How much do fashion and makeup play into your band identity?

Remington: The reason I started using makeup was because I used it as a mask. Growing up, I hated the way I looked. I was never confident. For the longest time, Makeup helped me hide. It was my little shield. I’ll always be thankful for that. Now I use it more sparsely, because I’m learning to be more confident in my own skin. But I still have a huge love for makeup and what it has done for me.

Emerson: It started as a way to hide and then became armor. When you put on your outfit and makeup for the night, especially on stage, you can get more androgynous and experimental. It becomes fun and makes you feel untouchable.

Sebastian: Clothing is such a form of expression. You don’t have to say a word, and it still gives off a vibe. People identify you by what you wear. It’s a presentation of who you are.

We love your stage looks, where do you draw your visual inspiration from?

Emerson: Old cinema, we love movies from the 1920s, and the UK dandy style. I love the suit cuts, that vintage aesthetic. Our mom showed us people like Johnny Thunders, Sid Vicious, and Jim Morrison, so it’s a mix of classic fashion and rock and roll.

Remington: I’ve always leaned toward grunge. The 1990s are my favorite era for styling. But it changes every year, and that’s what makes it exciting. Your taste evolves. You try things that might not work, but that’s fine. It’s all about having fun with it.

Being three brothers, how do your personalities balance or clash when you’re creating music together?

Remington: Oh my God, it’s a fucking headache. We all want the same thing, but we don’t always agree on how to get there. It’s like three roads heading to the same place, we just each think ours is the best way.

Sebastian, being the eldest sibling in the band, do you ever feel the weight of keeping everyone together, both on and off stage?

Sebastian: Absolutely. It feels like my duty to hold it all together. If I fall, it affects everything. The band is like a tripod: each leg is equally important. Without all three of us, there’s no Palaye Royale.

Remington, your voice takes a lot of strain with such an intense style of music. How do you train and take care of it and what do you do to recharge between shows?

Remington: I don’t believe in giving less than 100 percent during a show. Life is unpredictable. Things happen, people die and I never want to regret being on stage and not giving everything. My body and voice adapt to whatever condition I’m in. I’ve been taking better care of myself and partying a lot less, which made a huge difference. If I still lived the way I did five years ago, I couldn’t even walk on stage. The most important thing to me is putting on the best show and music possible. I’m never going to jeopardize that.

Emerson, we know you’re really into drawing and visual art. How does spending time on your own art and drawing help you recharge when you’re on tour?

Emerson: Art has always been my refuge and therapy. It’s part of my identity. Even my personal work often reflects the band. It’s evolved into our graphic novel series, but honestly, I wouldn’t know how to breathe without creating. That’s how our mother raised us. She was brilliant.

You’re currently on tour with Yungblud, what’s the vibe been like so far?

Remington: It’s just pure fun and rock and roll. By the end, everyone is exhausted – but in a good way. Honestly, it’s a workout for the fans too. I make them move a lot and then Yungblud comes on and does it for another hour and a half. It’s like a rock and roll cardio session.

If you could collaborate with any artist – visually or musically – who would it be and why?

Sebastian: Bowie would have been incredible. Lou Reed would have been amazing too

Emerson: The Doors are my favorite band ever. But I would just watch. I don’t think I would participate.

Remington: Chris Cornell had one of the greatest voices of all time; I would have loved to work with him. Among artists still alive, Eddie Vedder. He’s the man.

Are there songs from your early days that still hit you hard or make it into your set?

All: Yes, definitely.

Remington: We have so much material now. We’re five or six albums in, and we can’t put on a seven-hour show.

Sebastian: We could.

Remington: Yeah, I’m not doing that. But it’s interesting trying to pick our favorites, because the last thing we want to do is alienate the fans who’ve been with us from the beginning, or the new fans who discovered us in the past year. We’re always trying to find that balance.

Sebastian: If there was one song?

Emerson: I love Oblivion.

Sebastian: How Do You Do from our first album Boom Boom Room Side A was great. Also Dying in a Hot Tub from Side B is a song that’s always stayed true.

Emerson: Lyrically, every time I hear it, I remember where we were then.

Remington: It’s funny because I recently listened to Side A again and thought, Sick Boy Soldier – what a great song. But then there are other songs where I think, what the hell were we doing?

Which songs?

Remington: The entire EP The Ends Beginning was just a mess.

Sebastian: We were discovering ourselves as human beings.

Remington: There are like 14 different melodies in one song, it’s ridiculous.

Sebastian: We’d get bored of a part after 30 seconds and move to another one, even if it didn’t make sense in the groove of the song. But overall, Dying in a Hot Tub is still beautiful. It’s phenomenal.

Remington: Honestly, it’s funny because I admire us for trying so many different things.

Sebastian: That was art at its finest.

Remington: It was like creating a meal for dinner and deciding to have an Indian side dish, then Italian, then Greek – we were trying everything.

Sebastian: We were kids then. We had just come out of our earlier days of music. I think we were 19, 17, and 15 when we recorded that. Doing drugs for the first time, drinking for the first time. We finally had the freedom to do whatever we wanted, which was to play music.

What do you want your fans to take away from seeing you live right now?

Emerson: A sense of warmth and identity. Everyone needs a place to exist, and if that’s with us, we love you for it.

Remington: The world is pretty messed up and everyone’s fighting their own battles. If we can give someone a break from that for an hour and a half, to just enjoy music, feel something, and have fun. That means everything to us.

TALENT: Palaye Royale

EDITOR: Mavie Sellere

FOTOS: Palaye Royale, Jonathan Tschaikowski