounds, blending the musical auras of The Blue Nile, American Football, Death Cab for Cutie, and The Cure, with a hat-tip to 1980s pop.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Pale Houses about the latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are from Nashville, TN mostly, but our drummer Ryan Rayborn currently lives in Atlanta. As for our style, we tend to lean on melancholy songs, ambient/shimmery textures, and dynamic arrangements. I have no idea what genre that puts us in, but we love a lot of different stuff and can go in a lot of directions I think.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
We’ve all mostly played some kind of left-of-center rock n’ roll for our entire adult lives. Our tastes have evolved over the years and we’ve settled on something that utilizes our strengths well. I’ve always been a pretty melancholy pop writer. That’s my center of gravity. Ryan and I have similar tastes and have always collaborated together well. Josh Hood (guitar) is also a songwriter which is probably why melody is such a strength of his as a guitarist. Aaron Yung (Bass) comes from a really diverse instrumental background and is probably the best musician of all of us in terms of technical skills. Together, I think we fill in each other’s blanks. We keep going because there is no other option. We all have a need to create and perform in our blood that doesn’t seem to want to go away, thank goodness.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Our first EP was done somewhat hastily in that we had really only created a couple of songs together as a band. However, we needed to hurry up and get something out into the world, so we went in with a great producer and friend, Patrick Damphier, and he did an amazing job. The fun of “Songs of the Isolation” has been the creative process of playing together in a room and hashing out arrangements and details from scratch. We worked with great producers both times, but we were much more hands-on in terms of direction/sound this time. Our producer Brandon Owens absolutely played the role of the 5th member. He is an incredible engineer and amazing person to work with. He totally understood us and nailed it. This record is absolutely who we are right now, for better or worse.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
The number one challenge is always getting just the music heard. We fall somewhere in between a few genres, and that – among other things – makes crafting a PR angle (an unfortunate necessity) sort of a puzzle. We have all been playing music a long time. At this point in our lives – as a young band but not necessarily young guys – we are just happy that WE like it. But ultimately, in our hearts, we would love to get it out into the world on a slightly bigger scale and figuring that out is always the main obstacle.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
We are active on social media and have a lot of interesting stuff planned over the next few months. So, facebook.com/palehouses and @palehouses on Instagram/Twitter are the best resources. Our music is streaming at Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and basically everywhere online. Come find us!
Anything else before we sign off?
Nope! Thanks for talking with us!
