The Silver Palms talk Guppy, creative breakthroughs, shroom-trip songcraft, and why escaping to rural Wisconsin is the dream.
The Silver Palms are a group of friends who somehow turned late‑night pandemic jams, makeshift apartment studios, and a rotating cast of bassists into one of Chicago’s most quietly intriguing indie outfits.
With their new EP Guppy finally out in the world, the quartet is stepping into a more confident, collaborative era, one shaped by lakefront runs, jazz detours, Kansas City mischief, and the kind of DIY spirit you only get from figuring things out together.
We caught up with them to talk about shroom‑trip song structures, unexpected creative bursts, and why recording a full‑length in a rural Wisconsin cabin might just be the dream.
HAPPY: What’d you get up to today?
THE SILVER PALMS: (Gabe Stueve’s POV) Today’s been a pretty solid one. I made breakfast for my girlfriend, checked Pokémon Go (still going strong) and went for a run while listening to new music.
Ended up down by Lake Michigan for some crisp autumn views. I’ve been on a bit of an Al Di Meola kick lately and have been trying to learn some of his stuff, which has been equal parts inspiring and humbling.
I’ve also been deep into these multi-hour history podcasts – today’s was on the Punic Wars, so I’m now way too invested in ancient Roman naval strategy.
Rounded things out with some practice for our upcoming show and studio time. All in all: breakfast, historical warfare, and lakefront views-a full day by any measure.
HAPPY: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
THE SILVER PALMS: 3 of us grew up in Kansas City (1 on the Missouri side, 2 on the Kansas side) – KC was cool – super nice people, beautiful, tall oak trees everywhere, BBQ – Pat & Gabe went to an all boys school in Missouri, Peter went to public school in Kansas – some friendly rivalries, lots of kids.
Lots of turning up, going to the communal ‘loose park’ to hang out and get in trouble and run away from ATV cops.
It was chill, but a little sterile depending on the circles you ran with – rich jazz history – peter & pat actually played in separate bands that would gig together occasionally.
Levi grew up on the fringe of rural Wisconsin, shedding adolescence through theft of road signs, camping in random patches of woods, and getting chased out of quarries.
Anything was fair game, as long as it had a healthy mix of the outdoors, friends, and mischief.
HAPPY: The Silver Palms formed from late-night pandemic jam sessions. How did that isolated, DIY beginning shape the band’s identity?
THE SILVER PALMS: It allowed us a safe space to experiment and just jam and have fun with no strings attached since we weren’t even thinking about playing any shows.
Peter has a background in production (Tubesocks, Drumspeak, etc.) so we easily transferred from live jamming to peter’s apartment for DIY recording.
Eventually we did begin to gig and we never had an actual bassist.
Thankfully we had some friends willing to step in for a show every once and a while, but it wasn’t until we met Levi that the band felt “complete.”
But yeah, those post-covid late night jams were the shit and really laid the groundwork for what we could do together, just 3 or 4 guys in a room.
HAPPY: With the current lineup now solidified, how has the creative dynamic changed when writing new music compared to your first EP?
THE SILVER PALMS: It’s a bit more collaborative than the first EP.
Pat is the main songwriter, and comes to us with ideas, lyrics, most of the chords, etc.
We kick it around a bit until ideas start to stick.
Since bringing on Levi, he’s brought a lot of ideas to the table – for instance, money’s tight is a song Levi came up with – also gave some fleixiblity because Levi usually plays lead guitar live and Gabe holds down the bass – it’s fun to mix things up a bit and try different things.
Levi sings a bit too and writes poetry and lyrics, draws, etc.
We all have our own leanings in terms of inspiration from the past and present.
We all bring separate things to the table and let ideas marinate, give each other space to come up with the best ideas we can, all while still being productive and moving the thing forward.
HAPPY: The four tracks on ‘Guppy’ were all written and recorded in the first half of 2025. What about that period was so creatively fruitful?
THE SILVER PALMS: Honestly we’d played the songs live so many times, it was only a matter of finishing them.
In fact, our live at gman tavern album has 3 of the 4 songs from the EP on them, but they weren’t fully formed songs yet.
When we sat down to finish them in early 2025, we thought a bit out of the box, not allowing ourselves to be beholden to the way we played it live.
This gave way to weather reports chorus and post-chorus, to money’s tight’s more streamlined structure, and sit down’s psychedlic nature in the second half of the song.
We were able to take somewhat thought out ideas, and really bring them to life.
We wanted to have our songs DOWN before going into recording them live, which was also a first for us, so we had them locked and loaded. golden state is the odd one out – pat brought the idea and we turned it into a song on the first jam.
It was basically done after 2 rounds through. we weren’t even planning to record it but ended up having some extra time and said fuck it. glad we did because that’s one of our favs.
HAPPY: ‘Weather Report’ is about letting go of controlling your destiny. Was that a theme that felt particularly relevant while writing this EP?
THE SILVER PALMS: We’re all in our late 20s and early 30s. getting older is weird. growing up, you have all these ideas about who you are, who you want to become, and what you want out of life – there’s a lot of idealism in those High School to College-aged years.
As time passes (and of course covid throwing a wrench in our lives), you start to realize that life isn’t meant to be spent worrying about the future.
Whether it’s careers, relationships, family stuff – things will work themselves out, so stop trying to control the outcome.
‘Weather Report’ is a bit of a mindset about going through life. Be present, seize the day.
HAPPY: Can you walk us through the structure of ‘Sit Down’? How did you use instrumentation and production to mirror the anxiety and euphoria of a shroom trip?
THE SILVER PALMS: ‘Sit Down’ was a jam we had been kickin around for a while – we loved the first half of the song, but we weren’t too sure where to take it.
And pat hadn’t fully realized the lyrics yet. Eventually, we thought of the idea of turning the second half of the song on its head and making a drastic shift in groove and feel.
We tend to play most songs at a decently fast BPM, and we wanted to slow things down and let the groove to the talking, which gave the song an essence of duality – the bravado-laden confidence of the first halfs power chords contrasting with the backseat, cool-headed nature of the second – this duality sparked the lyrical ideas for pat which was also fitting because we’ve been known to microdose a late night jam sesh from time to time
HAPPY: You’re already set to record a full-length album in a cabin in rural Wisconsin this November. What are you hoping the change in environment from a Chicago studio to a rural cabin will bring to the new songs?
THE SILVER PALMS: It’s literally the dream isn’t it? IDK any musician who hasn’t dreamed of leaving the city for the quiet of the country to cut a record – we’re hoping the change of scenerey will bring out our inner romantics and will provide a beautiful backdrop for some new ideas, a new direction, and furthering what we’ve built so far.
We all have 9-5s, so it will be dope to spend sun up to sundown completely on music. and aside from the actual art making, we’re stoked to kick it with each other with zero responsibilities, and to get to know our engineer/producer Andrew a bit better.
HAPPY: With new music on the horizon, what can fans expect from The Silver Palms’ live shows as you support this EP and look ahead?
THE SILVER PALMS: We’re looking to play some local shows early in the new year and to pack our summer with outdoor gigs – always our favorites in Chicago.
We’ve also discussed making the trek out to milwaukee or even NYC to play some gigs – so stay on the look out!
HAPPY: Lastly, what makes you happy?
THE SILVER PALMS: A frothy pint of Guinness w/ the lads ~~queue’s oasis~~
