PALACE bring their beautiful brand of haunting indie rock to Voodoo, Belfast, on April 13. It’s the band’s first official visit to this part of the world and frontman Leo Wyndham tells me that this Northern Ireland debut is well over due.
“We can’t wait to play in Belfast, the whole band are buzzing about it and it’s actually my first time setting foot in any part of Ireland so I’m particularly looking forward to getting over, meeting people, taking a stroll around and of course playing the show. I’ve always heard great things about the audiences over there and how loud and passionate they are, so it will be a real high I’m sure to experience it first hand.”
Palace’s music is atmospheric, cinematic and at times downright eerie. If I had to pinpoint similarities it would be difficult not to include Jeff Buckley, Editors, Foals and early Coldplay on the shortlist. However the band do possess a very strong individual sound and their debut album, So Long Forever, is a seriously laudable piece of work.
The songs are pure, proud and evocative and it’s clear that Palace are making music for themselves first and foremost. There is no rush to find a commercial chorus or a set of compromising chords.
Stand out tracks such as Fire In The Sky, Have Faith and Bitter have been grown organically, are based on emotion and perfectly sum up the band’s creative ethos.
“We really do write what we feel and what just comes out of us you know,” remarks Leo. “We’re not trying to fit in with what’s going on in the charts or anything like that. When we write we let the songs take control of us rather than the other way round and rather than trying to force something into a certain shape. Each song takes on its own identity and we never set out with the intention of structuring it in a particular way."
That slightly free-form feel to Palace’s creative process obviously suits them and another thing I take from their output is that one can actually hear ‘the band’ on the record as opposed to a multitude of overdubs and individual performances. In a world driven by Pro Tools and Autotune, this is a refreshing outlook.
“We totally record as a band and I personally just couldn’t envisage it any other way. I think it gets the best out of us and should really for most bands. I would never want to be in one of those scenarios that some acts have where the drummer goes in one night and does his bits while the bass player is in the pub and then the guitar player rolls in the next day – and eventually it all gets clipped together. No way.
"I hope we capture our live sound on our records because that’s something we feel very strongly about."
Investigate Palace’s live sound for yourself on April 13 – tickets are £10 plus booking fee.
