Phantom Handshakes on instinct, mood and success

What happens when the darkness of the night begins to set in? That is the feeling that Phantom Handshakes captures on their latest album Sirens at Golden Hour. The duo project of Matt Sklar and Federica Tassano was formed in 2020. Over the years, the dream pop group has released two albums and an EP. Sklar and Tassano, based in New Orleans and New York respectively, do everything from writing, recording, and mixing from their home studios. As a live band, they perform 5-piece alongside Meghan Seeberg, Matt Billington, and Brian Alvarez. Sirens at Golden Hour expands their catalog of lo-fi dream pop soundscapes.

On the album Phantom Handshakes extricates emotions that often come at dusk. On “It Rains,” Tassano moves from hopelessness into dreaming about the opportunities of a new day. “Dusk Enchanted” explores the anticipation brought on by sunset. In many ways, the album calls our attention to the symbiosis between us and the natural world. The recognition that we’re on the verge of a climate crisis is also touched on in “Apart.” In the song Tassano sings as if she can see the earth slipping out of view, a dark emptiness taking its place.

We connected with Sklar and Tassano to talk about collaboration, the importance of capturing the mood of a song while mixing, success as an indie band, and more.

Congrats on Sirens at Golden Hour! Phantom Handshakes started as what felt like a natural collaboration for the two of you. How has working as a duo evolved with each project?

Federica: Phantom Handshakes has always been a long-distance project, and the process of creating Sirens at Golden Hour was similar to our previous albums. Typically, Matt sends me an instrumental idea, and I build on it by adding both instrumental and vocal parts. The key difference with this album is that I also contributed instrumental ideas, which Matt then enhanced with bass lines and other elements.

Matt: Thanks! Yeah, I think the biggest evolution with this album has been a shift in the songwriting: when the project first began most of our songs originated from musical ideas I had recorded on my own and then Federica would shape those ideas with her vocals and other instrumental parts she would add. But with each release Federica is contributing more of her own songs. And on the new album nearly half of the songs are entirely Federica's, which is great because it adds a whole other dimension of moods and sounds to our songs that I could never have come up with on my own. I think when we started we were a little hung up on a specific 'Phantom Handshakes sound' but now we've released enough music where we have the freedom and confidence to not worry about that.

You’re known to record in your respective studios in New York and New Orleans. What was the process like working on Sirens at Golden Hour?

Matt: Before I moved out of New York we would record everything separately, so the geographic distance hasn't affected our process at all really, except in terms of getting together with the band to play shows or go on tour, which could be a strain. My wife and I had moved out of our Brooklyn apartment into a home in New Orleans a few years ago. Federica's lyrics are often about nature and our relationship with our environment and all living things, but especially so with this album. So it was interesting working on this album and hearing these lyrics while I'd be out planting in my backyard surrounded by lizards and birds and grasshoppers.

In other interviews you’ve discussed spending a limited amount of time on an idea when it’s not working out and simply moving on to the next. Do you ever revisit those ideas?

Federica: No, we don’t usually revisit old ideas. We tend to know instinctively whether a song works or not from the start. Our approach to music is very much driven by instinct—if something didn’t click the first time, it’s unlikely to work later.

Matt: We do have some good song ideas that never found its way onto a release because we couldn't get the recording to where we wanted it to be, so it's possible if we ever move this project into a professional studio we might go back to some of those ideas and see if we can make them work in a proper studio setting.

There’s an almost gloomy undertone to the song “Apart”-- production-wise. You’ve described the song as “a heartfelt reflection on the emotional toll of climate change catastrophes.” What inspired you to write “Apart” and how did you approach the sonic landscape of the song?

Federica: When Matt sent me the demo for ‘Apart,’ I immediately noticed how much darker and more tension-filled it was compared to most of our songs. It felt natural to write lyrics that embraced that somber tone. I chose to focus on something deeply important to me, and a source of real anguish—climate change.

You’re involved in every aspect of the record–from writing to mixing. Does that come with any challenges? If so, how do you overcome those?

Matt: The biggest challenge for me personally is that I don't consider myself a producer or engineer so when we record and mix an album I'm kinda learning as I go. It becomes a challenge to myself to just try to make a better sounding album than the last one and that's what keeps us going. But I have to trust myself to accept that even if a song isn't sounding quite as good as I'd like it to sound production-wise, if it captures the vibe or mood that's more important.

In “Good Intentions” you explore the value that society places on efficiency and success. How do you measure success as an independent band?

Federica: To me, success is writing songs that resonate with even just one person. That, in itself, is a significant achievement. I dislike the approach to success, which is often defined by numbers, algorithms, and followers. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have reached far more people than we ever imagined, and that’s something we deeply appreciate.

Matt: I think it's really hard right now for independent musicians. There seems to be less and less smaller bands at the moment and touring seems to be financially harder and harder. We've been lucky since we didn't really have any big expectations when we started this project, so yeah, the fact that anyone is interested enough in our music to buy our records or see us play live is enough of a success to me. 

What’s next now that Sirens At Golden Hour is out?

Matt: We're hoping to play more shows in the new year and hopefully get to work on new music. It's nice to finally release something you've been working on for a while but as soon as it's out in the world it can feel somewhat anticlimactic, so we're always thinking of the next thing.

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Sirens at Golden Hour is out now.. You can purchase the album on cassette through Phantom Handshakes’ Bandcamp. The album is also available on Spotify or wherever you stream music. Follow Phantom Handshakes on Instagram.

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