Panther Hollow (aka Bernardo Ochoa) is a regular here on Adobe & Teardrops. As the pandemic set in, the Queens, NY-based songwriter and some of his friends headed over to his family’s farm in southern New Jersey, spinning out psychedelic music that complements Panther Hollow’s grounded, hook-driven style.
“‘Butterfly’ is the third installation of the On the Farm project — a collaboration between myself (Panther Hollow), songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Aviv Gilad, and producer/drummer Matti Dunietz,” writes Ochoa for Adobe & Teardrops. “At the time, my parents were actually living and working in New Orleans, so “us kids” were left to our own devices and together we isolated – we cooked, cleaned, and tried to process everything that was happening all around us. We were there from around March 15th through May 1st, and one of the things that me, Matti and Aviv got up to (once we realized this would last much longer than two weeks) was to get together every week or so and record – something, anything, our b-side songs, burner compositions that we wrote just to keep the creative engine hot. We didn’t set out to make a record but by the time we left we had an album’s worth of material — and some gorgeous super 8 footage shot by filmmaker Kristen Lawrence, who was also on the farm with us.”
“Aviv and I traded off bringing in the bones of songs, and ‘Butterfly’ is a song that I started. It tells the story of one time when I got lost as a kid and wandered around, genuinely terrified, until I found my friends again. I’m not sure exactly why that memory came up for this song, but I get pretty excited when I sing it. It’s in a weird tuning that I learned from transcribing an Adrianne Lenker song (a composer/guitarist that has really inspired me over the years) — C – G – D – F# – G – C — and I feel like the vibe of the song is like… little kid spiky angry rock.”