Palm Ghosts is a band based in East Nashville led by songwriter/producer Joseph Lekkas.
Having spent the early aughts playing in Philadelphia bands such as Grammar Debate! and Hilliard, Joseph took a long hiatus from writing and performing music to book shows and festivals in Philadelphia.
Palm Ghosts began in early 2013 as a creative outlet for dealing with a severe bout of depression and anxiety that left him incapacitated. Discovering that music was his only path through the mire, Joseph spent a particularly long Philadelphia winter recording a batch of introspective songs that was to become the first Palm Ghosts record, a tapestry of lo-fi indie folk and dreamy pop he christened Sun-damaged American music, which featured Joseph accompanied by drummer Walt Epting and Vince Tampio on trumpet.
After a short tour in 2013 supporting the release of the first record, Joseph packed up his belongings and headed south to Nashville to take part in the southern city’s musical renaissance.
Joseph set up a small home studio in the guest bedroom of a rental house on Greenland Ave in East Nashville. Two years later, in February of 2017, he released Greenland, Palm Ghosts’ second record, consisting of 15 songs that walk the line of electronic, folk and indie music, a collection clearly influenced by the song-is-king culture of his newly adopted city, featuring Joseph with Erin Nelson on drums and Benjamin Douglas on guitars and keyboards.
In May of 2017, Joseph began work on his next project, a cinematic dream pop / dark indie LP celebrating his favorite sounds from the most colorful of musical decades, the 1980s. Influenced by groups such as Cocteau Twins, Peter Gabriel, Dead Can Dance, New Order and The Cure, he began sketching song ideas to create the lush, cinematic arrangements he was hearing in his head. The fruit of his labors, Architecture, is nearing completion.
“The thrumming synthesizer, driving percussion, baritone male vocals, and strong female vocals will pull anyone back into warm, excellent nostalgia for the ’80s. The jubilant chorus melody is just great.”
-INDEPENDENT CLAUSES
“This is the perfect winter track. The cold but bright sound harkens a brisk winter morning while the melancholy vocals refresh the soul like the perfectly placed holiday. The five-piece indie-alt act from Nashville will remind many of The National, while mixing in a more ‘80’s based aesthetic on their latest single. The result is something special and one hell of a love song. As they prep a full album, which this will be a part of, we hold our collective breath for more tunes like this.”
– EAR TO THE GROUND
“This track is deep. Deep in it’s almost 80’s synth heart and swimming in emotions. I love the aesthetic here, love the boy/ girl vox.”
– AMERICAN PANCAKE
“Love In Winter is the new single from Nashville based Palm Ghosts. The track is stylish dream pop, with plenty of twangy guitar lines, interesting synth pads and a nice doubled male/female vocal. The song has a Duran Duran type of instrumental vibe and the whole thing makes you move. Good individual tracks are nice for what they are, but always leave us wanting to hear a proper EP or album and we’d surely like to have more from Palm Ghosts.”
– FLOORSHIME ZIPPER BOOTS
”A gorgeously meandering slice of dream-pop. The whole track is held together by the constant pulse of a distant reverberating piano, as skittering drums, gently unfurling guitars and warm analog synths come together to create a loose drifting whole. Heavy Eyes is a masterpiece”
- FOR THE RABBITS
“Palm Ghosts offers a stirring mix of folk writing with electronica-tinged production. Electronically magnetic and emotionally heartfelt, “Insomnia” captures the cold fragility of humanity, of two souls going their separate ways in the night.”
– ATWOOD MAGAZINE