Purslane combines contemplative songwriting with indie rock instrumentation
The newly formed trio performs covers and original music
BY JONAH BERMAN – arts@theaggie.org
On Nov. 19, The California Aggie will be hosting its quarterly Couch Concert in the basement of The Aggie House on 116 A St. Among the bands performing will be Purslane, a newly formed outfit consisting of vocalist and lyricist Kat Orozco, a fourth-year English major; guitarist and producer Caleb Rankin, a fourth-year applied mathematics major; and drummer Jacob Heim, a third-year marine biology major.
Rankin and Heim previously performed at the Couch Concert as Inglenook, an instrumental group.
“When Jake and I played the last Couch Concert with our band, we had a great time,” Rankin said. “It was so fun, and we felt really welcomed.”
Rankin and Orozco met as coworkers at Insomnia Cookies, and their shared passion for music was the spark that allowed Purslane to form.
“We would record music in the bathroom sometimes,” Orozco said. “So then Caleb asked me if we wanted to be in a band. And that was pretty much it.”
Orozco, who writes all of the group’s lyrics, often pens the words separately from Rankin and Heim’s instrumentation. Orozco began singing when she was six, and she describes her songwriting process as often being a form of self-regulation and a method to understand the world through writing. Citing inspirations such as Adrianne Lenker, Orozco noted her appreciation for alliteration in lyrics as well as vivid imagery.
“It's more of a somber confessional sound,” Orozco said. “Sometimes I write without any sound in mind, [and] other times Caleb will send me something and I'll write around it. But I think our best songs happen when Caleb sends me an audio recording of a few chords that we want to build off of.”
One sonic influence on Purslane is the British alt-rock group spirit blue, despite their geographical separation; the same person masters both of the group’s tracks. Purslane’s current releases have indie-inflected guitar performances combined with hazy production, but the group is still exploring what is musically possible.
“We make a bunch of music, but we're yet to release a really big project,” Rankin said. “So I think we're still kind of finding our sound in a cool way.”
Rankin has been producing music for five years. While he started playing guitar relatively recently, he has more experience with his Korg minilogue synthesizer.
“That was the first thing I ever bought in music, when I was like 17,” Rankin said. “I'm still learning how to use it, to be honest.”
Although the band is newly formed, Heim has been drumming for as long as he can remember, and the inspirations he emphasizes are deeply personal.
“I've been playing drums since I was a toddler,” Heim said. “I don't even remember a time when I wasn't playing. My dad is a musician as well, and he threw me on a pair of drums so that I could play drums with him. He's the biggest influence in my life musically, for sure.”
Heim came up with the band’s name, which originates from a flower of the same name that he learned about in a biology course. The band is managed by Ellie Feistel, who also designs their merchandise.
“It’s really exciting,” Feistel said. “There are a lot of personalities. I think everybody in the band has a lot of thoughts and opinions, which is a beautiful thing. You don't want people that are just bland, and so that's nice.”
Although the band started playing together just last summer, Purslane already has a variety of upcoming events and releases. The group has two songs currently released on streaming platforms: “Unravel The Spirit” and “Angels Don’t Sing.” They plan on releasing more music in the coming months.
“I hope listeners can hear all the care we put into crafting these songs,” Rankin said. “I want to have that all be compressed into the three minutes that they're listening to the song. That's the whole point of it all.”
The group will also be playing a show at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco in March, and they hope to book more shows soon, both locally and elsewhere in California.
“I like venues that are really old, like cathedrals and stuff like that,” Rankin said. “I feel like that would fit our sound really well.”
For further information, the band can be followed on Instagram @purslaen. At this quarter’s Couch Concert, the band hopes to evoke unique emotions and create an enjoyable yet novel environment with their music.
“I want people to feel intrigued,” Orozco said. “That might be a weird word to say, but I think curiosity is a very fun emotion, and whenever I listen to music, I like to feel like I'm experiencing something for the first time. So it would be cool if people were able to experience something that they might not have before, as well as just let loose, because that's what it's all about.”
Written by: Jonah Berman— arts@theaggie.org