Interview: Unknown Motives' Jordan Palamara discusses new studio album 'Lag'

Australian musician Jordan Palamara hasn’t let their Tourettes keep them from pursuing their dreams. With their alternative/industrial rock group Unknown Motives, they were able to transform their condition into something magnificent. The result is the band’s debut album Lag, which will pique the interest of Queens of the Stone Age and Devo fans. We spoke to Palamara about working on the record, which you can check out below.

When did you decide to use your Tourettes as a musical inspiration?

I’ve used the rhythms of my tics as inspiration before in some of my previous musical projects, but it wasn’t really something I was specifically focusing on. For a few years, I’ve been considering taking the rhythms exactly as they are and not altering them, it just seemed fitting to do it for this album because it was written through a period of stress, and stress is a big trigger for many of my tics.

What's the meaning behind the name Unknown Motives?

The words Unknown Motives were written in a message to a friend from about a year before the project came to fruition, and I found the notes around the time I finished writing the first song, ‘Reckless’. I think the name lends itself to the narrative quite well. The character singing feels like an honest representation of me, but I’m aware his feelings and motivations are a little more vague to the listener. After I realised that was the type of person he sounded like, Unknown Motives just felt right.

What was the recording process like for Lag?

Stressful! I think you can hear that in the final cut of the songs. It really shouldn’t have been as much as it was, but we all had so many things going on all the time, it was all a bit much. Now that it’s done I’m glad that quality was retained in the recordings. All the drowsiness, stress and tension in the songs, it was present in every part of their formation.

I wrote, recorded, and mixed the album all within a year. I had help from some friends but none of us were professionals by any stretch of the imagination. I was really attracted to lo-fi sounds, so I capitalized on my lack of experience to capture that energy. All of the drum machines were recorded first, once as a direct in into the desk, and twice after that through a guitar amp to capture the intense, crunchy sound of our rehearsals. We then created unique blends of those 3 different drum machine tracks for each song and recorded the guitars, live percussion, vocals, and synthesisers gradually over the top.

The ideas were great and felt unique to the project, but we were very lucky to have Darren Reston step in to mix after I had finished my initial versions. He really helped bring the album up to the level it’s at now.

What is your favorite song on the release?

So hard to say… I have a real affinity to “Reckless.” That song really solidified the concepts I wanted to explore for the rest of the album, not only in my tics, but also my feelings of stress and exhaustion. Keely (our keys player) loves “Goo Groove.” That one is the most divisive between listeners, and I’m kinda into that. My love of childhood video games really shines through on that one. But “Cynthia” has a special place in my heart because it nearly didn’t make the cut. It was written real late into the process, and it felt a lot more melodic than some of the other ones I was working on at the time. The story feels quite concise, and the groove is infectious. I’m not sure the album would sound as diverse and rounded as it does without “Cynthia” there.

What are some of your musical influences?

For this project, I’d say my main influences were Nine Inch Nails, PVT, Gary Numan, and Queens of the Stone Age. PVT are a relatively small Sydney based band signed to Warp Records, they’re incredible. Highly recommend checking them out.

What are some of your favorite local bands in the scene?

Huge shout to Clear Tears, a band fronted by my mega talented brother. Treats are crazy good too, we played an intro show last year with those 2 bands, we’re all friends from way back. The Dead Amigos are huge as well, their keyboard player Will Dunn helped record Lag.

Do you hope this record can inspire others to use their condition(s) in an artistic way?

Of course! A few years back I wrote an ambient album under the name Sonoflo; the album followed the many stages of the sleep cycle. I wrote it around my ongoing issues with sleep. I found the writing of both that album and Lag to be quite cathartic; they’ve both really helped me come to terms with and feel empowered by some of these parts of who I am that I don’t feel like I get a lot of say over.

Imagine if everyone had the time or creative confidence to create art around these huge topics that have such sway over their lives? Not only would it be so helpful for so many, but it’d be so interesting getting an opportunity to listen to, or watch people explore these parts of themselves. If you get the opportunity to do it, I highly recommend it.

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