Originating during the early days of the pandemic as a collaboration between songwriters Andrew Geroch and Ken Chesler, Plum soon evolved into a full band in search of sound capable of addressing the contradictions inherent within the lived experience. The LA outfit’s self-titled debut EP realised this style, matching a wistful fondness with themes of uncertainty and mortality. Songs willing to challenge simple binaries in order complicate its emotional terrain. “Plum’s music is the meeting point of opposites,” as label Anxiety Blanket Records put it. “Sweet yet sour, soft yet brittle, seething yet serene.”
Now Plum are back with new double single, ‘With You/Leaving’, and we have the pleasure of sharing the former a day early. Mixed by Sam Evian, the song sees Plum build upon the foundations of the previous EP to offer a slice of nostalgic longing that blurs the distinction between past memories and future desires. “Roamin’ with you / is all I want to do,” as Chesler sings, “no more waitin’ / just the ocean / holdin’ hands again.”
Vintage analog instrumentation was used to more fully embrace this mood, with Atticus Boone (bass) and Dawson Timpany (drums/percussion) supporting Geroch’s guitar, and Chesler utilising both a Wurlitzer electric piano and a Mellotron to further add to the dreamy depths of a sound tracked to tape. What emerges is another meeting of opposites, where distance in both time and space is met with a palpable intimacy, and the torturous intangibility of separation is matched by a persistent tactile weight.
The song comes complete with a suitably retro video, filmed and edited by Chesler himself, which commits this very mood to images. That home video aesthetic where the past is available, replayable, yet also eternally sealed off behind VHS distortion and thick glass of the screen.
‘With You/Leaving’ is out tomorrow via Anxiety Blanket Records.