Interview: Diamond Grinder’s ‘Expectations’ Are Excessive, However Their Debut Album Is Increased

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Interview: Diamond Grinder’s ‘Expectations’ Are Excessive, However Their Debut Album Is Increased

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November 22, 2023

Interview: Diamond Grinder’s ‘Expectations’ Are Excessive, However Their Debut Album Is Increased

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Queens-based indie rock duo Diamond Grinder dive into their dreamy debut album ‘Expectations,’ songwriting, and their inspiration for what’s to come back!

for followers of Huge Thief, Angel Olsen, boygenius

by visitor author Blake McMillan

Margaret Nygard and Eli Recht-Appel met in center college band in San Francisco, California.

After Recht-Appel moved to New York Metropolis in 2016 to pursue music, Nygard adopted in 2021. They turned roommates in Queens, every searching for their very own particular person music tasks earlier than realizing they might have a singular collaboration collectively.

Expectations - Diamond Grinder — ‘Expectations,’ Diamond Grinder’s debut album, launched in June 2023 through Perpetual Doom

They known as it Diamond Grinder, a people rock band that transports listeners into the songwriting duo’s escapism. Nygard tends to steer vocals on a string-dreamy soundscape in a fashion that feels folksy and astoundingly Carole King. When companion Eli Recht-Appel joins on a monitor, her lullaby of a voice is complimented by a gruffness that’s casually cool.

They joined indie label Perpetual Doom Data and launched their debut album Expectations in June.

I met them on a Friday night time exterior Peg’s Cavalier in Ridgewood, Brooklyn to debate the album, their songwriting course of, and what’s subsequent.

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:: stream/buy Expectations right here ::

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Stream: ‘Expectations’ – Diamond Grinder

A CONVERSATION WITH DIAMOND GRINDER

Atwood Journal: So, let’s discuss “Marvel.” It’s the primary tune you guys put out collectively. What got here first within the inventive course of for that tune?

Margaret Nygard: That was one thing that I wrote like 2 or 3 years in the past, earlier than Eli and I began working collectively. And it was really a extremely completely different tune. The refrain at all times was the way in which that it’s now. It virtually jogged my memory of the extra jazzy type of writing that I used to do in highschool. It was type of a bizarre verse melody.

Eli Recht-Appel: It leaned method much less into that type of catchy verse refrain kind that I feel finally the tune Margaret fashioned it into.

I bear in mind I wrote it on my stroll house from work at this restaurant in San Francisco known as Nopalito after I had this dialog with a coworker who had simply damaged up along with her boyfriend however was excited in regards to the future. I used to be attempting to write down a melody that was in unison with the guitar, however as a result of I had so little guitar vocabulary, it simply wound up being not what I wished it to be.

Eli Recht-Appel: We recorded a demo of it. We completed that model of the tune earlier than we’ve the band. That was like ‘Marvel 0.5’ or one thing. After which finally, when Margaret got here up with a brand new verse melody, we simply reworked the lyrics collectively.

Margaret Nygard: I bear in mind enjoying the refrain in rehearsal, as a result of I discover it to be very catchy, and Simon Clinton (a guitarist on the album) saved on being like, “What’s that tune? It’s best to work on it!” so I wrote a brand new verse for it.

What’s the little sound in the beginning?

Eli Recht-Appel: Oh, the drum machine at first! That was programmed by Jared Samuel, who has produced all of our launched music to this point.

Margaret Nygard: I feel we talked about it beforehand, however he introduced the drum machine to our session to report. And it type of was one thing I had by no means considered. I don’t know for those who had considered recording to drum machine.

Eli Recht-Appel: No.

Margaret Nygard: He was like, “We’re going to only attempt it and see the way it influences.” And on a few of them, we saved the drum machine.

Eli Recht-Appel: It was in lieu of a click on monitor, which in a really technical sense, is simply holding you on a grid, so it’s simpler to report. It’s a must to play and keep on tempo.

Margaret Nygard: I really feel like a metronome can virtually make you overthink. I’m not fascinated about enjoying the music, I’m fascinated about staying on time. It simply actually impacts my efficiency. However the drum machine is enjoyable.

It is such a enjoyable little intro after which the guitar begins. It is nonetheless enjoying on the finish?

Eli Recht-Appel: Yeah!

It is virtually prefer it’s such as you overlook it is there. Considering melodically with the lyrical half, it is like “Marvel”; that sense of getting surprise is there the entire time even for those who don’t at all times know. Your songs really feel such as you’ve constructed this complete world, the place I’m in a crimson pickup truck driving by way of a swamp and it’s inexperienced and blue exterior and lightning bugs are flickering, and somebody has a guitar someplace. Do you’re feeling such as you do world constructing in your music?

Eli Recht-Appel: I’d say sure. I’d say Margaret probably the most, as a result of numerous Margaret’s lyrics are very character and setting pushed.

Margaret Nygard: Imagery I’ve considered greater than characters. It’s arduous to consider really. I undoubtedly will begin a melody and take into consideration what kind of images I really feel just like the melody displays.

Eli Recht-Appel: I do assume that as a lot as we’re like bonafide metropolis people, we each have households that have been in a position to give us a way more dynamic setting all through childhood; Margaret’s dad and mom have a farm, my dad and mom are from exterior of Wisconsin. If there’s ever a sense of it being an Americana setting, a part of that’s loving that music.

Margaret Nygard: I really feel like due to that, the time that we spent not in cities felt so particular, as a result of it was much less frequent.

Eager about collaboration, say you have got this huge emotion that you just wish to unpack by way of songwriting. Once you come to Eli, or vice versa, do you ever really feel disconnected perhaps from the theme? Are you continue to prepared to work collectively on it? As an example you are (Margaret) in a extremely good place? And also you’re (Eli) heartbroken. Has there ever been an occasion the place it is ‘I do not know if I will help you proper now?’

Eli Recht-Appel: I can consider when Margaret was beginning to write “Reduce the Shine.” She had this actually lovely verse kind and a few lyrics. And he or she was like, ‘Nicely, I’m fairly certain I wish to write this set of lyrics by myself.’ It made sense for me to contribute a melody or refrain kind, after which simply completely stepping away.

It’s understanding the opposite individual’s boundaries. If one thing’s actually private, I do know it’s attainable for me to contribute after which I don’t must insert myself in any other case.

Margaret Nygard: I’ll nonetheless be on the helm, when it comes to the lyric writing, as a result of it’s what’s most private to me. It’s extra in these circumstances the place it turns into an modifying partnership, the place it’s “That is what I’ve to this point. What do you assume might be tweaked?”

We have now a tune, “Goodbye.” I wrote the tune proper after a tough break up that I used to be going by way of, and it’s nearly letting go of an essential relationship that was tumultuous. Eli is at all times who I am going to extra for lyrics, but in addition I feel what I’ve lacked probably the most when it comes to my songwriting is the flexibility to see the entire tune, and the construction of it. I really feel like Eli helped me determine what piece goes the place.

Eli Recht-Appel: Margaret’s energy for me is commonly simply being actually simple about when a second in a tune isn’t being robust sufficient for her. Being an editor in that kind of method. You introduced up “Marvel.” I really feel like that tune was an instance of Margaret being very honed in on wanting the main points to be superb. And me being like, ‘Okay, if we’ve this new verse, we have to shift the entire tune in order that it will get into the refrain naturally.’

Over this summer time, you dropped Expectations. Do you’re feeling just like the album captures occasions or intervals in your lives?

Eli Recht-Appel: It captures the previous few years for me fairly effectively: alienation within the wake of COVID-19, autobiographical to the identical time frame, digesting completely different elements of life. I feel the overlap there’s just like the final, few years previous that album. The oldest tune on it’s, “Let Me Stay with You.” The primary iteration I wrote of that was as a freshman in faculty, seven or eight years in the past. And that one’s only a full outlier for a way previous the supply materials is. Even that tune, Margaret edited the lyrics in a method that I felt like actually introduced it to be a recent of the opposite songs. the oldest tune exterior “Let Me Stay with You” on the report is “Funeral Pyre.”

Margaret Nygard: Which I wrote once I moved right here.

I do have a extremely foolish query. On “Lantern” you wrote, “Staring your method by way of Omicron.” Is that COVID adjoining? I used to be Googling ‘omicron,’ and the precise phrase was like Greek.

Margaret Nygard: No, no, it’s only a reference to the Omicron wave. I wrote that tune once I had Omicron. I used to be remoted in my room and other people have been bringing meals to my door and being actually candy at house. And on the identical time, I had simply been launched to the idea of open tuning on a guitar. I simply had this nylon string learner guitar. I bear in mind I used to be curled up on the ground between my mattress and the wall, actually fetal place enjoying this tune. A number of what I’m doing once I’m writing is simply taking a form and shifting it up and down the guitar. Due to that, I really feel prefer it began sounding actually type of Baroque.

Eli Recht-Appel: It’s undoubtedly our closest tune to Baroque pop.

Once you say shifting a form…?

Margaret Nygard: On the guitar, the form of your fingers is making a relationship between the space between your finger and of the neck? the strings and the completely different strings, and as you’re shifting it up and down the neck, that relationship stays parallel, which is type of a Baroque type.

Is it harmonic?

Eli Recht-Appel: Yeah, so irrespective of the place you progress it on the guitar, it’s going to be that very same chord simply in a special key or in a special register. It could sound much more baroque or pre-classical music. I really feel like “Lantern” particularly ended up feeling virtually British-like people music or one thing in a method that’s associated to Renaissance or Baroque in these music traditions.

Margaret Nygard: It feels like a jig. It’s very like this sense. (bounces in place)

Eli Recht-Appel: It’s a lot bouncier than the remainder of our music.

Your work feels timeless. What was it wish to allude to the 2020s with COVID, Omicron. Was there ever a acutely aware choice?

Margaret Nygard: I feel once I use the phrase Omicron, I undoubtedly was like, ugh? There was some apprehension with that. I bear in mind I requested Eli about it. It appears so up to date. I really feel like numerous my writing is fantasy writing for me, the place it’s an escape. I didn’t wish to pull anyone out of that escape by giving it a contemporary phrase.

Eli Recht-Appel: It’s so incongruous or one thing that I used to be like, ‘Yeah, that feels earned.’ It’s the climactic second of the tune, melodically. It didn’t really feel prefer it took me out of one thing. That second of pressure, it felt like Margaret’s writing that tune actually earned that second of pressure, as a result of there’s a launch, after which it could be type of a climax second. there’s additionally these lyrics being dissident with the songwriting.

Margaret Nygard: It’s a shocking improvement that brings intrigue versus if it’s on the extra in the beginning, then it’s extra like a “Yeah, OK?”

Eli Recht-Appel: Generally when one thing is inconsistent in tone proper off the bat you’re not going to essentially register that as being inventive, inconsistent, or being kind of intentional or considerate. Once you’re distracted by an inconsistency, it’s very easy to be like, “Nicely, the place are they?” And that simply makes it not immersive.

On the album there’s some scene setting from the Midwest. In “Marvel” there’s Topeka and Missouri.

Margaret Nygard: I wrote each of these. Topeka was purely fantasy. I’ve by no means been there earlier than. I just like the sound of the phrase. And it match effectively. However then Missouri, I did spend a while in Missouri with an ex-boyfriend. That’s actually associated to these couple of verses. Processing some stuff. [laughs]

There’s a enjoyable melody on “Skeleton,” the place you sing, “Slip my hand in your winter glove.” I am curious if the lyrics or melodies come first.

Eli Recht-Appel: It was fairly simultaneous, a minimum of for that first phrase, as a result of the verse kind was already written, and I used to be attempting to consider the place to. That occurred fairly naturally the place that first line, “slip my arms into your winter gloves” was type of simultaneous with the with the musical aspect of it. Even when it feels type of simultaneous, that numerous numerous instances it’s arduous to not lead with melody as a author. I’d say a overwhelming majority of the time, music comes first, or a minimum of by like a millisecond.

Margaret Nygard: I’d agree. It doesn’t really feel good typically to labor over lyrics when you have got a melody that you just actually love, and also you need your lyrics to stay as much as the melody. It feels simultaneous.

It doesn’t really feel good typically to labor over lyrics when you have got a melody that you just actually love, and also you need your lyrics to stay as much as the melody. It feels simultaneous.

When did “Expectations” grow to be the title monitor?

Margaret Nygard: The album was such a rush job basically. We simply wished to complete one thing. I really feel like I’ve had a historical past of beginning and never ending or not going with full gusto by way of a whole course of. I really feel like I bear in mind it simply being like, “Expectations. Cool.”

Eli Recht-Appel: That was the one one which caught out as a suitable title monitor. it’s good as a result of it’s the primary album that we’re making. So clearly we’ve numerous expectations, even when nobody else has expectations like we do.

The album feels unified as a result of it is sonically cohesive.

Margaret Nygard: I feel as we have been ending up every tune, I used to be shocked at the way it felt like, “Oh, these all type of like belong collectively as just a little assortment.”

Eli Recht-Appel: I feel it feels prefer it’s musically extra cohesive than we perhaps even anticipated it to be. it’s a comparatively brief time frame of two folks writing down phrases collectively. There’s one thing inadvertently.

Doing a reprise on the finish of the album, going again, and doing the opening monitor once more is de facto fascinating. How did that come about?

Eli Recht-Appel: At one level, the reprise was going to be the one model of “Funeral Pyre” on the album really. The primary model of “Funeral Pyre” was this people rock, full band kind of model. I feel we have been feeling just a little bit much less excited in regards to the like rock model of “Funeral Pyre.” The Beatles did numerous the Let it Be periods the place they’ve a not notably good PA system within the room, the place they’re blasting their very own vocals again at themselves. I feel a part of it was Jared, who was one of many producers enjoying organ on that recording, his concept to have the texture be like very dirge-like sound, which is kind of on the nostril. It’s known as “Funeral Pyre” – I feel that suggestion made us have this far more type of mournful model of it. After which it was in a while and we have been like, “Oh, it’s very nice in the event that they’re each on the album.” And so they’re simply separated as a lot as attainable.

To me, it type of reads like the identical phrases in several fonts. It looks like a retelling of what the album already got down to inform. It’s just like the story by no means modified. However in a method, melodically, it is much more somber and reflective. You begin out with a extra rock sound, and then you definitely undergo all of that, and it is like, “I nonetheless really feel this manner,” however not as intensely. “I’ve mentioned every thing I must say.”

Margaret Nygard: Yeah, that’s a great way of placing it. I haven’t totally considered it like that. I feel we did the dirge, after which as I used to be listening, I used to be remembering, “However I used to be fairly indignant once I wrote that tune?” I used to be fairly upset. I’d like simply moved right here and wasn’t working full time as an artist’s assistant, not writing any music. This isn’t why I moved right here. I used to be not pleased. I wasn’t adjusting effectively in any respect. It was such an intense feeling once I was writing songs, however I’m proud of it being each.

When do you know that the album was full?

Margaret Nygard: I feel we’d recorded 4 extra (songs). However I really feel like we simply went off with numerous stuff and simply threw it to the wall and noticed what caught.

Eli Recht-Appel: Margaret and I went as much as Jared’s house studio known as Pale Moon Companies and did the type of overdubbing, the place we put all of just like the kind of decorative elements of the recording on it. I really feel like on the finish of that session, for me, I used to be like, “That is an album I’m actually pleased with.” Two of those that we recorded will probably be on the subsequent. A tune known as “Some Sickness” and one known as “Probability.”

Margaret Nygard: We’re a lot happier with the way in which they’re now.

Would you say sonically you have modified in any respect with the newer stuff?

Margaret Nygard: I feel it’s much more numerous. I feel the primary album, it feels rooted in additional of 1 type. And now, I feel we had to do this to really feel assured, , to attempt some bizarre stuff out. I really feel like I obtained burned out on people rock. I used to be listening to a lot people rock after we have been writing a tune. After I do take heed to music now, I’m searching for one thing that I’ve by no means heard earlier than. I simply obtained into Bjork.

Eli Recht-Appel: She’s a complete Bjork dork now.

Margaret Nygard: I’m a Bjork dork. I’ve been appreciating home music much more than I ever had.

Eli Recht-Appel: It’s undoubtedly actually enjoyable to be a rock musician and have listened to love a few of the most deeply digital your tracks and be like, “Whoa, what can I be taught?”

I really feel like I obtained burned out on people rock… After I do take heed to music now, I’m searching for one thing that I’ve by no means heard earlier than. I simply obtained into Bjork. I’m a Bjork dork.

How do you’re feeling such as you two stay creatively contemporary?

Margaret Nygard: I feel open tunings on the guitar, for me have been a lifesaver, enjoying the identical chords in several variations actually is exhausting for me. I’ll simply tune one string to a random word typically, simply messing round with completely different strings, and normally it provokes me into doing one thing completely different.

Eli Recht-Appel: I feel for me, it’s usually simply listening to music. That’s actually inspiring. Realizing that I’m not going to have the ability to do what they do, however simply being like, “What’s my type of lengthy model of that?” That’s simply at all times the simplest strategy to choose up the guitar.

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Diamond Grinder carry out in venues round New York Metropolis. Upcoming exhibits may be discovered on their Instagram and Bandcamp.

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