The Amsterdamage era is officially here. In a celebratory press conference on Friday, brothers Remington Leith, Sebastian Danzig and Emerson Barrett announced their sixth album, Amsterdamage, alongside a world tour of the same name. Then, in true Palaye Royale fashion, they took the celebration to the streets, playing a surprise acoustic set outside King’s Cross station that included their new single, Lost In Translation.
A sense of full-circle symbolism runs through this new chapter. Amsterdamage represents a return to the band’s roots while simultaneously pushing forward, musically, visually and personally.
It is a new album born from a period of profound change, following the loss of their mother, Stephanie Rachel, in 2024. Her passing deeply affected the brothers and, for a period, came close to tearing the band apart. The story behind the album is, in many ways, the story of finding their way back to each other.
Palaye Royale: From Camden to Wembley
The Palaye Royale journey in the UK goes back to 2017, when they played their first show outside North America at Camden Assembly. The gig sold out in a day.
I asked what the biggest lesson has been over the past decade. “We were always opening for bands in the States,” Sebastian Danzig said, “and then we made the jump. Let’s go to the UK and see what happens. It sold out in a day, which for us at that moment was huge.”
Remington Leith said they felt like the biggest band in the world. “Over the past ten years, it’s been the wildest fucking journey of all time,” he said. “We’ve slept in cars, vans, train stations, fucking played grocery stores, slept at fans’ houses just to get something to eat. So it’s been quite a fucking journey to get here, and we don’t take any moment for granted.”
For Emerson, returning to the UK carries its own significance. “Definitely symbolic, making a full circle,” he said.
But Amsterdamage is not simply about looking backwards. The band had a plan even then. “Camden, Koko, Roundhouse, Apollo, Wembley,” Sebastian explains. Yet despite the scale they have now reached, their ambition remains big.
When asked whether there has ever been a point where they thought they had made it, the answer is essentially no. Remington laughs. “I think mentally, we’re still in our mom’s car. We will always want more. Three nights at Knebworth, that’s the new goal.”
That hunger is part of what has kept Palaye Royale moving. So is their relationship with Europe. In my one-to-one conversation with the band, I ask what keeps drawing them back. They are honorary Europeans now.
“Fuck yeah,” Emerson and Remington said. “We are.”
I ask what the pull of coming back is. “Especially Prague,” Emerson says. “I have Catholic progression. I lived and died many times in Europe.”
Remington adds that the band loves it so much. ” I think a big reason is the fans. They just gravitated to us so much, and made us feel so welcome and loved here.”
That connection is easy to understand when you spend time with the three brothers. For all the scale of the band they have built, they are warm, down-to-earth and remarkably candid. There is little sense of distance in conversation.
Within minutes, the interaction feels less like an interview with a band who have spent the last decade touring the world and more like catching up with people you have known for years.
It is a quality that comes through in the way they talk about their fans, too. Their relationship with Europe has grown alongside the band, and that sense of familiarity and openness has become an important part of what Palaye Royale represent.
Amsterdamage: A different kind of darkness
The visual identity of Palaye Royale has always been an important part of each album era, but Amsterdamage immediately feels different.
When I look at the album cover, I see joy in it. The band are literally marching forward, all smiles, with the neon fuchsia album title glowing at the top. I ask whether that brightness was intentional.
“Yes,” Emerson says. “I feel like we’ve spiritually reset, creatively, spiritually, physically. That album cover brings you joy. It brings a sense of relief where it’s like, all right, you can kind of move on.”
There had been another direction they could have taken. Instead, they chose something that felt lighter.
“We’ve made that album,” Remington explains. “We’ve already done it. We wanted to give the fans and ourselves something that is so different and so new, and something that makes us fucking happy.”
There are darker songs within Amsterdamage, but it is not darkness for darkness’ sake. “It’s still not a depressing darkness,” Remington says.
A smaller darkness, or a creative darkness? “A creative darkness,” Emerson confirms. That distinction becomes particularly interesting when looking at what happened before the album was made.
Starting from scratch
I ask whether, after losing their mother, there was older material they had to abandon because it no longer represented who they were. “There was a lot of stuff like that,” Remington says. “There was a bunch of songs that were left over that we really wanted to get down on record, but it did not feel right.
“After something like that, you are kind of not the same. It kind of changes you, and sometimes it’s better, sometimes for the worse. But we’re trying to change every day for the better.”
The change was not only in the songs. I ask how it affected the way they collaborated with each other. “Everything really did change,” Remington says. “We didn’t really let it hit us for the longest time, because we were on tour. And so we didn’t have time to sit with it.”
Then the touring stopped. “The quiet was a little bit too loud.”
“She was our rock,” Emerson says. “So when she went away, there was no centre base of reality. Our whole lives changed. My whole world changed forever. One of the last things she said to us was always stay together.”
The wider story behind Amsterdamage is remarkably honest. The brothers have spoken about a period when they barely communicated, arguments that escalated to lawyers and the possibility that Palaye Royale might actually come to an end.
“The album happened, and that’s what saved us,” Sebastian says.
“After listening to the album, nothing seemed to matter any more except for music,” Remington adds.
For Emerson, the process has had an impact beyond the music. “This process has healed us in a way that is kind of unexplainable.”
Listening to the music they were creating eventually made the anger and resentment feel smaller than the thing they were building together. Now, they believe they have come full circle. “I think she would be really proud of our relationship and happiness,” Emerson says.
That idea of happiness is important to understanding Amsterdamage. Because although the album has grown out of profound loss, the band do not want the listener to remain there. What do they want their fans to feel?
I ask what they actually want people to feel when they hear the album. The answer is about healing. “Even if you’re broken, you can heal, you know?” Emerson says. “It just takes time and love and support.”
That message runs into the album’s final track, whose closing lyrics echoes one of the most famous lines in music history. “Love Is All You Need. It’s the most important thing,” Remington adds.
They have been through an extraordinary amount in a relatively short period of time. “Life’s gonna fucking knock you down at any point,” Remington says. “You gotta realise it’s worth living. I am always gonna be in an emo phase in my life, but it’s so special to be on this earth, and we gotta do what we love every day. And I’m never gonna take it for granted.”
Suddenly, the fuchsia on the album cover makes even more sense.
Five years from now
Every Palaye Royale album becomes an era, but five years from now, when people look back at Amsterdamage, what do they want them to remember?
“How many millions of albums did that thing sell?” Remington jokes. “The greatest album of all time. But seriously, a lightness and going life’s worth living.”
Emerson sees it as “the turn in the road.” He compares it to watching the Rolling Stones reach a point where they stopped carrying the weight of expectation so heavily and simply allowed themselves to have fun. Flamboyant clothes, balloons on stage and the sheer joy of performing. “That’s like a lifelong career of making people happy but also being you,” he says.
Remington agrees. “I think we’re not taking ourselves so seriously. It’s just like we’re just having fun.”
That philosophy extends to the stage. Palaye Royale have spent years thinking about how to make their live shows bigger, but eventually they reached a different conclusion.
“We’re not overthinking anything anymore,” Sebastian says, “and the shows have just kind of embodied that. We would start thinking, we need more production. We need more of this. We’re like, wait! We are the production.”
The next chapter is already moving fast. A sold-out return to Camden, a new single, a new album, a world tour and ambitions that stretch all the way to Knebworth.
But for all the scale of what Palaye Royale are chasing, their most important message may be the simplest.
As Remington puts it, “All I want to do is play this and let people forget about whatever’s going on in their lives for a couple of hours and just have fun with us. Have a good time.”
Palaye Royale have announced their sixth studio album, Amsterdamage, alongside a major international tour for 2027. The album will be released through Sumerian Records on 22 January 2027.
The first track, Lost In Translation, is out now, while a limited-edition version of Amsterdamage will also include the bonus track The Unholy One. Pre-orders are available from sumerian.lnk.to/amsterdamage. Tour tickets are available from palayeroyale.hq.fan.
