Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
With a new record coming 6 September, Arising Empire’s Future Palace are on the fast track to post-hardcore superstardom! While the world waits for the release of Distortion, take a minute to check out our interview with the band’s guitarist Manuel Kohlert below, where we discuss the new record, the band’s influences and the future of Future Palace.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! Congrats on the upcoming release of Distortion! What should our readers know about Future Palace, your history, your sound and your mission?
Thanks so much for having us! Future Palace is us three, Maria on Vocals, Johannes on Drums and me, Manuel, on guitar. We formed in late 2018 and since then it’s been a wild ride with many big tours all over Europe, two albums so far and the third one coming out on September 6 this year. We’re very stoked! I’d say we play Modern Metal music with a lot of pop and electro influences. We love hooks, that’s for sure! In our songs mainly problems with mental health and social relationships are addressed, as with music itself talking about these topics and spreading awareness is very important to us.
Let’s talk a little bit about the upcoming record and how it came into existence. What was going on at the time that helped kickstart and inspire the songwriting process?
From the instrumental side I can say that for me heavy touring and finding myself in a spot where I have to decide between careers has been a major influence to write songs. As with all our songs they mostly stem from suffering in the past or in the present and hoping for a better future. We give everything to grow as a band, sometimes you make choices that are hard, but they are worth it.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?
We always listen to the big names in the business, like Bad Omens, Bring Me The Horizon, and so many more music genres. For me with music it’s never a question of going in a certain direction because others do it. I actively listened to Hard Techno as I never dived into this genre, but I also tried Italian pop music. It just mixes in my head and when writing music it flows out. This time it was cool trying new synthesizers or first time writing with a 7 string guitar while sitting in my home studio.
What going on in the scene that “femme-fronted” post-hardcore is finally seeming to get the acceptance and mainstream attention it deserved for so long? In light of the way the world seems to be moving backward, do you believe we will ever get to a point where “femme-fronted” is used as a descriptor when we really should just be calling bands like Scowl, Escuela Grind and Future Palace hardcore?
A factor that we see a lot in Metal, especially when playing festivals, is that women on stage in general are a minority. Not only on the mic but also playing instruments. A factor could be that the environment is and appears still not very open to women. During our career we experienced that women are not taken into consideration as much as men when planning things for example. So there is still a lot to do. Categorizations might change but what should change is how people act.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
I’m deeply in love with Dorian Electra at the moment, very inspirational! That’s Hyper Pop. I also love Aya Nakamura, French Pop. And for Metal my last discovery was Archers.
What’s next for Future Palace?
Festivals! We love playing them and this year it’s our first summer with many big ones like Wacken for example. After that our album comes out in September and then we head out on our big European tour. That’s going to be great.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
See you on tour! We enjoy shows so much, can’t wait to play another one right now!
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
