The German metal scene is enormous, so it’s always nice to pluck a new (to us) act out from within and throw them in your direction…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Maria: Hi! We are from Berlin, Germany. Actually we were all born there.
How did you meet?
Johannes: Manuel and I met when I was searching a new guitarist for a former band of mine. I actually asked him because I knew his old band had just split up. We’ve been in a couple of bands together from that moment on and it happened that Maria was recording a feature vocal part on one of the band’s songs. Manuel met her during the recording process and eventually this band also came to an end, so that I indulged him to find a vocalist for a new project, as there were so many instrumentals lying around that he had written. When we couldn’t find a vocalist for that project, we were originally looking for a male singer/shouter, Manuel remembered Maria and asked her. So they started to work on what later became the first Future Palace tracks.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Manuel: It must have been around middle to late 2018 that we started to work on the project. Our first gigs were in summer 2019.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Maria: We were thinking about a band name for quite a while and Manuel had named our personal WhatsApp group Future Palace because he liked the word palace. That was after being in London for a while where there are quite a few palaces. So in the end we just chose the name of the WhatsApp group as our band name.
What are your influences?
Manuel: Our influences aside from the musical ones are definitely located within social relationships and experiencing situations outside of what one could call everyday life. On the one hand there are depression and domestic violence in relationships that heavily influence the lyrics Maria is writing, and on the other hand there are travels, all kinds of art and architecture as well as social moments that surprise, mostly also upset and inspire me to write an instrumental or sometimes even lyrics. But the lyric department is actually more Maria’s terrain. Other than that, we are always searching for music that speaks to us. Could be anything from metal to psychedelic funk or acoustic pop.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Johannes: One indicator that our music appears unique to us is that we can’t pinpoint which genre we’re actually in and which bands might sound the same. Saying our music is a wild blend of different styles such as rock, pop, post-hardcore, soul and electronic 80s tunes is probably just one part of why we actually enjoy our music and think others might as well be attracted to. The sonic part of it is without a question of major significance, yet the lyrics and the way they go together with the music and how Maria is singing them deliver what we like.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Maria: I mainly just write about life experiences I’ve made. The easiest and most effective type of lyrics for me to write is in first person form, in which I talk about how I feel, or felt, in certain situations of my life. I like using metaphors to visualise certain emotions better. All in all, I am really open towards topics/themes, but it needs to be authentic.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Manuel: We’ve now played around 10 shows in Germany and for people who see us play live we want to deliver the same emotional state that we were in when writing and playing the songs, taking them on a journey through our past experiences. There are many highly energetic up-moments to it and an overall ambient, lush vibe to accomplish it as well.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Johannes: In my early days I often played on punk shows. Apart from playing naked from time to time, I remember one time when the band playing after us just didn’t want to stop their show after playing the same song again and again. I then started to pack my drum kit they were using on stage and got all the boos from the crowd.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Manuel: I currently play a Warmoth Superstrat that I put together myself with a Fender neck and a Bare Knuckle Warpig pickup through my Kemper profiler amp. I’m also using a Shure wireless system and Ernie Ball strings – pretty simple set up.
Johannes: I play a Tama Superstar Hyperdrive Custom Kit and mainly Paiste Cymbals, along with some no name ones I found on flea markets or the web. My snare is a real beast, it’s a 14×8 Pearl Signature Vinnie Paul Snare.
Maria: I use a Shure SM58 live, which is probably the most known and used live mic. I pimped it up with some fancy reflective self-adhesive foil.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Maria: We’re currently promoting the release of our debut album Escape, that is released via Arising Empire which is a huge thing for us. Working on it has been a great experience and we’re so happy to share it.
What are your plans for the rest of 2020?
Johannes: Mainly the rest of 2020 is going to be about promoting the album release and getting ready for our first headline tour in Germany in January and February 2021. We’ll also go on a big EU tour supporting Annisokay in March, April and May afterwards. So preparing for those shows as well as working on new music is what we are going to do, apart from spreading the word about our new album ESCAPE.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Manuel: We’d definitely love to open for Bring Me The Horizon and take a band called Defences from the UK with us on tour. That would be a cool line up.
