No one would accuse Palaye Royale of not being theatrical, but the band turned up the drama to 11 on their new album, Fever Dream.
Each of the record’s 15 tracks feels like its own mini apocalypse, with the crescendo of the music providing the soundtrack to a world beginning and ending. That bombastic sound was created through a true collaboration between the three Palaye Royale brothers: lead vocalist Remington Leith, guitarist Sebastian Danzig and drummer Emerson Barrett.
Speaking to ABC Audio, Danzig shares that each Fever Dream song contained a “third of each of us” instead of “having a track that’s more Remington-driven or a track that’s more Emerson or myself-driven.”
“This was the first time we really had that opportunity,” Danzig says.
That apocalyptic music is matched by Leith’s singing, who felt it was “so important” to “push myself vocally on this record.”
“I wanted to try stuff I’ve never tried before,” Leith says. “Go to higher and higher notes, go to lower notes, hit falsettos, do something I’m not used to, vocally.”
Fever Dream also provided another first for Palaye Royale, lyrically and tonally.
“There’s so much dark undertones to everything that we do, but I think this is the first time we’ve ever been more hopeful,” Danzig explains. “There is a light at the end of it all, and there’s a little bit of hope that we have instilled in it.”
Leith feels Fever Dream reflects his own personal journey toward “self-realization” that he experienced while writing and recording it. He points to a lyric from the song “Oblivion” as being especially representative of the album.
“There’s a lyric that says, ‘I’m in between the best and worst of me,'” Leith says. “That kinda sums up the perfect lyric for the record.”
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