Time Traveling Through Sound: Phantogram Returns with ‘Memory of a Day’
In an era where electronic music often feels mass-produced, Phantogram‘s Memory of a Day arrives like a breath of fresh analog air. Released October 18 via Neon Gold Records, the duo’s fifth studio album isn’t just a collection of tracks – it’s a time machine disguised as a record, designed to vault listeners through their own memories.
Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter, the masterminds behind what they cheekily call “darkadelic experimental pop,” have reunited with Grammy-winning producer John Hill (whose golden touch has blessed records by Carly Rae Jepsen and Foals) to create something that feels both nostalgic and daringly current. The album’s inspiration? A life calendar – a stark grid showing life broken down into weeks – that Carter discovered during recording. “Every feeling or sensation we have has a memory attached to it,” the duo explains in our interview below.
From the moment “Jealousy” kicks in with its searing confessional tone (and easily one of my favorite tracks), you know you’re in for an emotional journey. The album masterfully oscillates between high-voltage bangers and ethereal dreamscapes – take “Feedback Invisible,” a percussive punk track that channels ’80s NYC post-punk, or the shoegaze-tinged “Attaway” that sounds so luxuriously textured. My other standout picks include “Happy Again,” which erupts through the speakers with an urgent, life-affirming chorus.
@phantogram It Wasn’t Meant To Be with @Track Star #Phantogram #inthestudio #NewMusic #trackstar
Where 2020’s Ceremony felt like a diary entry written in tears, Memory of a Day reads more like a fever dream captured on vintage synthesizers. Working with longtime friends Dan Wilson and Mikky Ekko, they’ve managed to expand their signature “street beat psych pop” while staying true to their roots.
For those itching to experience this new evolution live, Phantogram is bringing their sonic wizardry to stages across North America. Their 2025 headline tour kicks off January 15 in Las Vegas, culminating in what promises to be a mind-bending night at LA’s Hollywood Palladium on February 28.
Memory of a Day isn’t just an album – it’s proof that Phantogram remains one of electronic music’s most fascinating chameleons. Check out our in-depth interview with the duo below, and don’t forget to catch them live when they come to your city!
**
Phantogram Interview Below
At Frank 151, we always love to ask: if you could curate your own festival, who would be your top three headliners, dead or alive? Sarah and Josh, you each get three picks.
Josh – The Beatles, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys
Sarah – Notorious BIG, Led Zeppelin, Prince
For readers who might be new to Phantogram, how would you describe your sound? I know some might recognize “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.
Darkadelic Experimental Pop (although a friend of ours once told us we are “street beat psych pop”).
How did you come up with the name Phantogram, and what does it mean to you both?
When coming up with ideas for our name, we were talking about message from other worlds and we looked up to see if there was a word for that and felt like Phantogram fit our sound. The red and blue of the optical illusion represents us as a duo, and the use of 2D images to create 3D images represents the two of us making something bigger than ourselves.
You’ve toured the world and even opened for Kings of Leon. What’s that experience been like for you both?
Touring with other bands has been amazing. We’ve been all over the world and it’s been great getting to know a lot of amazing artists, humbling to know they are fans of us, and we love seeing all the new faces and making new fans.
Your upcoming album, Memory of a Day, is packed with intriguing tracks. What was the inspiration behind this album
A lot of the concepts for this album were inspired by memories and how they shape and inform us, and how we see our lives. While working on this project, Josh stumbled across a Life Calendar, which is an exploded view of our lives, allowing us to see thing In chunks of weeks. Every feeling or sensation we have has a memory attached to it, and we want people to connect their own memories to this album while listening.
@phantogram another year of making music together 🌅 grateful for all of you who were with us every step of the way. ready for all that’s to come in 2025 #2024 #ontour #NewMusic
A couple of standouts for me are “Feedback Invisible”—a real banger—and “Ashes,” which has a more ballad-like feel. Could you walk us through the process of writing a high-energy track versus a more mellow, introspective one?
Each song we write comes from a different part of us, inspired by different emotions or experiences. Some songs are very beat heavy/beat drive, while others are lush, fuzzy and gauzy. Feedback Invisible was inspired by post punk in 1980’s NYC, with the many different poly rhythms and psychedelic twists. Ashes was influence by shoegaze music and the more depressing side of Prince. We are big music fans at our core, and have so many different influences, which has allowed us to create such a wide range of sounds falling into a category that is uniquely our own.
When it comes to songwriting, who typically brings the initial idea to the table, and what does your creative process look like?
It is different every time – sometimes we just jam, sometimes it comes from a beat. We have a folder of beats and song ideas that we’ve been keeping since before we even started Phantogram. We love to go through and revisit those ideas and see what we’re inspired by.
I noticed there aren’t any collaborations on this album. Was that intentional? And if you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?
We used to think that if we didn’t do everything ourselves, we’d lose our integrity, which we’ve learned is not true. We pride ourselves on constantly continuing to grow and learn as a band and as individuals, and collaborating with different people has helped us achieve this. On this album, we worked with a handful of people, including our longtime friends Dan Wilson and Mikky Ekko, just to name a couple. Collaboration is an important part of art – ESPECIALLY MUSIC – and we’d love to work with more artists that we’ve looked up to for years and newer artists we are fans of.
Looking ahead, what can fans expect from Phantogram over the next year?
We will be touring next year and can’t wait to play the new album live for everyone! We are also finishing up some more songs and are excited to share those soon.
@phantogram we’re going on touuuuuur
Phantogram’s Tour Dates
1/15 – Brooklyn Bowl – Las Vegas, NV
1/16 – House of Blues Anaheim – Anaheim, CA
1/17 – SOMA – San Diego, CA
1/19 – The Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ
1/22 – House of Blues Dallas – Dallas, TX
1/24 – ACL Live at The Moody Theater – Austin, TX
1/25 – House of Blues – Houston, TX
1/27 – House of Blues – New Orleans – New Orleans, LA
1/28 – The Hall – Little Rock, AR
1/29 – Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, TN
1/31 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA
2/03 – The Ritz – Raleigh, NC
2/04 – The Fillmore Silver Spring – Silver Spring, MD
2/06 – Brooklyn Paramount – Brooklyn, NY
2/08 – The Fillmore Philadelphia – Philadelphia, PA
2/10 – House of Blues Boston – Boston, MA
2/12 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON
2/13 – Saint Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI
2/14 – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom – Chicago, IL
2/15 – The Fillmore Minneapolis – Minneapolis, MN
2/18 – Fillmore Auditorium – Denver, CO
2/19 – The Union – Salt Lake City, UT
2/21 – Moore Theatre – Seattle, WA
2/22 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC
2/24 – Roseland Theater – Portland, OR
2/26 – The Masonic – San Francisco, CA
2/28 – Hollywood Palladium – Hollywood, CA
Follow & Connect with Phantogram @
YouTube X Instagram Website Spotify