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Adam:  Yeah I played in a few bands.  Blue Aside, Space Mushroom Fuzz and Aeolian Race are some recent examples.

Andy: Yeah, I played guitar and sang in Black Pyramid for a spell.  I've played in a bunch of other local bands, though that's the only one that did any recordings.

Matt: I used to play in a hardcore band called Spoke in the early 90's, with Paul Romanko from Shadows Fall.  Those were good times!!

Monte: We’ve all been in a bunch of bands, but the one I was in prior to this incarnation of Palace was HydroElectric.

How is it that you started playing music?

Andy: Well, I played piano from an early age, and played the baritone horn in middle school. I really got into rock and metal in high school, and years prior my parents had promised to get me an electric guitar.  They finally did, and I fell in love with fuzz pedals and loud amps.  I practiced my ass off every day, and was soon playing in bands with my friends.

Monte: I started paying violin in 4^th grade, followed up quickly by saxophone. Played sax all throughout high school. This is how I met up with Andy in the first place-we were in band together. I started playing guitar in middle school. The rest is history.

Adam:  I’ve always been fascinated with rock groups ever since I saw the movie ‘The Doors.’  Never really learned to play until I met Andy and Monte who were already jamming together.

Matt: I took piano and cello lessons in grade school.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

Andy: My name is Andy Beresky, I'm 40 years old, and I play the guitar and sing.

Monte: My name is Monte Newman. I’m 37 years old. I play guitar, sing, make spaceship landing noises with fx pedals.

Adam: My name is Adam Abrams, I play bass guitar.

Matt: I'm Matt Netto, I play drums.

Have you had other previous members? Andy: Yes, we've had a few other drummers.  John Belcastro was our first permanent drummer, who played with us for years.  Dennis Moulton also played with us for a stretch on the drums.

Did you make music even when you were young?

Adam: I played the violin.

Andy: I played the piano, and would write songs.  They weren't all that good.

Monte: Sure did. There was always some type of instruments around, or musical people around me growing up.

Where are you from?

Andy: I'm from Belchertown Massachusetts, USA.

Monte: Belchertown, Massachusetts, USA

Adam: I am from Newton, Massachusetts.

Matt: I'm from Northampton

What year did the band form? Andy: Monte and I started writing these songs in 1998, before he left for Florida and I went back to college.  Monte, Adam and I had played in the band Skyball before that.  We broke up in 2007, then got back together in the beginning of 2012.

What's your style of genre? 

Andy: I don't really know at this point.  We started off pretty much as a stoner/psychedelic/space rock band.  The idea was to combine big fuzzy riffs with psychedelic jams and triply parts.  I think we always had influences that were well outside of that model, though they've come out more since we've gotten back together.  I sometimes call us "entheogenic rock", though that's a "genre" that I made up.  We've got a lot of post-hardcore and shoegaze influence in our sound now, so I sometimes call us "post-stoner." 

The stuff we're writing for the next album is really hard to pin down, stylistically.  I think that we've reached a point where we've achieved a high level of artistic freedom, and much of that is from totally letting go of the idea of conforming to a genre.

Monte: We just write and play whatever we want at this point.  Could really be a combination of lots of styles.

What inspires you?

Andy: I'm inspired by nature, literature, science fiction movies, philosophy, and various spiritual paths.

Monte: Life and its infinite rollercoaster ride.

Adam: Long walks inspire me most.  Especially in tourist areas because they have a weird energy, as if they left most of their baggage at home while some still lingers, getting on their nerves as they appear fascinated exploring these new places.

How often and where do you rehearse? Andy: We rehearse once a a week. Our practice is in Monte's basement, The Thunderland Compound.

How have you developed since you started with the music?

Andy:  Wow, I've developed in a lot of ways.  Firstly, I can play the guitar a lot better.  I'm still a sloppy player, though that's just my style.  I think that I'm better at expressing my ideas on guitar, and that's more important to me than impeccable technique.  I also think that my vocals have come a long way, as have my lyrics.  I feel like I'm a lot freer to express my lyrical ideas as well,  that they used to be more eccentric and esoteric. Now I'm more willing to keep them simple and direct when that's what's called for. 

I also think that my songwriting has continued to improve.  I feel like artistically, I'm now able to do exactly what I want to do, there's no longer a separation between the initial vision and the outward expression.

Monte: It would be a long list, but basically, I can play most of what I hear in my head now. I can think 3 dimensionally about compositions. I experiment more with combinations of gear, etc… I know when to hold back, not to over-complicate. That’s generally it.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band?

Andy: I work at a respite house, supporting and advocating for people who are in extreme states and emotional distress.  That takes up a lot of my time!  Other than that, I'm usually involved in some home improvement project or another, and I practice Zen.

Monte: I like to hang out with my family. I’m also way into gear and custom pedalboards, etc… We have plenty to do around the house also.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?

Andy:  Not presently we're not.  We don't play live all of that often, and we haven't done any touring.  We may do some smaller tours next year, though most likely we can book those ourselves.  If we were in the position to do larger scale tours, we might consider it, though I personally don't think it's feasible right now to be involved with a booking agency.

Monte: If it were all fancy hotels and limos, I might be on board with it, but that’s certainly not the case, so I’m going with no.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?

Andy: Well, we'd really like to be self sustaining.    We self released "In The Afterglow Of Unity" with that in mind.  We now do the bulk of recording ourselves. It's not that we're opposed to working with labels, we're going to work with at least one label for a vinyl release next year.  We don't have the funds to self release vinyl, so that's definitely something we'd work with labels on.

I think that in 2015, with so much of sales going towards digital files and downloading, it's not always necessary to work with a label.  Bandcamp is a great resource and serves us well.  At this point we're just looking to make music and have fun with it!  If our circumstances change, we may work with more labels in the future, though I think it's going to be a matter of whether or not it's a good fit.  If they can provide us with things that we just can't do for ourselves, and they think that we'd fit in well with their roster, then that's cool.  It basically has to be a mutually beneficial relationship.

Monte: I’m not looking for anything really. I just want to play music. If a label with the right offer happened to pop up, great.

What made you decide to make this music?

Andy: It was when I saw The Obsessed play with The Melvins in 1994.  That show really changed my life, and I started gravitating even more away from punk/hardcore and folk, more towards stuff that sounded like Black Sabbath.  I couldn't write very good heavy riffs quite yet, so it took a few years of studying the masters before I was comfortable writing heavier material.

Monte: Joan Jett said it best, “I love rock & roll”.  Really, it’s the styles of music that we as a band enjoy. Being able to play with other musicians that you “click” with is always enjoyable. It’s not often and not entirely common to find that. This makes it easy. At that point, the music kind of makes itself.

What are your songs about? Andy: Oh, they're about a lot of things.  "In The Afterglow Of Unity" really centers on a group of Zen anarchist/alchemists who are fighting a psychic war against the inevitability of a dystopian future.  More generally, I write a lot about freedom, choice, and transcendence.  With the next album that we're working on, it's going to have some different themes.  I'm trying to basically write something conceptually in the same vein as Husker Du's "Zen Arcade."

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Andy: I write the lyrics, for the most part.  We're working on new material where Adam wrote the lyrics to a song and Monte gave me some lyrics he'd written, and I revised them into a song he'd written. We all work on the compositions at this point.  Usually someone has some riffs, sometimes I'll have some verses and choruses, and we work on fleshing out the arrangement in the practice space.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Andy: Always the music.  Usually there's a riff or melody that inspires a song, and I'll write parts that will work well as verses and choruses.  I generally know what I can sing over, what's going to work well with my vocals and playing.  I'll get a melody line for the vocals, and just sing whatever pops into my head at first.  Usually I'll take what sticks for me, lines or phrases from my stream of consciousness approach that really resonate, and I'll write the rest of the lyrics around those.

Do you compose in a certain environment?

Andy: I write in my head, so it's often awkward.  A lot of the time I'll just be walking around, enjoying my day, and a song will pop into my head.  I'll have to kind of hum it to myself, go over the different parts mentally, until I get home and can work it out on guitar.  Other times I'll be fooling around with different ideas and come up with a cool riff.  I usually practice in my home office, so that's where I'll come up with some riffs and songs.  A lot of times we compose and arrange as a group in our practice space.

Adam:  This is also what happens to me…

Monte: I tend to write better stuff when it’s bounced off of the other guys. Things evolve as they go. I find that the ideas that someone else comes up with inspire me to add to it or improve it. We definitely collaborate quite a bit.

Have you done any covers live?

Andy: We haven't in awhile, actually.  In the past, we'd play Rush's "Working Man", Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf", "A National Acrobat" and "Behind The Wall Of Sleep", "Echoes" by Pink Floyd, "Nightmare Gown" by Pentagram, "Satori Part 3" by Flower Travelin' Band.  We've done a lot of covers over the years, and I can't remember exactly what we've played live. We'd worked on some other songs that we'd never played live, Wishbone Ash, Leafhound and Aerosmith songs.  I'd like to start doing covers again live, though I'd also like to do things that are a bit more outside our comfort zone.  I'd like to do some songs by someone like The Cure, rather than just stock older heavy rock tunes.

Monte: Tons of covers over the years.

What language do you sing in? Andy: English, though sometimes it feels like we have our own bizarre language when we're talking to one another in the practice space.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Andy: We have played plenty of shows to a few loyal music fans, an angry bartender and a bored sound guy. We have literally played shows with less than five people.  I think the most we've played to is around 200.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Andy: There's a range, some people in their 20's, a lot in their 30's and 40's.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?

Andy: We definitely vary.  We play a lot of the newer material, because that's what we've just released since the hiatus, and those songs reflect where we're at right now.  We have a huge back catalog from the old days though, and sometimes we pull out some of those tunes.

Monte: It certainly varies.

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Andy: The 13th Floor Lounge in Florence Mass is the venue we've been playing more than any other.

What was your first gig like? Andy: Eh, it was kind of a mess, and it was cool.  We opened for a friend's band, and we didn't really have our sound down yet.  We only played a few songs, and I remember we covered "Sweet Leaf" by Black Sabbath.

What was your latest gig? Andy: We just played at the RPM Festival in Greenfield. That was pretty sweet!

Have you had to cancel a gig? Andy: Oh yeah. It happens.

Where have you played live this year? Andy: We've played all local shows. We played the One Bar in Northampton Mass, The 13 Floor Lounge in Florence Mass, The aforementioned RPM Fest in Greenfield, and we played at The Milltown Car And Bike show in Sturbridge Mass. 

Where do you plan to gig the coming year? Andy: I'm not sure, we'll most likely do a regional tour to promote the album and the split 12" when it's out.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Andy: We didn't have any real merchandise for a long time.  In 2008 we had a CD EP and a matching T-shirt, though we broke up pretty soon afterwards and didn't really sell any.  Right now, we've got copies of our "Stars, Dreams, Seas" demo CD, we've got our album, "In The Afterglow Of Unity", and we've got a really cool t-shirt that our friend Seamus designed. 

Where can people buy your merchandise? Andy: You can buy it all from our Bandcamp: https://palaceinthunderland.bandcamp.com/ We're also starting to distribute the album to different online stores and such.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?

Andy: I think it's really good.  It uses a lot of resources to manufacture, package, shrink wrap, and ship physical copies of albums.  Not to mention that vinyl itself uses a lot of oil.  These are things that we kind of just take for granted, and we sometimes think that things should be this way forever.  That's not really possible, ultimately it's not going to be sustainable.  Already it's getting harder and harder to press vinyl.  It's expensive, and the places that are willing to do it are growing more scarce.  Plus, the major labels are releasing EVERYTHING on vinyl now that it's a "thing" again, and it's really messing things up for the smaller guys.  And CD's are basically just a convenient way of packaging mp3's at this point.  Most people buy a CD at a show, go home, rip it into their computer, put it on the their mp3 player, and forget about the physical copy. The music industry is a bit of a convoluted mess.

I think it's great that someone on the other side of the world can check out our Bandcamp, download the album and instantly connect with our music and our vision.  That's how it should be, in my book.  We're still carrying some physical copies of CD's because there's a demand, and that's what we sell live.  That's kind of the model right now if you want to make enough money to support what you're doing.  Personally, I'd like to see things go more in the way of downloads, though I can understand why people also like to own physical copies.  I own a lot of vinyl and CD's, though I've really slowed down in the past couple years with my buying habits.

Monte: I’m totally cool with the whole digital distro thing. Download away! Exposure is the key these days.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this?

Andy: In some ways, I feel it's great, and it has changed for the better, because it puts a lot of power in the hands of the bands themselves.  It's awesome that a band can record an album and immediately start selling it on Bandcamp without having to go through the process of finding a label to release the music.  At the same time, it makes it really tough for the labels.  I think things are inevitably going to change a lot more, that we're kind of in a weird transition period where people are still trying to figure out what's still vital, and what's still even viable. 

Also, there's just not as much money in music as their used to be.  This isn't the 1970's, or even the 1990's, when every other underground band got a shot at a major label.  Obviously, a band like Palace isn't in it for the money - we do this because we love it, though it's nice to be able to recoup some of our costs for the next recording!

What do you think of my work? Andy: I like that you've interviewed a lot of different bands. I'm particularly impressed that you interviewed Sharon Van Etten.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Andy: Well, it's going to give us a little more exposure, and it's going to give people a little more information about what we're all about.

Do you have any role models or idols?

Andy: Yeah, Andre Agassi.

Adam: Daniel Johnston. Syd Barrett

Monte: I like to draw inspiration from all of the greats, both known and unknown.

Andy: Because his parents had sex, his mother gave birth to him, and then his father forced him to play tennis from a young age.

Adam: Because a lot of people exist…or do they?

Monte: Why do you think that they exist?

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?

Adam: The older bands are usually the masters but then, of course, there are some prodigies from time-period to time-period.

Andy: For me, it's a little of both.  Obviously I'm heavily influenced and inspired by the bands I grew up listening to.  At the same time, it's really exciting when I hear something new, or see a great new band live, often that inspires new ideas for me.

Monte: Both. Ignoring the past, whether it be a week ago, or a century ago, just means we have to reinvent the wheel. Why not just improve the wheel? Gotta learn from others whenever possible.

What have been your biggest obstacles?

Andy: Myself.

Adam: Paranoia.

Monte: Time, work, scheduling.

What advice would you give other bands or artists?

Andy: Believe in your self, be true to your self,  write and play from the heart. Follow your muses, where ever they may lead.

Monte: Try not to over-complicate things. Think 3 dimensionally about how a song comes together with everyone’s role in the band. Gear is important, but technique is even more important. Play your heart out even if it’s just the sound guy and a pissed off bartender.

Adam: Try to have fun and don't let your ego get in the way.

How do you get psyched for a gig?

Adam: By staying calm and distancing myself from reality.

Andy: I drink tea, concentrate, focus on what I have to do up there, and I listen to music that's going to get my energies flowing.  Sometimes I have some beers to loosen up.  Sometimes I have way too many beers to loosen up.

Monte: I practice as much as I can and listen to music that awakens my soul and gets me pumped up.

Do you have any new material?

Andy: Yeah, we've got a ton of new material.  We're going to do a 4 song split 12" in 2016, so we've each written a song for that release.  That's going to be a bit different, we're going for kind of a throwback space rock/acid punk vibe. 

We're also currently writing material for a new album, which we'll hopeful record next year and release early 2017.  It's called "The King Of The Empty Aeon", and so far the material is in my opinion the best we've ever written.

What are your web sites?

https://www.facebook.com/PalaceInThunderland

https://palaceinthunderland.bandcamp.com/

How can people reach you?

Andy: We're pretty easy to get a hold of.  Send us a message on our Facebook page, or email us at: [email protected]

I only check the email about once a a week, though someone usually checks the Facebook messages every day.

What are your plans for the future?

Adam: Frantically trying to time travel back to the past….

Andy: We're going to keep on keeping on.  We've really hit a peak artistically, and I know that I've still got a lot of killer music inside me waiting to come out.  We're going to do as many live shows as seems feasible, and we're going to continue expanding our sound.  We're also going to get Eddie Van Halen in the band so that we can make a triumphant video =)

Most of all, we're going to keep having fun!!

Monte: We really need to make a triumphant video so we can get Eddie Van Halen.

Do you have something to add?

Andy: Don't slap pandas!!

Monte: Don’t let your pandas grow up to be cowboys.

Adam: Be excellent to each other and party on dudes!