Democracy can seem permanent right up until the point when it doesn’t. That not-so-far-fetched realization informs “Palace Of The People,” the new single from the Calculus, a bracing indie-rock/power-pop project from Vivek Jayaram. He wrote the song in the aftermath of the 2024 election and subsequent inauguration—which, among other things, accentuated the fact that constitutions and courts have power only if we continue to recognize their authority.
“It was noticing that roughly half the country was fine with it and roughly half wasn’t—and that the gap between those two positions wasn’t really a disagreement about facts,” says Jayaram. “It was about whether people had decided to keep treating the arrangement as binding. A court order feels immovable, set in stone, enforceable, valid. But it’s also a piece of paper, and it works because everyone involved has decided to behave as though it works. Depending on the week, that’s either the most reassuring fact in the world or the most terrifying one.”
A University Of Wisconsin-Madison alum with a law degree from Cardozo School Of Law, Jayaram now heads his own firm, with offices in New York and Miami. He spent years playing in bands before career, family and life in general intervened, eventually returning to songwriting after getting sober in 2015. Since then, the Calculus has become his primary creative vehicle.
And while the subject matter may be heavy, “Palace Of The People”—with its ringing guitars, surging melody and communal chants—refuses to sound that way.
“Despair is demobilizing,” says Jayaram. “If a song about institutional fragility also sounds like institutional fragility, you’ve given people one more reason to sit down, which is convenient for exactly the wrong people. The music is there to push somebody out of the room with some energy in them. Because there are real things ordinary people can do to protect the palace, and none of them gets done by someone who feels crushed.”
We’re proud to premiere the Calculus’ “Palace Of The People.” Look for the self-released Guides LP on November 18.
—Hobart Rowland
