US electronic/post-hardcore band Palisades are set to release their latest album Palisades on January 20. Ahead of the release, we caught up with bassist/vocalist Brandon Elgar for a chat about the album, life on the road and horror movies.
Your self-titled album comes out on January 20, are you excited for people to hear it?
We can’t even begin to describe how excited we are for everyone to hear this album. We put so much passion and heart into it and can’t wait to connect with the fans on an even more personal level.
The album, which is fab by the way, has a more mature feel to it in comparison to your previous work and it also feels like you have truly found your sound. Do you think that you have found the best route for Palisades to go down?
We all definitely think that this is the best route for Palisades. We all came together as one and agreed that this style of music is how we want to express our true selves and creativity as artists and human beings.
Why did you decide to call the album Palisades?
We decided to make this a self titled album because we wanted to make a clear statement that this is who we are now. This is a brand new book for Palisades. Not a chapter. We have no features on this album. No gimmicks. It’s just our true colors. And we want to welcome everyone to be a part of it.
The record comes almost two years to the day you released previous full length Mind Games, that has been a lot of time to work on the record, well when you had time off from touring! Do you think the long period helped or hindered the writing and recording process? I know some artists find that if there is a long period between records, they start to doubt whether the tracks are good enough. Did that happen to you?
I personally think that the amount of time between the albums has helped! We toured non-stop, added some new faces to the band and we also were still figuring out which direction we wanted this band to take. We stayed heavy hearted throughout the process and were able to still pull off creating an album that each of us believe in 100%.
Do you have a favourite track on the record? If so, which one and why?
For me, my favorite track is gonna have to be Cold Heart(Warm Blood). This song just represents a lot of personal things that reflect my life, then & now. It’s emotional but very honest and it’s a song I believe a lot of others can relate to.
Towards the end of 2016, you came over to the UK for a run with Eskimo Callboy, what was that like?
The tour with Eskimo Callboy was absolutely incredible. We had the chance to play in front of 500 to 2,000 people a night. Everyone on the tour was so amazing. It was definitely one of the most memorable tours I’ve ever been on and I can’t wait to go back.
You seem to have spent most of the last couple of years on the road, does touring ever get boring for you when it’s almost constant?
Being on the road is never boring in our eyes. We always keep ourselves busy with promoting, meeting fans, etc. The only down time we really have is when we travel to the next city. But even then we sometimes stop at famous attractions or our favorite food spots that we know of which is just a bonus to our experience of being in a touring band.
Do you have any plans to come back to the UK soon?
As of right now we don’t have anything planned but we are hoping to come back at least once or twice within the year of 2017. The UK. always treats us well so we’re doing everything we can to make it back.
What are your plans for 2017?
Of course our album is coming out January 20th which we are all excited about. And on the same day we’re actually starting a east coast tour with Lacey Sturm (Original Flyleaf Vocalist). We’re also planning on making some music videos for the new album. Still a lot more in the works but I don’t think I’m able to spill the beans just yet.
We always like to end our interviews with some random questions;
Do you have any new year’s resolutions?
My New Years resolution is to just make this year even better than last year. I got to experience so much the first year of being in this band so I’m just going to continue working hard and getting to where I want to be as an artist and as a person.
What is your favourite horror movie?
Evil Dead. Hands down. It’s a classic and plus the newest one was just so gruesome and had an amazing plot to it. It even included things from the older movies that not a lot of people have picked up on so it’s always great when things like that happen.
If you could have written any song in history, which would it be?
Oh man there’s so many songs out there that have just changed the game in so many ways. If I had to pick one though, I’d probably have to choose “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic! at the Disco. That song was one of the biggest of its time and Brendon Urie is one of my highest inspirations as a singer and a lyrical writer.
You can pre-order Palisades here.