Palehound’s New Album is ‘Much More Blunt,’ and Strikes a Chord

The Album

Eye on the Bat, out July 14 on Polyvinyl

The Origin

According to El Kempner, the origins of Palehound are quite undefined. “I really did not establish this project in any f—king concrete way, with any set of people, where it was rooted at all,” Kempner, who has fronted Palehound since 2013 and recorded alongside Jay Som as Bachelor, tells Billboard. Instead, Kempner began writing songs when they attended college in Yonkers, N.Y. for two years before moving to Boston and establishing themselves in the local music scene.

Still, New York (where Kempner lives now) has had the most impact on their sound. “I grew up in Connecticut taking the train to [New York] city a lot and seeing shows,” they say, pointing to labels like Exploding in Sound Records. “I started becoming obsessed with these bands that would play Shea Stadium and all these old DIY venues.” Even though they grew up listening to acts like St. Vincent or Elliot Smith, these small bands building community in New York were the ones that inspired Kempner to get onstage.

The Sound

Listening to Palehound feels like swapping stories with friends while sitting on the floor of a tiny apartment, with the added bonus of fuzzy guitar and Kempner’s airy vocals. The indie rock sound is deceptively simple: Eye on the Bat was recorded at co-producer Sam Evian’s home studio outside of Woodstock, N.Y.

“Once we got [to Evian’s home], I was like, ‘This vibe is so chill’ and now I don’t want to record any other way,” says Kempner. “The comfort with that for me was inspired by working on the Bachelor record with Melina [Duterte] (aka Jay Som). We did a very similar thing where we took her gear to an Airbnb and just did it there.

“There is this idea that the progression of a musician’s career is like, you get bigger and fancier and bougier,” they add. “But the creative process is so random and doesn’t follow that path at all.”

The Record

Palehound was on the road for a sold-out tour just as the pandemic halted live music, and its cancellation left them reconsidering their career in music. The pause made Kempner reflect on how an audience experiences the music and how that has shaped what they were willing to write about. The idea of possibly never playing a show again became a liberating one, and the lyrics for Eye on the Bat were, for the first time, just for the artist.

The album kicks off with the comedic, confessional “Good Sex,” about a failed romantic encounter (“On your birthday last year/ I secretly put on a corset and hid it under a bathrobe to surprise you”), and only gets more intimate from there. “It’s funny because now that I am putting [the album] out, I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m really showing my sh-t,’” Kempner jokes. “I wrote these songs when I wasn’t sure if anyone would hear them… The lyrics are definitely much more blunt. Not a lot of metaphor happening on this one.”

While Eye on the Bat never strays too far from its indie rock origins, the album is untethered to genre. “Independence Day” is an uncannily cheerful breakup track with an entrancing bass line, while the title track’s guitar has a country twang. Halfway through the 30-minute project, “U Want It U Got It” picks up the pace — it wouldn’t feel out of place as the soundtrack to a video game — before “Route 22” takes the listener back to that apartment floor for a guitar-driven love song.

“I wanted it to sound like me playing the most genuine way,” says Kempner. “It’s just kind of emotionally heightened.”

The Breakthrough

Lead single “The Clutch” has garnered a lot of attention for the new album, which Kempner feels is a good sign. “’The Clutch’ is a song that I was proud of from the moment I first demoed it. I’ve been waiting three years to put that song out, because the song is really heavy in a way that feels so good to play,” Kempner says. “I do feel a difference coming from the world in response to this music. It’s resonating with people in a way that I haven’t seen my music resonate before.”

The Most Exciting Thing In Music Right Now

“The local shows in Brooklyn have been so exciting. Just to see this boom of local music communities. I think that’s happening everywhere in response to COVID, because touring wasn’t happening for a while. So local music communities really came back hitting again.”

The Piece of Advice Every New Indie Artist Needs to Hear

“Everything I want to say is so f—king corny. Just stay true to the craft you went into it with and the passion you went into it with because it is so easy to be influenced by going into a nice studio or compromising the original vision. Being a musician weirdly feels competitive sometimes, so just write the songs that you want to write and don’t worry about what other people are gonna think. It’s corny, but it’s true.”

The Studio Equipment You Couldn’t Live Without

“I love guitar. I love my Fender Strat. That’s my thing that I bring everywhere. I don’t bring much else.”

The Artist You Believe Deserves More Attention

“There’s a band that I will sing their praises every single day until I die called youbet. They are f—king amazing. I will do anything to see them anytime they are playing. They’re friends of mine and they’re the most incredible people. They’re musicians who are huge music nerds.”

The Thing That Needs to Change in the Music Industry

“We need to get paid for streams. I don’t want to name names, but come on. It’s crazy and record sales are hard. I love the idea of streaming, I love that I have access to every song I could ever want for not a ton of money every month, but if we got a penny per stream, it would be a completely different world. It would be so much more sustainable and we’d get better music because people wouldn’t be as stressed.”

The Takeaway That They Hope Fans Have When They Hear the Album

“I want people to hear their own stories in the songs even though they are such particular and specific lyrics about my own experience. I think that people are already connecting. I want this to be a record for people who are just going through it and need to scream along to something.”