Page 21 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 103

BV103 pg20-23 palisades interview_BV103 pg21 22/12/2019 21:13 Page 2

Hope end of a tough year, just prior to a brand
BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 21

Hope
rase The Pain’ was released on
‘EDecember 28th 2018 – at the tail
new one. It’s a time when most of us are
looking to the future, to the new start that
the new year brings. Hoping to close out
the old and ring in the new. A year on, and
Matt says he’ll remember the ‘Erase The
Pain’ cycle for its triumph. “I’ll remember
us coming together, creating something
that we were really passionate about, cre-
ating all of it ourselves and knowing that
we did a great job and people really loved
it and were able to use it for anything that
they were dealing with. Just getting
through the gym that day. We created
something that mattered in the world.”
And matter it really does. It is an
album that speaks for many, not least for
anyone that feels a pressure to look or be
a certain way. The album opens with
‘Vendetta’, a song about the pressure to
conform to someone else’s standards and
the anger caused by others trying to make
you into someone else. Black Velvet asks
the band if they ever felt pressure growing
up.
“Growing up, yeah, I kind of dealt with
a lot of pressure growing up,” says Bran-
don. “I moved around a lot as a kid. I’ve
lived in more than I can count states.
Yeah, I felt a lot of pressure from having to
be that new kid in school again, making
new friends and all that stuff.”
Aaron adds, “I think there’s the pres-
sures of growing up. You have so many
people telling you who they think you
should be, including sometimes your fam-
ily or your friends or teachers. Ultimately,
you just have to find who you are and you
have to find that person and then you find
your tribe. And you live in that way.”
There is more pressure to be some-
one you’re not these days thanks to social
media.
Brandon agrees, “It’s crazy how much
social media has become a part of peo-
ple’s lives and how people think that they
have to look good to be noticed and stuff.
Social media… none of that matters.”
“I think social media has made life
harder in general, and you’re under a mi-
croscope no matter what you do,” adds
Aaron. “And everyone and anyone can
say anything about you. And it’s detrimen-
tal to some people. There are a lot of peo-
ple that weren’t doing anything and have
had terrible things happen and you have
these pressures of how you should look,
again, like society’s telling you how you
should look on Instagram based off of an
algorithm and based off if you have
enough likes on a picture. Dealing with
your self-worth and social media, it really
shouldn’t have anything to do with how
you feel about yourself.”
But as far as ‘Vendetta’, the song, the
band say they were just constantly told
what to do all the time, and even being as
a band. Aaron divulges, “People are like
‘You should sound like this, you should
look like that.’ It’s like, ‘No, fuck you guys.
We’re going to do what we want to do and
be who we are.’”
Brandon says he thinks a lot of bands
feel the pressure to change their sound
when creating music.
“100%. Yeah, I think a lot of bands go

PALISADES