Mood Board is our column where artists share a few of the things that inspired their new record. This week, Allison Goldfarb and Jackson MacIntosh, aka the LA synth pop duo Paycheque, tell us how Paul Schrader, a pair of Mercedes Benzes, Britpop, and more inspired their debut self-titled record — out today on Mansions and Millions.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
1. Paul Schrader’s Hardcore
The ugliness of Paul Schrader’s gritty depiction of the Los Angeles porn industry served as a visual reference throughout recording. Los Angeles is a city that feels somehow wrong to look at during the day... too bright, too flat, too sprawling. Something magical happens at night underneath neon signs and away from the oppressive glaring sun. There’s a scene in the film where the protagonist tears through the walls of a whorehouse, each washed in a different shade of neon. I used the idea in our video for “Next in Line,” cutting between color frames as we drove through downtown.
2. Roland D50
This is THE Paycheque synth. We love it. David from TOPS bought it on Facebook ages ago, and it died the day after he took it home. He abandoned it in LA, where it sat in a closet until Jackson resuscitated it in 2023. It remains an unreliable, mercurial beast, but it’s capable of sounds that are both warm and glassy at the same time. Probably 60% of the synth sounds on the record are the D50.
3. Los Angeles
We’re both transplants, Allison from St. Louis, MO, and Jackson from Nova Scotia, but we’ve been in LA for a decade and the city was a constant source of frustration and inspiration while working on the record. Some music is just made for cruising around LA, and we wanted to contribute to that tradition. So many of the lyrics are set in and around the nightlife staples of Los Angeles.
4. Our ancient and decrepit Mercedes Benzes
While we were recording our album, we both had early 1980s Mercedes Benz W123 sedans. Neither was running properly when we bought them, but Jackson fixed them up and we drove them for years. Jackson still has his, but Allison’s catastrophically overheated heading north on highway two while the Eaton fire was still burning. The smell of smoke was thick in the air so she didn’t notice the smoke pouring from the engine, which was busy melting itself into a useless lump of German steel.
5. Britpop as a concept
Sometimes, while making decisions about the record, we’d choose something because it was more spiritually “Britpop.” The more Britpop choice always has to win. This started around the time that we went to see Pulp at the Palladium, and Pulp, to us, are the lords and masters of Britpop. When we ask if something is Britpop, what we’re really asking is, “WWJD?” (What Would Jarvis Do?)
