GRMLN

Yoodoo Park channels the relaxed, sunlit atmosphere of his Southern California upbringing into GRMLN, his noise pop project, while also conveying longing for his Japanese heritage, having been born in Kyoto and returning there each summer. He adopted the name GRMLN to reflect that sense of separation and launched into songwriting and recording in 2010, balancing those efforts with surfing and coursework at the University of California Santa Cruz. The project’s first release, the dreamy EP Explore, surfaced in October 2012; by June 2013, when the debut full-length Empire appeared, Park had expanded GRMLN to a full-band configuration that included bassist Tae San Park, his brother, and drummer Keith Frerichs, a change mirrored in the album’s punk-inflected pop textures. Portions of the next batch of songs were composed in Japan and others while the group toured the United States. The resulting darker and more forceful material was captured at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco by engineers Patrick Brown and Sean Paulson, both of whom had previously worked on Empire. Carpark issued the finished album, Soon Away, in September 2014.