by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
For a pre-MTV generation, the radio was perhaps the most important medium when it comes to musical discoveries. The sentiments expressed in Queen’s 1984 hit “Radio Ga Ga” weren’t just an artistic exaggeration after all. As the years gone by, not only has the “video killed the radio star”, as finally all streaming services largely replaced both of them. But there’s still a certain magic aura to the days of the radio’s reign. That’s why seeing a title Rock And Roll Radio on the cover of the new Palace album one can’t help feeling a sudden rush of nostalgia. And nostalgia is also a key word for when you put the aforementioned album in your CD player and press “play”, as it’s again a journey back in time that the Swedish multi-instrumentalist Michael Palace offers. For the US and Western European audience, it’s certainly a journey back to the ‘80s. But for those born in post-Communist countries right after the Soviet Union collapsed, it might be actually more of a journey back to the earliest childhood days filled with an unrelenting wave of ‘80s American TV series, action films and music imported into their homeland a several years past their overall prime. Having shared this childhood experience, Hardrock Haven’s Alexandra Mrozowska and Michael Palace sat down to discuss not only the latter’s new album, but also the ‘90s culture, Max Martin’s songwriting assets, the current trends in music and more.
Hardrock Haven: It’s still all things ‘80s that fuel your creativity, so what do you find so inspiring about this decade, in music and beyond? And how did your fascination with the ‘80s started?
Michael Palace: Yes, I love everything about the ‘80s. I love the style, the clothing, the music especially… and I don’t know why, but I’ve just always loved it all. And it seems to me that whatever music I make, it’s always ‘80s-inspired. It all started when I was pretty young, I think, like five years old. I was watching a lot of ‘80s action movies on television, especially Rocky series was my favorite. And I think I’ve loved the ‘80s style ever since. Guess it’s because I grew up in Lithuania and I was born in the ‘90s. After the Soviet Union fell, the Western culture started to come in – but it was a bit delayed, so instead of the ‘90s movies I was watching the ‘80s movies growing up. I think that’s the reason why.
Hardrock Haven: Having been born in Poland in 1991, I definitely know what you mean…
Michael Palace: Yeah, so you know that exactly (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: And probably that’s exactly the reason why we’re here talking tonight! Anyway, alongside all the ‘80s vibe to your music, do you keep track of what’s happening in the music scene right now and do you find newer bands inspiring as well?
Michael Palace: Actually, when I listen to music I only listen to the new bands, ‘cause I like to see what’s happening. And luckily there’s a lot of ‘80s music happening now as well. But I like a lot of modern music too.
Hardrock Haven: And the reason we catch up tonight is your new album coming out on December the 4th. Do you feel satisfied with it, especially having also produced, mixed and mastered the new material?
Michael Palace: Yeah, I feel very happy with how it turned out. It’s the first album that I’m producing and mixing completely on my own, so there’s still some room for improvement for the next album… But I think it’s at least as good as the previous two albums but maybe a little bit different [from them]… Those who liked the previous two albums will enjoy this one, I think.
Hardrock Haven: The new album is titled Rock And Roll Radio. Is the radio as a medium still important to you in any way, as far as we talk musical discoveries for example?
Michael Palace: I only listen to music on Spotify actually – I think it’s good for finding music – but also there’s a lot of small radio channels on the Internet that are really supporting this ‘80s Rock music. So I think they’re really important for helping people discover my kind of music. And Rock has never really died, it’s just changing all the time. Right now you have a lot of Rap artists who go for some Pop Punk ideas and play more in a Rock style… So I think that’s helping a lot actually. If their young fans, who were previously listening only to their Rap stuff, hear the new music that they’re making and just start to look into it and find their inspirations… then they might discover the old ‘80s bands or Rock in general.
Hardrock Haven: That wouldn’t hurt! But as Rock And Roll Radio is your third album released under the moniker of Palace, weren’t you tempted to experiment more with the sound this time around?
Michael Palace: This time around, I tried to take all the best parts of the previous two albums and make an album that’s all the good parts that the fans enjoy. There’s not a lot of experimentation this time, it’s basically more like just trying to make a pure ‘80s Rock album.
Hardrock Haven: But can you imagine yourself introducing some drastically different elements and sounds into Palace in the future?
Michael Palace: That’s not gonna happen with Palace. I really respect my fans who like Palace for a reason, so I don’t wanna change that reason. I’d rather find new fans that also enjoy the style and just keep making cool ‘80s Rock music. I can always just start a different project if I wanna try some new things.
Hardrock Haven: And what was the songwriting process for the album like, and were there any outside collaborators involved in it?
Michael Palace: I’ve written most of the songs myself before I started recording the album, in the span of the last two years. I wrote the other part in a month or something. And the only outside source was a good friend of mine Oscar Bromvall, who co-wrote the songs “Cast Away”, “Way Up Here” and “Hot Steel” with me.
Hardrock Haven: With this strictly ‘80s-inspired, retro sound and lyrics that usually revolve around the topics of love and relationships in this genre, do you feel limited in any way as a songwriter by these genre boundaries?
Michael Palace: They both limit me and help me, because if you don’t have any limits, it’s very hard to decide when you have to create something good. With AOR genre, it’s very easy – if it sounds like an AOR song, you know it’s right. And with lyrics it can be fun actually, because you can write a lot of things using the love metaphors but singing about completely different stuff. It can be a creative challenge and I think it’s kind of fun.
Hardrock Haven: Songwriting is the particular strength of Palace albums. Do you look up to any particular songwriters, can you think of any role models of yours in that respect?
Michael Palace: My favorite songwriter is Max Martin actually. He also started with Rock music [as a founding member and singer of a Swedish Glam/Funk Metal band It’s Alive in the late ‘80s, under the moniker of Martin White]… I really love his sense of melody. He’s always got good hooks in songs and that’s always important for me too – to have at least one part that you can remember from a song.
Hardrock Haven: That’s a generational thing I guess.
Michael Palace: Yeah, I think so. I grew up with Backstreet Boys and NSYNC and I always loved those (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: We can’t escape it. You’re born in a certain era and you’re just exposed to certain things. But anyway, you’ve been a songwriter for other acts even before Palace, so what do you think is the difference between writing for someone else and for your own purposes?
Michael Palace: When you’re writing for someone else, it’s easy, ‘cause you can write about stuff that you haven’t experienced yourself when it comes to lyrics. But I think writing for Palace it has to be something connected to me personally in order for it to feel true, especially while singing. But when I write for others, I try to write as if they wrote the song, so I listen to everything they’ve ever made – as much as possible – and just try to understand what exactly their style is and what they try to say with their music and try to do something similar. I just go with the flow and usually, it works out.
Hardrock Haven: You’re credited as having played and sung “everything” on the album, which is quite a responsibility. Are you comfortable with being a self-made artist in a way? What are the advantages?
Michael Palace: Well, first of all it’s a lot quicker to work this way when you have a whole idea in your head and you can put it down immediately. There are some drawbacks of course too, because when you work alone, you don’t have anyone else to bring their own ideas and sometimes it could be better if you had a lot of people mixed in… But for Palace, I have a very good idea of what it’s supposed to be and I feel comfortable with making ‘80s AOR music. But on the other hand, I don’t really think about all that stuff a lot. I just get up every day in the morning and start writing and working on music, and don’t really think about it that much.
Hardrock Haven: Yet it wasn’t always this way as I believe Palace was more or less a regular band/project back when you released the first album. What did happen to that formula?
Michael Palace: Well, on the first album I had a live band. But the band didn’t really play on the album, they just appeared in the video because my intention was to maybe do some live shows and stuff… But on the album it was Daniel Flores who played the drums while I did the rest – and he also played drums on the second album. But now, when it came down to the third album, I felt I wanted to focus on producing, so I decided to do start producing by doing the solo album myself. I decided just to stick to producing and we’ll see, maybe one day I will be the next Max Martin too (laughs). ‘Cause I love Pop music as well so it’d be fun to do some stuff like that as well.
Hardrock Haven: Hopefully! As you’re a multi-instrumentalist, is there one particular instrument you find the most suitable for you in terms of artistic expression?
Michael Palace: That’s hard to say actually, because I wish I could play the saxophone. But I can’t, ‘cause it’s so loud and I can’t practice it… So I don’t know, maybe it is the saxophone that is my true instrument. But with the ones I can play, it’s definitely the guitar – maybe because I practice it the most.
Hardrock Haven: So was it the guitar that you picked up first?
Michael Palace: It was the guitar indeed. Well, before that I had an electric keyboard, but I think everyone had those when they were kids… so it doesn’t really count. But the guitar came next when I saw the movie “School of Rock” with Jack Black. It really inspired me (laughs) and my grandpa had an acoustic guitar and he showed me three chords to play all the Russian songs – I’m sure you know which ones I mean (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely (laughs).
Michael Palace: So I practiced on the acoustic guitar and maybe one year later I got an electric guitar and decided just to practice every day pretty much for the next eight years or something…
Hardrock Haven: Back to the present, you also collaborated with many different acts in your career not only as a songwriter, but also as a musician, both in the recording studio and on stage. How do you think these experiences shaped you as an artist?
Michael Palace: I think every experience has shaped me somehow. I love to learn new stuff and do my best all the time – as much as possible. It looks like the influence of all those experiences was that I decided to start producing instead of playing live. I played live a lot for a while, but I love the whole creation process more, I think. I’d personally prefer listening to music using good earphones or good speakers rather than going to the live concert.
Hardrock Haven: Among the artists you collaborated with are the likes of Miljenko Matijevic of Steelheart, Jim Jidhed of Alien or Harry Hess of Harem Scarem. Some people say it’s better not to meet your heroes – do you agree?
Michael Palace: Every person I’ve met and worked with was really nice, all of them. The biggest drawback of working with someone so talented like those guys is that you get used to the talent pretty quickly (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: If you could make a dream band with you included in the line-up, who else would be there and why? Or which band is at your wish list as a producer?
Michael Palace: I don’t think I would be in such a band, ‘cause I would like to witness my dream band as an audience member (laughs). As a producer, it’d be very cool to work on a Toto album. It’s one of my favorite bands and I would love to do something that sounds like Toto’s The Seventh One [1988]. That would be cool.
Hardrock Haven: Speaking of all these collaborations under your belt, what do you think your career would be like now if you had never been involved with Frontiers?
Michael Palace: It’s hard to tell, because Frontiers really opened the doors for me with AOR music and if it hadn’t been for Frontiers, maybe I would’ve focused more on making Pop music and being one of these EDM producers touring with a USB stick. I’m not sure… Frontiers is the reason that we’re talking right now, so I’m really grateful for the opportunity they’ve given me.
Hardrock Haven: Are you currently involved in any other projects beyond Palace?
Michael Palace: I have this Synthwave project with an American singer Jordan Cox called Platforms and we released an album earlier this year. It’s an ongoing project – we do some stuff whenever we have time and we have some new music coming out soon too. Besides, I have yet another project called HOLOFLASH, where I make even more ‘80s music – if Palace isn’t ‘80s enough, then you can listen to HOLOFLASH which sounds like really ‘80s music.
Hardrock Haven: These days Synthwave is getting so popular, so do you think it can actually draw the attention of the general, mainstream audience back to the ‘80s sound and consequently, the ‘80s music?
Michael Palace: Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about for a while with Synthwave. I’ve been trying to recommend Synthwave to all my friends who like AOR music, ‘cause I think that a lot of Synthwave producers are a lot more successful in capturing the ‘80s feeling in their music than most AOR bands right now. And as you said, I think Synthwave is becoming very mainstream and it’s very helpful for people to discover the other ‘80s subgenres like AOR and Melodic Rock.
Hardrock Haven: What are your plans related to the new album?
Michael Palace: Well, I’m relying on the record label to do the most of the promotion, and I think they’re doing a very good job since we’re speaking right now. And of course, just usual posts on social media and stuff like that. I mean, the whole AOR crowd is so tight and connected that everyone knows instantly there’s something new coming out. But I hope that I can push some of the stuff from the new album to some of my Synthwave audience that I found with Platforms and help those people discover AOR music, ‘cause there’s a mutual interest between the two fanbases and they should connect.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely, that should work for the sake of both. Any last words?
Michael Palace: You’ve had very good questions, I have to say! Other than that, of course I hope that people will enjoy the new album and I can’t wait to continue making music like this…
