Lovewell - Sound In The Signals Interview
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| 📸 @koryboutin_ |
I recently had the opportunity to interview Mark Palladino of Lovewell. We discussed their upcoming album, ‘Everything You Ever Wanted’, inspiration, artwork, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Thank you! I truly appreciate you taking the time to do this.
You’ll be releasing your debut album ‘Everything You Ever Wanted’ on June 12th. Can you tell me about writing and recording the album?
These songs were written in late 2024 and early 2025 (outside of the final song on the album which is 13 years old). The process is more detailed below, but I had not sat down and forced myself to write new songs in a while. After a long creative impasse, it feels good to have this collection of songs.
We recorded with the great Mike Moschetto, chipping away at it on weekends from August to November 2025. At this point Mike feels like the fifth member of Lovewell. He has had a hand in almost everything we have put out, and it only made sense to record with him. It is always a pleasure working with Mike and his collaboration on this album took it to places we never imagined. We are forever grateful.
Did you try anything new with your songwriting for the album, or did you approach anything differently because this was an album as opposed to an EP?
In the past, I (Mark) would write bare bones demos of songs on an acoustic guitar to organize lyrics and structure. Then Joe and I would demo them at his studio space with him filling things out on guitar. For this album, it was the first time I did the demoing at home which felt natural given the nature of my writing process for it. Many of these songs I started writing on walks with my dog (I <3 you Billie), working out lyrics and melodies in my head. I’d then go home and figure out guitars and start piecing things together.
This album is also the first time I took a stab at writing lead guitar lines (many of which I thought would end up being placeholders – and some did), but everyone was into it which was exciting. There still was some of our old writing process intertwined on a few songs. Joe did a great job filling out, adding, and taking away things when it made sense. We spent the summer rehearsing the songs to prepare to record which was nice (and necessary) as this is something we never did before when it was just Joe and me.
Do you have a favorite lyrical or musical moment from the album? Why?
There are a bunch of them on the album but with “Less than Forever” specifically, the bridge after the second chorus is one my favorite moments both musically and lyrically. It’s reminds so much of the endless bands and artists that we pull influence from and the lyrics drive home the melancholic longing that the song encapsulates.
You released “Less than Forever” as the first single. What made you choose that song as the first single?
This song was one of the last I wrote. It stood out to me immediately as the single we’d release first, especially after working it out with everyone. I feel that it embodies all of the themes you’ll hear throughout the album. It’s also where we got the name of the album from.
The artwork for the album is a pretty interesting photo. Where did you get that image from?
This is a photo of my mother (shout out Kimmy P.) that I took on a Fujifilm Instax 210 back in 2014. Us landing on this photo to use as the album art happened out of nowhere. Joe and I had discussed what we should do for the album art and could not really decide on anything concrete. I started reaching out to some graphic designers about having something made but nothing was feeling right.
All of Lovewell’s previous artwork is centered around either a photo one of us took or an old family photo. When I stumbled upon this photo of my mother standing in the front doorway of my childhood home, it clicked instantly. I showed Joe the photo and he said, “That’s it.” It pulls together all of the motifs on the album. Wanting something better. Wanting something more. Wanting something you used to have. That longing that creeps up in almost every facet of daily life for times when things felt brighter.
You’re co-releasing the album with Another Year Collective and Financial Records. What made you decide to work with them and what will both labels be doing for this release?
We’ve been friends with Zach of Another Year Collective for several years now and did a split in 2023 with his band Sparing. He has been such a support system throughout the years for me to bounce ideas off of. I was sending him the demos every step of the way, and he was down from day one to help us put it out.
Evan of Financial Records recorded our music video (out soon) and had mentioned he recently started his own label. He had just done some cassettes for FFO: Chilin and we got to talking about doing some for our album. Evan is such a force behind the camera and we are super excited not only for the music video, but to be working with Financial Records.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you want to add?
This album is dedicated to JoAnn Varney Connolly. Forever in the garden of daisies.
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