Written by Shea Roney

Just over one year ago, a band called Meredith released a one-off album titled Seventeen, a ferocious, yet endearingly mindful collection of songs that now lives on as moment captured in time. Formed by Carolina McPhail (guitar and vocals) and Leon Gateley (guitar) as a way to jam and experiment with noise during lockdown, Meredith became a full force with the inclusion of Jake Haslam (drums) and Lucas Saunter (bass and production). Parting their separate ways prior to its release, the beautiful boldness of Seventeen has lurked in the corners of Bandcamp, sometimes let slip by word of mouth for over a year now, deafening those ears that are lucky enough to stumble upon it.  

McPhail, originally from Jersey in the Channel Islands, now lives in New Orleans, where she is getting her PhD in French. Before Meredith was even an idea, McPhail had a project of her own called Allison’s Gate, that was as seamless in expression as it was engrained in McPhail’s messy creative process. Bare, yet empathetic, Allison’s Gate builds upon the opportunity of open space, where tinged guitar strings rattle and sullen pianos play protected in its lo-fi voicings. Meredith, on the other hand, found its footing in the immediate depth of gripping feedback and melodic wear and tear of welting guitars so pervious you can pick at them like scars. Writing about her time in boarding school, the songs simmer with that teenage potency, where emotions sometimes feel too big to put into words. But while new textures form underneath and each sonic strain plays out with gradual depth, Seventeen leads its bruised temper step-by-step with the nuance only acquired by care, patience and time. 

We recently got to chat with McPhail about the making of Seventeen and where it lives one year later, starting her own label, Daughter of Pearl, and what’s next in her creative world.

This interview has been edited for length and clairty.

You recently just passed one year of Seventeen being out in the world. How did it feel just initially getting it out at that time, and how is it feeling now? 

I was really happy to get it out there, because we had had it for a really long time, more or less finished. It took a really long time to sort out the mastering and was hoping to release it with a small bandcamp type label, but the communication became a bit weird, and I thought, why don’t I just release it myself? So I started this small label, Daughter of Pearl, initially just to release this Meredith record, and I was glad that I did it in that way. It was difficult to figure out how to get people to listen and notice that it was out there. I have quite a lot of friends who make music, so it was nice to share it with them, because that’s kind of my community, both here in New Orleans and back home in London. The first music I released was under the name Allison’s Gate, which is probably now 10 years ago. They were all demo-y type songs that weren’t really designed to be played live, so I’ve started to enjoy the recording of a particular moment or a particular time. But it was just nice to put something out there again and see that it was there, and complete. It has kind of become a bit of an artifact, really, because me and Leon [Gateley] met during the pandemic and made a lot of music. And then I went back to England, and then he eventually moved to England later, but by that time, I’d already moved to the States. So it was this very particular time that we were making this music, and I wanted it to be recorded.

I was gonna ask about Allison’s Gate, because that was a project created primarily to play off of your own creative spaces, catching something that happens in the moment, as you said. Was Meredith something that came from that same mindset? Did that early stage of the project reflect that process or was it a shift for you?

It was definitely a shift for me in a lot of ways. Leon and I started playing in his apartment, just jamming these long, open-ended songs with two guitars. I hadn’t really played music in a while before that period of time. I had a few pedals that my friend Ryan had made and sent me and I wanted an opportunity to play with them and make lots of noise. We would go to this practice space that Lucas [Saunter] had in Jersey and would just make a lot of noise every week until it just became these songs that were really fun to play. I’d never really just played a lot of guitar and messed around with it in that way. I also got more into those kinds of heavier sounds through what Leon was listening to, and then later through what Jake [Haslam] was also listening to. But we didn’t have a goal or anything at all. It was mostly, you know, we can record these songs, so we recorded them. It took forever to put it out, and now we all live in different places. But it was just so much fun — Leon, Jake and Lucas are just unbelievably talented. I think what was so much fun about that period of time was just having that kind of chemistry when you’re jamming — the things that you come up with complementing the things that someone else comes up with in that moment, it’s this weird chemical moment that happens.

Did you guys get a chance to play live? Did that feeling of fun translate into other spaces beyond the practice room?

We played live maybe three times, I think. The first ever time we performed live was in someone’s garden. This was when it was just me and Leon, and then our friend, Misha Phillips [Smoking Room], played drums with us. It was in Lucas’s garden as part of this festival called Roselle Fest, which is basically just Lucas’s house, and a lot of musicians in Jersey. And that was really fun. And then we played once at the Blue Note in Jersey. And then we played once at Ivy House in London which was really fun. More so the fact that we were playing there and I got to show my friends than the moment of the rehearsal transferring to the live moment. When you’re rehearsing or jamming, your just in it so much more, you’re not thinking about it as much. I’d like to eventually get to a space where I can immerse myself in that type of playing even though I’m in public.

On your bandcamp, there is a very noticeable practice of gratitude in what this project became. You thanked those venues that billed you, the people who housed you, all these very specific things. Did that thorough practice of gratitude influence how these songs came to be, or maybe even what they are supposed to be in their own time?

In a way, I think some of the gratitude definitely came from a place of being sad that it was over. We knew we weren’t really going to continue, there was no possible way really to continue. There were a couple of differences that we had, but besides that, I was sad it was over. It kind of became a roll call of, like, thank you for this, and thank you for that. Not a roll call in like, a shallow way, but I’m really glad all these things happened and thankful for the people putting their faith in it, even though it wasn’t a huge thing.  I guess I’ve been making music in different ways for a while, and I just kind of felt like I had different relationships with different people that had come through this and I just wanted to say that I appreciate them. 

A majority of these songs are about your time in boarding school. Does it feel fitting, or even kind of weird, that this project is a one-off? That this project, which encapsulates that time of making it for you, came out of or was inspired by another important period in your life?

It’s funny that it’s not a solo album, you know? For me, it just kind of spills out. I genuinely think that what you’re deciding to make art about is often not really your decision. With most of these songs, we’d be playing in practice and I would just start singing, and then either the lyrics would be slightly written down already, or they would be completely improvised the first time that we play them. So, I don’t really choose to sing a song about my first relationship, or whatever it may be, it just kind of happens and materializes like that. At least that’s one of the ways that I have worked historically. It was funny because I didn’t want to sort of take ownership because the songs were songs that I had written the lyrics for, but it meant so much to me in a creative way that it felt very personal at the same time. But, we didn’t really have that much discussion about what those songs were about. We just made a lot of noise. And then when it was all done and dusted, it was like a ‘this is what these songs are about’ kind of thing.

Right, I guess if you’re always waiting for the right time, it’ll just never happen. Those feelings would just never come out.

Yeah, and I don’t really plan things out [laughs]. I’m starting to try to plan things a bit more. But with a creative project, it kind of falls together, in a way. But what I enjoyed about this project is the way that Leon and I both leaned towards the same kind of structures, and the same kind of sounds in a way that just gelled really well. There are songs that originated from me, there are songs that originated from him, and you can’t really tell. I definitely didn’t set out to make a coming-of-age album, or what my particular thing that I’m gonna try and say would be, it’s just going to happen that way.

Just embrace the mess?

Yeah, basically [laughs].

Do you have anything you’re working on musically? Or is it primarily label stuff for you these days?

I have two small Alison’s Gate EPs that I want to put out at some point. At first, I was thinking I should make more of a concrete project or whatever, or maybe I should just carry on the sort of personal tradition of making it quite scrappy. I’ve got demos from the past which I want to draw together and put out. And then I have a new project with my partner, called Time, but we haven’t done anything yet [laughs]. We’ve written a couple of songs, but we actually now have a practice space in New Orleans, which is fun. I have a few other friends who I’m gonna release things from on Daughter of Pearl, but I’m taking a bit of a break from it. I’m just quite disorganized, really, but I would like to do more. I’ve been lucky to watch some friends of mine, whose music I’ve seen grow in the most amazing, beautiful ways. But I’ve always been a bit more of a bedroom person. The most fun that I have is when I’m just producing at home. Not even necessarily playing or writing, but recording and jamming by myself. I just like capturing a particular moment — not really a live moment, but an intimate moment. But I did love making [Seventeen], and I feel very happy with how it came out in the end. I think it has become that artifact that I kind of wanted it to be. I wasn’t sure if anyone would find it. I sometimes get random messages on Instagram, and they’re asking when the next album is coming out? There was this guy, I think he was from Indonesia, and he was like, ‘can’t wait for more!’ [laughs].

You can Listen to Seventeen now, as well as explore McPhail’s other project Allison’s Gate via her label Daughter of Pearl.