Palisades

The Next Chapter

Interview by Ken Morton Band Photo by Travis Shinn

New Jersey rock powerhouse Palisades are back with a vengeance and has released their new single and music video My Consequences via Rise Records. After weathering life’s storms of losing loved ones and band lineup changes, My Consequences is the first track with their new singer (formerly bassist) Brandon Elgar. Their first recording since the 2018 full length Erase The Pain, My Consequences signifies an epic new chapter in the legacy of Palisades. Highwire Daze recently caught up with Brandon Elgar via Zoom to discuss My Consequences and the ongoing sonic adventures of Palisades. Read on...

How surprised were you, first of all, to find out that Lou was leaving the band and that you were going to be the new lead singer?

It kind of just came out of nowhere. Honestly, we weren’t really planning on it happening. We did a couple of tours without Lou because he was having some problems with his hearing and with his throat and stuff. So we wanted to just give him a little break. We didn’t want to drop the tours because we wanted to still be able to go out and make some money for the holiday season and all that stuff. And then, it kind of just happened out of nowhere. We got back and kind of just all sat down and we just decided it probably just be best to just keep it this way, keep it as a four piece. That’s what we decided to do. And obviously, everything with Lou is still great. He wanted to actually step away from this as well. He’s been working on his graphic art and stuff like that.

So it was definitely like a mutual agreement on everything,

and that’s why we’re all still good friends with each other and everything. So yeah, it’s been a good transition in everything, but it’s still been like nerve-racking for sure, trying to grasp on everything - to new music and all that stuff.

How nervous are you about replacing a long-running vocalist in a band that’s been around for a while?

Honestly, I’ve been a vocalist all my life. I’ve been singing since I was like 13, I’m self-taught and everything. I’ve been the lead vocalist in pretty much all my other bands that I’ve ever been a part of. So, this is actually like the first band that I’ve ever been a bass player for, and I was still doing some backup vocals here and there, throughout being in Palisades. It’s been fine for me, it’s like just going into the lead role and just put my own flair on things and see how it goes. It’s been great so far. It’s been a great response with everything.

behind it?

That song, it’s based on a depression period I had a couple of years ago. I was basically waking up every day and just like-- as soon as I woke up, I would just start sobbing because I just knew how terrible the day was going to be. And like at the time, I was just in a dark place, and I kind of just got to a point where I just wanted to run away and just not be found or anything like that. Hence, the line from that song, “I’ll cover me up, I’ll soak in Lime.” That means like people use lime to hide the smell of deteriorating like carcasses or corpses. So basically, I’m like saying that in a way, I want to be soaked in lime so that way, nobody finds me. I want to be left alone type of thing. But it’s also about breaking out of that depression, knowing that there’s more to this life than all the shitty things that get thrown at us. Yeah, it’s basically just about dealing with your shit and breaking through it and really just hitting a high point that we all need.

Let’s talk about the first new single, My Consequences. Tell me about that song, and what was the inspiration Will there be a new Palisades album, or EP, or singles

coming out soon on?

There’s definitely a lot in the works right now. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say certain things. But I will say that we definitely have more stuff coming. We have music.

What was it like recording new music and writing new music in the middle of a pandemic? And how did that affect everything with Palisades?

Obviously, the pandemic has been terrible for a lot of people, a lot of bands, a lot of, like anybody, everybody. It’s been terrible for everyone. But we definitely used it to where, since we couldn’t go anywhere, we figured, we were like, “You know what? Let’s just sit down, just write some music and everything.” And that’s what we did for a whole year. We just wrote and wrote and wrote. The recording process was great. Keith was great. We love working with him. He is very welcoming to us and everything, and he really enjoyed what we had. With My Consequences, he definitely put in his flare here and there but he was-- him and Zakk Cervini were just great to work with and definitely made us feel at home. We got to go out to LA for that too. We definitely used the pandemic for a lot of writing, which was good. I think it definitely helped us be able to find a little bit more of what we wanted to do and the direction that we wanted to go. It definitely worked out for us in the end. Even though it’s still happening. COVID is still here - but we definitely used it the best we could.

Your previous album Erase The Pain was released in 2018. It’s now 2022. How frustrating has it been to wait so long to even release new music?

(Laughs) Let me tell you. For me, especially, it’s been very, very hard just because it’s like--yeah, it’s been, what? Four years? Yeah, it’s been four years. I have been very impatient myself, and it’s even thrown me in the loop of like my own mental capacity and everything. And especially with COVID hitting, everything. I ended up getting diagnosed with agoraphobia, disassocative disorders, chronic anxiety stuff. Just going from Erase The Pain to touring and then to absolutely nothing. It definitely has taken a toll on me. And it’s definitely taking a toll on the whole band as well. Everybody’s been going through their own personal vendettas and everything like that.

For me, personally, I have been very impatient. So, just releasing My Consequences was such a huge step for me, just because it finally felt like we weren’t in the dark anymore. People have been waiting so long for this music. And now, we were like finally able to give people a taste of it. It’s been definitely a breath of fresh air ever since Erase The Pain and to now having to finally release something. But yeah, it’s been a long four years. I’ll give you that, for sure.

I also found some covers that you did online.

Oh, no.

You cover Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes. I want to know, did any of their fans ever comment on your covers?

Any of like the Bieber fans or anything like that?

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, of course, definitely got some comments on it. I’ve had comments from people, saying-- like, even from like when I tried out for Woe Is Me a long time ago, saying like, “Wow, it’s great!” Like, “I’ve been listening to you since your try out for Woe Is Me and all this stuff.” These are comments from everybody. But oh my gosh, I can’t believe I still even have those covers up, man. I get so embarrassed anytime people bring them up. I feel like they could be so much better now that I’m like looking back at them. Yeah, there’s a lot of interesting covers on my page. I definitely need to manage that. (laughs) I mean, I do love Bieber, don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge Bieber fan. But it’s just like, looking back on that cover, I’m just like, “Oh, gosh. No. I could have done so much better.”

What do you hope this new year brings for you and for Palisades?

This year, I’m definitely pushing for touring, 100%. We haven’t toured since November of 2019. So that is my number one goal, is to definitely tour, and we are definitely in the works of getting that set up and everything right now. It’s the whole waiting game right now. Yeah, getting tours, playing all the other festivals this year. And obviously, I really want to start doing like ampitheaters and even Arenas too Areans are like the goals, for sure, for this band. We’ve always wanted to do a Arenas and see what it would be like, that big of a stage and just having that opportunity as well. Definitely, just doing that, getting on the radio, doing a lot bigger things that we never really thought we could do, but we feel that we have the potential now to do.

Do you have any messages for Palisades fans who are really in this right now?

Just be ready. I think a lot of people are going to be very surprised for what we have coming, especially music-wise. I just hope that everybody enjoys it as much as we do and are ready to connect with us on a whole different level that we haven’t really touched base on. And we still love everybody, we still welcome everybody, and definitely can’t wait to see everybody this year.

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