For this month’s Stay Tuned, PATTERN sat down with Gabriel Adams, guitarist, vocalist and producer of Indy shoegaze/dreampop band Fern Murphy. Gabe and fellow bandmates made a playlist for PATTERN. We spoke to Gabe on what comes next for the group after an already exciting year so far. Fern Murphy is currently made up of Adams, Tommy Behan (drums), Benjamin Pearson (bass) and Travis Brown (guitarist). In June they performed for Indianapolis’ inaugural WonderRoad Festival in Garfield Park. Last October they released a double LP called Violet Hours. Their playlist features local favorites Sweet Mylo and 81355, some international acid jazz and chillwave, as well as shoegaze influences like Slowdive and Tears Run Rings.
Jake Johnson: Tell us about your musical background.
Gabriel Adams: I’ve played in bands my whole life. Growing up, my dad was a true-to-the-form player, a guitar for hire. You’d give him money, and he could play whatever song you wanted. I used to watch him when I was a kid and I remember just being awed by it. If you asked my dad right now he would tell you, “My son surpassed me a long time ago.” But I’ve seen my dad play Jethro Tull live, like flute and everything. My dad is clearly more talented, but he didn’t have the opportunities that were given to me. He had to play music. His playing afforded himself and his five kids a livelihood. It never worked out that I could do that. I think I was too bashful as a kid. I’m not bashful as a person anymore. As an artist, I am though. Musically I am a still a very shy person. I never sang before. I would join a band and just play guitar. I had never really thought of myself as a producer. In grad school, I started really digging into self-producing/home studio/creative music projects and eventually vocals. I had the gear, I was at home a lot, just making my own music. I found out quickly that I had no idea what I was doing. There was always a wall that I couldn’t scale, like one big puzzle I couldn’t solve. For Tommy it was the same thing. There was never a finished product that came from his individual music projects. Between the three of us, we get over that wall. We finish something. We’re proud of it. Before that, it always felt like there were roots, there’s potential, but the pieces aren’t connecting. We seem to check each other and motivate each other to get things to a point where we can say we are happy.
JJ: When did you guys start playing together?
GA: We all met during our undergraduate studies at Ball State. Benjamin was always playing bass around campus, but he and I never worked together until Fern Murphy came about over four years ago. I met Tommy when he auditioned for a band I was in at the time. We hit it off immediately Throughout college, the two of us stayed together through a couple different groups. Back then I guess you could say we were entertainers. We would play songs that everybody knew. The goal was to try to get to the crowd going, because we were trying to entertain.
Fern Murphy is not an entertainer. We write and record and perform our own music. It’s self-fulfilling, but when we’re on stage we feel like the music is for us. The best thing that we can offer to an audience is something that makes people feel the way we do when we’re making it. The best thing we can hope for is somebody out there to pick up exactly how we feel while we’re playing it.
JJ: Who’s Fern Murphy?
GA: Fern Murphy is my great-grandmother. I wasn’t in favor of the name at all, but Benjamin’s wife
insisted that it was a good name. It has made my family gatherings super awkward. RIP Fern.
JJ: What artists, in Indiana and beyond, are you excited about right now?
GA: Kevin Jones impresses me so much. He goes by Sweet Mylo these days. Super-talented artist, songwriter and producer. He’s still in his early 20’s I think, but he was part of our very first Fern Murphy show. So back then he must’ve been an actual child. I’m always rooting for him. I respect the hell out of 81355! And I’m not even a hip-hop guy. I appreciate their originality. Those guys just do not stop, no matter what. They’re solid dudes that don’t mess around. Since forming Fern Murphy, we’ve tried to maintain a mindset like they have. Any time they get a win, it seems like a win for Indy. Outside of Indy artists, I really dig Film School. They’re a California shoegaze band. I hope they put some more stuff out soon.
JJ: What music project are you particularly proud of?
GA: We put out a double LP (Violet Hours) last October, that was essentially a backlog of things we made over the two years prior. We saved everything we recorded and polished up the very best of it. I’ve had time to reflect on it and I can confidently tell you I’ve released music before that doesn’t age well to me. I can’t stand to listen to it anymore. Two years into making a project, it’s hard to let it sink in. I think people like it, but I want more people to listen to it. It’s hard to be heard these days with all of the other music coming out all the time. It’s hard to stand out. Releasing a record can date or age poorly. I’m very proud of this one, for once.
JJ: What are you working on now?
GA: We’re ready to record more. The spring and summer have already been quite a blast, but we’re going to do a couple shows here and there. We’re bringing in new resources and performers. Indianapolis has a lot of silos of talent, I want to collaborate with more talented Indianapolis people. Round Table Recording and MOKB and the HI-FI are doing more for this city’s musicians than anybody else. I want to record at Round Table, I want to perform live for MOKB and HI-FI. I want to run sound, I want to educate. I want to do it all! We would like to tour and try to find new places to play like Philadelphia or New York, but we’d much rather stay in Indy and record the next album. Someone from WonderRoad or the like might call us again, to which we would happily answer.
JJ: What are your interests outside of music?
GA: When we’re not playing or recording in a basement, we really like being outside. We have bonfires. We go camping a lot. We go hiking. I like to travel to places I’ve never been to when I can. We drink beer. Tommy loves frisbee golf. Benjamin’s really into botanicals. I read a lot in my down time.
JJ: What are you reading now?
GA: I just finished Ulysses. Now I’m reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
JJ: Tell me about the playlist you guys came up with. What’s the mood? What should we be doing while listening to it?
GA: The playlist includes things that have been in our individual rotations recently. I don’t think there’s much of a specific theme per se. We’re not trying to make anybody feel a certain way by listening to it. Consider it a Fern Murphy flavor of the week. The songs I personally chose are older tracks that remind me of happy highlights from my life so far. Initially I thought we should include tracks that inspired us to write certain songs of our own. The first song that came to mind in that regard was “Mind the Wires” by Tears Run Rings, who are another excellent shoegaze band. If you’re listening to it, maybe do what we would be doing if we weren’t working or recording. Go outside, see a place you’ve never been to before. Throw a frisbee, drink a beer, talk to a plant.
