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One of the hottest new rock bands, Palaye Royale, finally came to our country, and set fire to the Athenian audience from the stage of Gagarin 2023 on March 12 and 13, 2023, with the second concert marking the last sold-out gig of their tour.

With over half a billion (!) streams until now and songs like “Lonely”, “Mr Doctor Man”, “Dying in a Hot Tub”, “Tonight Is The Night I Die”, “No Love in LA”, “Fever Dream”, “Broken”, “Oblivion” the group from Las Vegas is rightfully among the most promising bands of new rock music.

Anyone who has watched them live, realizes that the hype around their name is completely justified: the seductive persona of their frontman Remington Leith and the inexhaustible energy of their concerts, where they become one with the “army” of their devoted fans, the so-called “Soldiers of the Royal Council”, show that Palaye Royale are now ready for very big things.

Remington Leith looks like a singer straight out of the “golden pages” of rock mythology, as he moves with supreme comfort on stage and as a real rock star with an explosive attitude, which often finds him hanging from the bars of the venues!

Palaye Royale’s appearance at Gagarin took place as part of their European tour for their new, fourth album “Fever Dream”, which was produced by Grammy nominee Chris Greatti (Yungblud, Willow).

Shortly before the sold-out performance of Palaye Royale, Emerson Barrett granted SounDarts.gr an exclusive interview with all the material!

As can be heard in the introduction of their concerts: “the ceremony is about to begin…”

Hello Emerson and welcome to SounDarts.gr! Thank you in advance for this interview and for your time!

So, you are about to perform at Gagarin 205 in front of the Greek audience who showed you its love with a sold-out gig! How do you feel about it?

It’s really exciting, like, coming to countries and cities for the first time that we’ve never been to, and having such a warm reception. It means the world to us. We’re very grateful and the Greek fans are absolutely lovely. So happy to be here!

What should we expect from this show?

Just absolute madness and chaos! It’s the last show of this tour, so we’re all a bit tired, but since this is the last one, we’ll give all that we got.

What have you heard about Greece and your audience here?

I mean, other than things I’ve read and seen online, I just know that they’re super supportive and incredible people. But as for the culture of Greece, I love the architecture. I went to the Acropolis yesterday. I think it was built in 450 BC or something like that and just being around that deep seated architecture and history, I don’t know, it does something to your soul. It ignites the fire. “Troy” is one of my favorite movies and it takes place, obviously, in Greece.

As you said you have already been in Athens for a few days. Apart from the Acropolis, what have you managed to see, do or taste so far here in Athens?

We’ve had some incredible Greek food. But what I enjoy the most is the architecture. Just seeing all these different sites. We’ll be here till the 17th, so I plan on seeing more of Greece than just like, being in a rush. But who knows? Maybe one day we’ll get a house in Greece and move here. It seems lovely!!

You have already grown a fanatical fanbase called “Soldiers of the Royal council”. How do you interact with your audience? What do they mean to you?

I think the Royal Council has always been a community that we’ve strived our whole existence to build. And within the last couple of years, it’s been coming to fruition. Just to have so many friendly faces and actual friends around the world that we can all take care of one another and support each other and build a community that thrives off of creativity and music, artistry, imagination and friendship. It’s a lovely thing to have a family.

Most of the songs on your latest album, “Fever Dream”, are based on emotions. What is the frame of mind of Palaye Royale? What is the statement you want to make through them?

I think the band has always been an art project where we don’t feel bound by genre or even career choices, really. It’s more just like leaving a lasting impression of creative expression is very important to us. And if that’s through any means music, poetry, artwork, fashion, makeup, stuff like that. But the album “Fever Dream”, we made it in the pandemic. And that was the first time since “Boom Boom Room” that we had the opportunity to not be on tour and just really focus on making a piece of art and music. We spent about a year and a half making it. Through that course, obviously, everyone was very confused about the state of the world. So it was kind of inevitable that heavy emotions were poured into that. Almost like the title “Fever Dream” came about because it’s like we felt we were in this perpetual dream of is it a nightmare or is it hallucination or is it heaven?

Recently you chose to cover “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles, which is one the best covers of this song I’ve ever heard so far. Why did you choose to cover this one?

That was Remington’s choice, actually. He had a dream one night and he woke up and he was like, “we’re fucking doing this! We have to do this!”. So I’m happy that that did come to be and thank you for your kind compliment.

Another Palaye Royale that I love is “Oblivion” from your “Fever Dream” album. What’s the story behind that song?

“Oblivion” was formed from an Alister song, which is like a soundtrack side project that I have for the graphic novels that I make and I like to score it. But I made this song called “Death Note” that we just recently released on Royalcouncil.com, and that’s like a longer version of it. Then I showed it to the boys and I had Remington sing on it and our producer, Chris Greatti and Sebastian, they loved it. There was, a very specific part in it that we kind of grew up on and from that “Oblivion” came to be. To me, that’s one of my favorite Palaye songs we’ve ever created. You’ll see it tonight. If you watch the show, there’s just this moment of absolute emotions. It all builds up to that moment and it’s just piano and vocals. It’s very special.

You are the digest of “diverse”! Without following the standards of time, you have managed to spread your music in an impressive way. How do you feel about that?

Well, thank you for the compliment. I think we don’t know anything different, really. We’re not choosing to not follow a mold. We just don’t know how to. So I think it’s a very important thing and that goes for anyone in any career, in any field in life. If you feel this absolute desire within your soul to express something, fuck the world, you express it and you take whatever you need to do to get there. Because there’s a burning desire, passion and consciousness within all of us and if you tap into it, you can achieve whatever you want in this life.

Was that the band’s motivation just before you broke through in the music industry? 

I think just the prospect of creation. What a beautiful gift that we have. Consciousness. It’s a paradox. Like, we’re using our brains to understand our brains, and we make beautiful things in the process, from architecture to music to poetry to fucking war. I think it just started with us just falling in love with creation, and still to this day, I’m absolutely obsessed with it. I spend every waking moment I can creating as much as I can.

What are your future plans since it’s the last show tonight, right, for your tour?

Yeah, tonight’s the last one. Well, since we’ve been on tour for three months, we’re all fucking tired. I’m going to go to Rome for a couple of days, and then I’m moving to Margate, UK, which I told you, I packed up my house in LA before this tour. So now I’m moving to the UK for a little bit and then Prague for a couple of weeks. Then we go back on tour and we’re doing festivals and some in between shows. After that, in the process of my three months off, we have two new graphic novels coming out, on which I’m working on. I’m working on my own book, another album for the band, and then another classical album.

What’s your motto in life?

Interview: Theodore Kolliopoulos

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