Affirmations to help those who can relate to tumultuous relationships can be found here on ‘Smile,’ the newest single and music video from Youth Pallet, now streaming.

The indie rock trio from Cleveland continues to refine their sound with the addition of Tyler Adams on bass and vocals, who joined the group after they had recorded their latest full length, ‘Deformer.’ Together with Nick Seink (guitar, vox), Steve Kessler (drums), and David D’Amato (guitar, vox), the expanded line-up emerges with a more focused sound catering to each member’s individual strengths.

Locked in from the very beginning, “Smile” is an upbeat, wistful trip down memory lane. Nick delivers the lead vocals with heartwarming, melancholic croons while lead guitarist David also chimes in occasionally with smooth choruses and vocal flourishes. New bassist Tyler plays like a missing puzzle piece, effortlessly locking in with drummer Steve to supply the tune with a sturdy foundation yet also giving the basslines pulses of extra pizzazz throughout. Now that the rhythms are so solid, David is really stretching out here, lead guitar on the left side punctuating statements and providing memorable melodies, especially the little pre chorus hook.

While not here for a long time with its runtime of just over three minutes, ‘Smile’ is an earworm that persists well after it’s over. Perfectly paired with it is a charming and quirky music video, detailing a date gone awry at just about every step of the way. But, in the end, no matter how wrong things go in relationships or life, it’s best to look at them with as much positivity as one can muster, even if all that can be is a little smile.

If you dig this, be sure to keep an eye out for more from Youth Pallet, as they have plans to tour the new material they have been hard at work preparing with their new fully-fledged line-up. You can best bet they are hitting their stride and are hopefully going to do it in a town near you.

How did you originally land on the name “Youth Pallet” and what does it mean?

Nick Seink: Steve and I both worked at jakprints where we screen printed t-shirts and when you’d have to print youth size shirts you’d have to switch the pallets out to the youth pallets. nobody could ever find the youth pallets in the shop, so you’d always hear people yelling out for the youth pallets and I just thought it’d be a good band name. One day I was working on a press with Steve and he asked what I was working on and I sent him demos of what would be the first Youth Pallet album.

How has your writing process changed now as a four-piece vs. a trio? Are roles more fleshed out now or how collaborative is the process?

I would say the writing process is as loose as it’s ever been and it feels great. Sometimes I’ll bring a song fully structured and it usually only takes a few times playing it through before it starts coming to life. We all make space for each other sonically and are aware of each other which is a very refreshing way to make music. Some of the songs off the record we’ll be putting out later this year were born from ideas or riffs that David and Tyler brought into the practice room and that’s something I’d love to have more of.

Who are your biggest influences as a group?

David Bowie. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Neil Young. The Sidekicks. St. Vincent.

What sort of things define the live experience of your band vs. the studio one?

I think they’re pretty similar sonically, we don’t want to add too much studio magic to the songs that when we play them live we are missing memorial parts. I’d say the biggest difference is our recorded music has more harmonies and live we are known to crack a few jokes and get a little goofy on stage.

What aspect of the songwriting process do you find the most rewarding? Is it also the most challenging?

Songwriting is my favorite creative outlet, I enjoy all the creative steps in the process of crafting a song from finding a melody that you love and figure out the music behind it, to recording the song and trying to produce the best version of this piece of art you’ve been perfecting with your friends. The most challenging thing is all the logistics that come along with releasing the music, I’ve been trying to find a way to make that a creative expression in itself so that it doesn’t feel so much like work. Making videos has been a part of that and it’s been extremely rewarding.

Speaking of songwriting, what inspired the ideas in ‘Smile’?

‘Smile’ and ‘Guilt’ (the other single we released alongside smile) were both written as homework assignments for a songwriting class hosted by Meg Duffy of Hand Habits and run by School of Song who run monthly songwriting classes hosted by all kinds of musicians, I just took another one hosted by Brian Eno. Anyways I’d never written using prompts before and it really opened my mind to all the different ways you could approach songwriting, writing lyrics and all different aspects of the process. I won’t reveal the song, but the prompt that I used to write ‘Smile’ was to dissect every part of a specific pop song- from what the instruments are doing, to how wordy is the verse compared to the chorus, how long are they holding out their notes, etc. Then mimic that structure as close as you can with your own song. My song turned into ‘Smile.’

In the music video, bassist Tyler Adams looked right at home as the smiling, dancing kitchen staff. Do they actually work at the restaurant you filmed at? What’s the scoop in general there?

Tyler’s girlfriend, Emily, actually works there and our friend Bonn owns the restaurant. It’s called Doinks Burger Joint and they’re got the best smash burgers in Cleveland. We also have played and helped put on a few shows on a stage that’s behind the restaurant and it was the perfect spot to shoot the video.

What was your favorite scene to film?

That’s a tough one, it’s between Tyler dancing with the milkshake or our friend Evan Bishop stealing the bouquet on a bike. The bouquet scene probably wins just because we had no idea what we were going to do for that scene. we knew he had to lose the bouquet somehow, I think we initially thought Tyler might steal the bouquet and we’d see him giving them to his girlfriend later in the video but she couldn’t make it to the shoot, so we pivoted to Evan coming out of nowhere on a bike to steal the flowers. Evans sitting in one of the booths later in the video.

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