After discovering the Blackburns on GetMusic.fm and playing their song “Hooks” on the #Tweetcore Radio Hour, I found out from my good friend Scoopski that they’re based in Philadelphia. I’m not sure how that fact had escaped my attention, but I was fortunate enough to catch them at Silk City Diner when they shared a stage with Fuck You, Tammy! in June. Their high-energy show won the audience over and set the scene for a great night of music. In the wake of that incredible show, I got in touch with the band’s guitarist Nick Palmer to ask him a few questions…

You and bassist Joel Tannenbaum played in Philadelphia punk bands before forming the Blackburns. What were some of the bands you both played in, and what was that experience like?

Joel has been in some great bands like The Rentiers, Code of the Jaguar, and Ex Friends, plus he was in a band called Plow United, which was a huge influence on me, as I got into making music in high school, back in the 90s. 

I played in a punk rock band called Left Behind back in the early 2000s, which was a fun experience. We did some east coast touring and shared a few bills with some semi-notable bands of the time. After that, I spent about a decade in a band called The Danger O’s. I was the drummer in both Left Behind and The Danger O’s, and I also contributed songwriting to both, plus I produced a few of the O’s albums. In 2016, I started a band called Wax Wav, where I was doing all the songwriting, plus singing and playing guitar. We put out some EPs that I’m very proud of, and played some fun shows, but when everything shut down in 2020, it felt like a good time to hang it up and focus on some other areas of life. 

How has your experience with the Blackburns been different? 

A big difference with The Blackburns was that we didn’t set out to “start a band” – for the first six months or so, it was just Joel and I, and we were referring to it as a “songwriting project.” So, we wrote and demoed our entire album, and actually recorded a good bulk of it, before we even had a band name, or official band members. 

I love the name the Blackburns. It’s a little bit like the Ramones in that it sounds like a family name. Is that intentional?

For me personally, I like the traditionalism of having a “the” name. We talked a lot about power pop as an influence early on, and there’s so many “the” bands in that genre – The Undertones, The Only Ones, The Breakaways, The Replacements, The Lemonheads, The Bangles – the list goes on and on. The Blackburns is a Twin Peaks reference, though – a tribute to Annie Blackburn, played by Heather Graham. 

Ah! That makes a lot of sense! When I saw you at Silk City Diner, you were sharing a bill with Fuck You, Tammy!, a David Lynch tribute band, and I noticed that your BandCamp bio makes a reference to Twin Peaks. Is David Lynch an influence?

Yeah! Like I mentioned earlier, we are named after a Twin Peaks character, plus we have a few references to Lynch and his characters in our lyrics. For me, the connection has to do with the way he blurs and plays with time and time period. For example, Twin Peaks is set in the late 80s/early 90s, but looks and sounds a lot like the late 50s/early 60s. Our record is produced to sound more or less like a modern day indie rock record, but it’s written to sound like the early 90s, but with 80s keyboards. So, it’s a little out of time, or removed from linear time. 

There’s definitely a punk edge to songs like “Hooks,” not just in terms of music but in the lyrics as well. I particularly appreciate the idea that coming up with hooks is a strange way to make a living. How do you define punk, and what attracts you to it?

Something deeper in my subconscious than I have access to attracts me to punk. I say that because we’ve made a lot of conscious choices, whether in arrangements or vocal approach or aesthetic, to try to not come across like a punk band. And yet, you still picked up on it. What can I say, I was born in 1982, so Nirvana and Green Day each hit when I was the exact age to make a lifer out of me! The idea for The Blackburns was to land somewhere between power pop and alternative rock, with the understanding that Joel and I each come from punk, and I think we knew that would poke out on its own without us trying. I think we’re striking a balance between branching out and staying true to who we are and what we’re good at. 

Your band bio mentions that when you and Joel got together you had zero expectations. Why was that, and how did having zero expectations shape the band’s trajectory?

Well, I had mentioned earlier that I took the opportunity that the pandemic offered to stop focusing so much on music and instead to live my life for a while, and I was really enjoying that. I got married. I actually tried at work. I made some overdue progress with mental health. So, on my end, the lack of expectations had to do with setting some boundaries for myself. Like, ok, I’m going to make music again, but it’s not going to consume me like it used to. I think that mentality allowed me to write songs from a more free place than I ever had before. The only goal was to make stuff that I’d want to listen to, and that was it.

There’s also a bit of a fast-forward effect in your bio. I’m thinking of the line that reads “Before they knew it, more than a year had passed and they had an actual band an an actual album on an actual label (Sell the Heart Records) and were playing actual shows.” What happened in that year? What was the recording process like and how, for example, did you become involved with Sell the Heart Records?

The recording process was really fun and cool, unlike any other recording experience I’ve had. We worked with the great Todd Mecaughey at Cambridge Sound Studios. Todd is an old friend, and the studio is right in South Philly, where Joel and I both live. We wrote and recorded 6 of the songs between January and June of 2023, then wrote and recorded the other 4 to complete the album between June and December. And that maybe seems fast – writing and recording 10 songs in 11 months, but it felt slow as it came together, because I would track drums one night, and then 2 weeks later, Joel would track bass, and then 2 weeks later, some guitar, then a little more guitar a couple weeks after that, and so on. This is probably the first thing I’ve ever made where I don’t have that thing that I hear every time I listen back that bothers me. The one late snare hit, or the one phrase that’s sung a little flat or whatever. By working on one piece at a time, we were able to get everything exactly right. 

Once we had that initial batch done in June, Joel sent it over to Sell the Heart, and they totally got what we were going for. We know a few bands that they’ve worked with, including Crossed Keys, whose bassist Andrew is the mutual friend who introduced Joel and me. 

The bio also mentions that you love early 1990s soundtrack albums. Are there any you’d recommend in particular, and what makes them stand out? 

Back then, before downloading and streaming, soundtracks and compilation albums were a way to discover a bunch of artists for the price of one CD. Compilation albums tended to be a bit more homogenous, like “here’s a bunch of bands on this label, where we only sign bands that sound like they should be on this label.” Soundtrack albums were more of a grab bag, though. So, punk and ska and buzz-bin alt-rock and new wave might all occupy the same CD. The ones that influenced the sound of our album were Angus, Mallrats, Clueless, Singles, Reality Bites, Can’t Hardly Wait, and Empire Records. 

In addition to you and Joel, the band consists of three other members. Who are they, and what are their roles?

Abe was the first person Joel and I brought in. Before we tracked anything, we got together in a room with me drumming and Abe having learned the songs we had demoed, and we played them loud as a three piece, just to make sure we had the feel figured out. Abe has been my music life partner since I joined his band, Left Behind. He also played in The Danger O’s and Wax Wav with me. 

Lynna, my lovely wife, is on keyboards and vocals. She is sort of our secret weapon, and brings a love of new wave, goth, and dream pop to the mix, with her keyboard sounds and breathy backing vocals. She has played in a bunch of bands around Philly for years, and joined Wax Wav after our first EP. 

Justin is our live drummer. He was the bassist and lead vocalist in The Danger O’s, but he’s a drummer first. I’m very picky about drums, hence recording them myself, but Justin is solid as a rock back there. He’s also an incredible singer, as The O’s discography proves.  

Do you have any favorite Philly bands that you think deserve more attention?

Secret American, Crossed Keys, Log Flume, Roberta Faceplant, Civil Rats

What’s next for the Blackburns? 

Well, we are very excited that Sell The Heart has decided to do a small run vinyl pressing of our album. It’s a very small run, so if anyone wants one, I’d encourage them to preorder it via Sell The Heart here: https://selltheheartrecords.bigcartel.com/product/the-blackburns-s-t-12-lp

We’re playing a couple shows later this summer and then in the fall, so stay tuned to our Instagram page for those dates and places.

We’re also working on a new song which is holiday themed and will come out right around the time that said holiday occurs. I won’t say which holiday yet, but there’s a couple of them towards the end of the calendar year that each have vast cannons of songs associated. That’ll be a lot of fun!