Right before the first European show of the Idols Tour with Yungblud, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the guys from Palaye Royale. What’s their favorite song on the setlist, and what’s it like touring with Yungblud? We asked them.
Strife Mag: I heard this is the first show of the European tour.
Remington: Yeah. We were here a month ago. The weather was so much better!
Strife Mag: How was that show?
Emerson: I love being here. We did two shows in the Netherlands, in the south. Ever since our first show, we’ve always connected with the Dutch crowd.
Remington: We had a little fun with the new album, dedicating it to the beautiful country, the Netherlands.
Strife Mag: That’s so nice! And what do you like most about this country?
Emerson: The architecture and the people. The kindness. And the environment here is really refreshing.
Remington: Everyone’s super kind, and the tulips are amazing. And the stroopwafels go hard.
Strife Mag: Have you played in Amsterdam before? I think like a few times now, right?
Sebastian: Like eight times.
Emerson: Yeah, exactly.
Sebastian: We played Melkweg four times, Paradiso now twice…
Remington: And we were in Tilburg and in Utrecht.
Emerson: Yeah, we love it here.
Strife Mag: So this is your first time playing here in the AFAS Live?
Emerson: Yeah. We’ve always dreamt of coming to AFAS, so it’s a very nice, beautiful day.
Strife Mag: You’re touring with Yungblud now. How is that?
Sebastian: We’ve toured together before. We met during Warped Tour in 2018, then did a tour in 2022 in the States. We’ve just been friends along the way, and it’s nice to see him winning and succeeding. It’s incredible.
Remington: He’s helped bringing back rock.
Strife Mag: Do you notice any difference between Dutch crowds and other countries?
Sebastian: Dutch crowds. Where’s the party? Here’s the party.
Emerson: I’ll wonder if they do that tonight.
Sebastian: Yeah they will.
Emerson: It’s kind of up to the crowd.
Strife Mag: How did you guys put the setlist together for this show?
Emerson: A lot of screaming at each other.
Remington: We only have a certain amount of time on this tour, so we wanted to go in like a freight train from hell and just blow everybody off that stage. It’s gonna be great.
Strife Mag: What’s your favourite song from the setlist?
Emerson: We’re doing Mr. Devil for the first time. I like that one.
Remington: Yeah, Mr. Devil.
Sebastian: You’ll be fine. That’s a good one.
Strife Mag: Are you guys going to crowd-surf tonight?
Remington: Depends on the crowd.
Emerson: For sure.
Strife Mag: It would be ironic, because I think AFAS has a no-crowd-surfing rule.
Sebastian: You know what they say about rules? They were meant to be broken.
Remington: Just like hearts.
(Everyone laughs.)
Strife Mag: What do you hope people will remember about the show tonight?
Emerson: I think the pairing of us and Yungblud is really special. It feels like a generational moment. He’s on his own wave, and we’re fortunate he brought us in. It feels like a significant time for rock and roll to come back. And I think us together is a moment.
Remington: When we first talked to Dom about this tour, he was like it was gonna be very similar to when Black Sabbath took out Motley Crue. It’s going to be wild.
Emerson: We’ll be much more respectful than Motley Crue here though.
Remington: Yeah, we’re not destroying any hotel rooms in your beautiful city.
Strife Mag: Can we expect you to join Yungblud on stage?
Sebastian: I don’t know. Maybe, who knows. We’d love to. That would be very cool!
Remington: Yeah, we’ve always talked about doing a song together at some point.
Strife Mag: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done?
Remington: They do so much for us. They’ve made our dreams come true. They’ve made our lives come true. They’ve also done some pretty crazy stuff, given us crazy gifts. Lately we’ve been getting these beautiful paintings and portraits of us and our mom. It means the world to us. It’s so sweet.
Sebastian: I thought it was a cool story when you needed someone to drive you from Mont Saint-Michel back to Paris.
Emerson: That was when the trains were on strike in France. I reached out and a fan picked me up from Mont Saint-Michel and drove me to Paris.
Strife Mag: How important is that connection with your fans?
Sebastian: That’s what it’s all about. The only reason we have a career is because of them.
Remington: If you don’t have that connection during the show, then go home and listen to the album.
Sebastian: Live music is the most important thing in our lives and that’s given us our whole existence as a band. We’ve always been like the black sheep in the music industry. It’s like things never really go our way, but what has gone our way is our fans. They’re as much the band as we are.
Strife Mag: I’ve been to shows previously. I also see like the lovely interaction between you guys and the audience. And I really like that.
Sebastian: It’s community. Everyone’s accepted the way they are and it’s great.
I think that was a big reason why we love this city so much, we love the Netherlands so much. I think that was the first time in our career that I feel like we really got real, real love from an audience.
Remington: That first show at Melkweg, the small room. I don’t know but it was the most people I’ve ever seen in my life at the time, and they were all singing my lyrics back to me and it put me to tears. That’s when I knew. We owe a lot to the city and to this country.
Sebastian: There’s a lot of first-time shows for us that really stand out… Amsterdam for sure. Prague and London… Bucharest too. Some cities on the first show you’re like, “Oh these people love us — this is so cool.” You feel accepted.
We didn’t know what to expect from the Dutch culture when it comes for a show and then everyone was like “where’s the party?” “here’s the party.” They started going. And we were like okay, and then… for like five minutes everyone’s jamming on “where is the party, here’s the party.”
Then we were at Pukkelpop and Remington started doing “where is the party, here’s the party.” We thought we were in the Netherlands but we were in Belgium. And I’m like why isn’t this working? He just says “where’s the party?” and everyone’s just like “I don’t know. Where? You tell us.”
They didn’t get it. But Dutch crowds are great and always will be. Forever grateful.
Emerson: I’m not trying again hahaha.
Strife Mag: Which city are you most looking forward to playing?
Remington: Amsterdam baby!
Sebastian: Amsterdam, Prague.
Remington: Prague, Paris. Paris is always amazing. Honestly every city in Europe.
Emerson: Ofcourse Amsterdam!
Curious to see how the night looked through our lens? Check out the concert review here.
