Perth Voice Interactive

WITH a new name, new song, and a buzz building around them, Battle of the Bands winners VACATE PALACE are lining up the gigs and ready to reach new goals. Frontman Bon, bassist Oscar, drummer Seb, and lead guitarist Cuba sat down with KIRSTY LICH to talk about their single McHorns and what to expect from the avant-garde indie punksters. 

FORMED as The Supremacists in 2022, a name change to Vacate Palace came when bassist Oscar joined the then-trio, both becoming a perfect fit for the band.

Frontman Bon says the original name came out of a joke rivalry between their north and south-of-the-river friends, but Oscar’s recruitment threw a spanner in the works.

“We all live north of the river, but Oscar lived south of the river at the time… we were just really struggling for names, three little boys in Cuba’s garage.” 

Drummer Seb adds that they took the single name Vacate for a while, but as the band evolved it became a staging post.

“It was great, to us, it was a sort of getaway, something different,” he said.

“As we grew up and became a little more self-aware, we thought it was a bit corny and didn’t really fit who we wanted to be in the future.

“We spent a lot of time pondering, we knew we wanted to keep our original roots. We decided on Vacate Palace. 

”It was open to interpretation and unique, we liked it in that way.”

Bon says the new name had echoes of the famed Crystal Palace built to house the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

“A palace is something grand, large, the boys agreed.

“It foreshadowed what we wanted to be… everything has connotations to it nowadays, a palace is grand but sleek – it’s us.”

Bon says creativity rather than box-ticking drives their writing.

Rather than having our song choices and lyrics try to fit into a certain aesthetic or genre of music, we try to get a huge range to really push and extend ourselves and ability as a band. 

“It displays so many different things, and really what we are capable of. 

“[Originality] comes sort of comes naturally to us.

When we are doing things, it’s not like we are actively thinking ‘how can we do this like no one else is doing it’.

“We enjoy being unique, but the thought process is definitely not only to be original but just to be ourselves and extract things from our influences.” 

Oscar says the band is, “a democracy, a creative conversation in the sense that we are all talking about what we want to do and who we want to be, nothing too structured, we let things happen when they happen”.

The new single Mc Horns was recently released, based on a clip Bon had stored away in his voice memos.

“One afternoon we were messing around at Oscar’s house on an old keyboard; it had this horn effect,” Bon said.

“I remember thinking it sounded so strange but would have the capacity to be cool.

“A few months later we started rehearsing as a band and formed it all together, added some catchy and fun lyrics.

Lead guitarist Cuba says the recording process was unique.

“If you listen closely the drums are actually majorly over-dubbed with electric drums, which is influenced by [American rockers] Turnstile.

Master

“It was recorded with Michael Jelinek who mastered a lot of the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – he is quite a master in the domain of music creation.”

Vacate Palace held their single launch at the YMCA (Y) HQ in Leederville.

“The experience was honestly great, and it was interesting to see returning faces from even our last headliner in December last year,” Oscar says.

“It almost felt like we were building a fan base from all our other gigs, it’s so nice to see some familiar faces come around, and enjoy seeing us play.

“It was so awesome to sell out for McHorns”. 

Bon says hearing that they sold out the gig was really satisfying and a justification of the work they did pushing the gig.

“It’s just a little crazy; not so much a dream but something that’s always on the agenda, to try and sell out, do as well as we think we can.”

Cuba says there was a bit of a scramble leading up to the gig, as a couple of members had been away and they needed a bit of polishing.

“We were rehearsing for around four to five hours every day, minimum, before the headliner.

“We knew we had sold out, but when the curtains opened and we saw the masses of people jammed in the gig space, it was sort of like ‘wow’.

Seb said the Y was the vital step in getting them playing in front of fans.

“Playing here definitely has influenced us as musicians and helped us grow – very much due to the large crowds that come down,” he said.

“The sort of alternative groups embracing our music inspires us to branch out creatively and play new things for them.

“Each time we aim to be slightly different when we play at the Y; it’s just a blessing that we get this forum to be shit and get good.” 

Oscar said having a venue not caught up in WA’s liquor licensing rules was valuable for young bans.

“In terms of all age’s aspect it’s great for us, as a band whose members’ ages range from fifteen to eighteen… to get in anywhere else, you have to have an older friend or family member to take you.

“Having to go to a gig with your parents really isn’t the same as going with your mates,” he laughs.

“It sucks as pretty much all other venues are clubs but what makes the Y so important to us, is that it is all ages, drug, and alcohol free, and so incredibly easy to get to… I mean the train is just there.

“There’s just nothing else like it for teenagers in Perth, or even Australia, I think.

Supportive

“The scene is all very supportive, everyone looks out for one another, it’s almost friendly competition, you get inspired by others your age. 

“It’s awesome to see everyone progressing and growing together”.

Cuba says they’re ready to head back to the studio.

“The next step for us would then be focusing on recording; we’ve got so many more songs banked up that we would love to put into an EP.

“Once that’s done, we’d love to be back doing another headliner here.”

Bon says they’d love to support bigger bands to build their profile: “We have these crazy visions for what we’d like to do in terms of performance and songwriting – we just gotta’ keep pushing.”