COLUMBUSING THE WHIMS:
A Q+A with Nathan Pemberton of Holiday Shores

Skipster: Do you write most of the material yourself, and then let it percolate through the band?

Nathan Pemberton: When I bring it to them, I usually have the parts sorted out. I think that’ll probably change, but for now that’s how it works.

S: Your brother is also a musician, right?
NP: He is, and he was also in the band — but he’s in school now. That was fun while it lasted. His stuff is a lot noisier, and it’s all done on a 4-track cassette thing. He’s really into loops, drum machines, it’s awesome. Kinda like Ariel Pink.

S: You’ve essentially been grouped into the beach pop movement. I’m wondering if you think your sound is actually tied into a geographic inspiration?
NP: The thing is we’re not close to the beach at all. When I recorded the record, it was wintertime of my senior year of college so I was recording in between classes. It was very cramped, not outdoors feeling at all. I guess the only connection I have is that I grew up about five minutes from the beach on the street where the band name derives from, so maybe there’s some subconscious influence there.

S: The song “Errand of Tongue” (listen below!) is a personal favorite. It seems like there’s almost a Tower of Babel reference going on in there, can you clarify that?
NP: I guess it was this pre-occupation with language because I happened to be doing a lot of linguistics homework while I was recording. For some reason it just spilled from that. I think the title is a way of framing the difficulty of communication now — I can’t give an exact meaning, but you’re on the right track.

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S: Where does your songwriting process originate?
NP: Sometimes a phrase will start it off, or a general concept. I like to make a story that has various colors and details — sometimes the message gets lost in the detail I’m trying to achieve, but for the most part, yeah, it’s sparked by a phrase. I try to not dwell on one concept or theme; I tend to get bored listening to music that’s hammering the same thing for too long. I just hope everything is still within grasp. There was definitely a very conscious effort to not sound too derivative, or make it too obvious where we’re getting our ideas from. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Sometimes people get super lazy and umbrella things that don’t necessarily belong together.

S: Can you talk about the title, Columbus’d the Whim? Most journalists have latched onto it pretty quickly as a conversation topic…
NP: The person who it’s actually attributed to is a real poet. He was a soldier in World War I, and he was like the first person to abstain from fighting. He was a conscientious objector but he was a warrior at the same time, so it was confusing. I can’t find if he was the direct source of it. “Columbus” as a verb means… I think finding. Or searching, but maybe not getting what you were looking for.

S: Where are you aiming next?
NP: I’m graduated [from college], so this is full-time for me now. We’re touring with Surfer Blood this Spring, probably through the Southeast.

[interruption via homeless man; Skipster reinforces bad habits with $1.00 in pocket change]

I think in D.C. we got hit up by the same dude, about seven times. We eventually gave him some money and them he came back asking for more saying he lost it! Back to the topic… I think we’re also going to have an EP coming out this spring.

S: What are your plans or aspirations, label-wise? Do you feel the need to maintain a certain amount of control?
NP: I think that’s huge, and the relationship we have with our label right now — Twosyllable, who are based out of Brooklyn — is really nice. It’s very one-on-one, almost like we’re partners more than anything else. We’re just giving them music and they’re releasing it.

S: Do you think it’d be easier if you were based out of New York or somewhere “more accessible”?
NP: We’ve thought about moving, and I’ll probably head up East eventually. My parents live in Baltimore now, so out of convenience… it’s hard to want to play shows in New York and realize it’s a 17-hour drive. It’s fun going with a band, too, but it’s a totally different experience going by yourself where you feel much more anonymous. I went up there for a week in March to mix the record, where I was doing my own thing, seeing the city.

S: You mentioned an EP, so you are working on new material already?
NP: Yeah, we’re shooting to have something by March or April. This record’s technically… newly released, I guess, but we’re already very sick of it. The record came out in August, but it had been done since March… for the whole summer I needed to detox from music and did nothing, so come fall I was wondering why I hadn’t been productive at all. Now I’m feeling much more like I want to tackle new stuff. We all are.

S: Do you think tonally it’s going in a different direction?
NP: It won’t be vastly different, but there will be a different vibe — we have some new production ideas.

S: Can you describe the feel?
NP: [joking] It’s like when you’re camping and you realize you’re on an old Indian burial ground, and everything’s a lot weirder than you realized, and that’s why…