Sitting in a dim studio with the volume cranked just high enough to feel the sub-bass rattle the floorboards, it becomes clear that Christee Palace is no longer interested in the sugar-coated safety of Top 40 radio. Her latest offering, "What Have You Done To Me," is a jagged, atmospheric pivot that feels less like a career move and more like a survival tactic.
The Windsor-born artist has spent the better part of the last decade polishing a high-gloss pop sound, but the events of the last year have clearly stripped away the varnish. It is a pivot we see often when the world stops spinning, but Palace handles it with a grit that feels earned rather than manufactured.
We caught up with her to talk about the shift from upbeat melodies to nightmarish textures. The conversation started where everything does these days: the mental toll of a world on pause.
"The same as everyone else, you have to adapt to what’s going on around you," Palace says. "Like everyone else, you have days where you can’t help but think negatively, think of all the things you’re missing out on, but at the end of the day it’s life, right? You have to roll with the punches and keep going."
That resilience is a prerequisite for anyone trying to maintain a creative pulse in the current climate. But Palace did more than just survive; she maintained a release schedule that would exhaust artists with twice her resources.
Last August, she dropped "Falling For You," a track that felt like a final burst of sunshine before the clouds moved in permanently. It was a tactical release, a way to keep the momentum alive when the traditional avenues of touring and promotion were effectively dead.
"Falling For You, I released that at the end of August and just like my previous single from last year I had decided that even though this was happening and things aren’t going to go quite as I planned I wanted to keep releasing music," she says. "That one especially was really cool because it was upbeat and fun and I think I needed that at the time."
And there is a personal layer to that track that gives it a bit more weight than your standard pop fare. The song is a literal document of her relationship with her partner, who also happens to be her visual collaborator.
"Yeah, which is very interesting," Palace notes when asked about writing the song regarding the day she met her boyfriend. "The people that know my boyfriend and I, they know our story and the fact that when I first moved to Toronto he was my first photographer here. He did all my photo shoots and things just happened. It’s interesting now because he and I live together and even though we’re in quarantine and can’t create as much as we want to, I’m still able to put out content and do photo shoots and make music videos which is incredible. I owe all that to him, but that song was a dedication to him, a sort of thank you if you will because he does a lot for me and my career."
But the sweetness of "Falling For You" makes the arrival of "What Have You Done To Me" feel like a cold bucket of water to the face. The new single is stark. It is minimal. It replaces the danceable hooks with a sense of dread that is frankly more honest given the state of the world.
"Very different yes, and in the same light I think in the summer I needed a pick me up and at the end of 2020 I sort of decided I wanted to release this one because for me it was representative of the year as a whole," she explains. "Although it has its own meaning in the way that I wrote it, I think the whole vibe of the song for me is just perfect. This is exactly how I felt the whole 2020. It had one meaning when I wrote it but it can be interpreted many different ways."
This is where Palace shows her growth as a writer. She understands that the best pop songs are mirrors. You can write about a breakup, but if the sonics are right, the listener will hear their own isolation, their own grief or their own anxiety reflected back at them.
"That’s right, that’s the best part about it," Palace says. "I love that about writing songs and obviously for me it means one thing but to somebody else listening, it could mean something totally different and I love that about music."
The production on the new track is what really catches the ear. It has a "haunting" quality, a term Palace used specifically when she sat down with her producer to map out the song's DNA.
"Yeah, I love that word and I always come back to that because I remember when I first wrote it, I went to my producer and I said that exact word, I said I want this to sound haunting, like nightmarish, you know?" she says. "I remember hearing it for the first time and I thought, it could not be more perfect. With the chord progression and the lyrics, the way that it all sort of married into each other, it’s awesome. I think he did such a good job of totally encapsulating what I felt."
But let's talk about the industry for a second. There is a specific kind of pressure put on female pop artists to stay in their lane, to keep things bright and palatable. Palace recently mentioned she had been advised to "chase what’s popular." In a world of algorithms and TikTok trends, that advice is as common as it is soul-crushing.
My hope is to just remain inspired and keep working. I don’t want to lose that fire that I have... There are days that are so low that you can’t help but think, is this for me, is this what I should be doing? ...I hope that I can stay inspired and we can get back on the stage soon. That’s my favourite part of this, sharing my music, connecting with people and gaining new fans. That’s what I want.
"It’s so interesting because you come here and you meet people that are in the industry and you want to follow what they say, a little part of you does," she admits. "I’ve always been the type to follow who I am and do what I feel is right and be authentic. There’s always people that come into your life that make you question yourself, especially in the music industry, and what I’ve come to learn, especially through this time we’re in now is that there really is no formula."
And she is right. The "formula" is a myth sold by people who are too afraid to take risks. If there were a guaranteed path to a hit, every major label would have a 100 per cent success rate. They don't.
"It’s just you being yourself and putting out your authentic music and if it hits and people like it then that’s great, but there’s no formula," Palace continues. "Someone can tell you to make a song that sounds like this, or this isn’t upbeat enough or poppy enough or you’re not showing enough skin, and it’s all contradictory of what’s out there, it doesn’t make any sense."
The defiance in her voice is refreshing. It suggests that the time spent in isolation has acted as a filter, straining out the noise of industry "experts" and leaving only the artist’s intuition.
"I think no one actually knows what the right thing is so for me at this point so now I’m just doing what I want," she says. "I think at the end of the day I’ll be happy with myself because I’m making music that I love and means something to me. I truly think that will mean more to people who are listening to it."
That sense of meaning often leads back to her roots. Palace is a product of Windsor, a city with a blue-collar work ethic that translates directly into its music scene. During the holidays, she took a break from the "nightmarish" pop to record some Christmas covers with her father, Pete Palazzolo.
"That makes me so happy, those songs were fun," she says. "It came at a time where I really didn’t have much going on and I had a conversation with my dad and I said, let’s make Christmas songs. Originally we were going to do one, then three and we ended up doing two."
Recording during a pandemic adds a layer of logistical theatre to everything. It wasn't just about the music; it was about the safety protocols required to even get into the same room as a collaborator.
"I got a COVID test and made sure I was good to go and got together with my dad and we recorded them together which was awesome," Palace says. "I really needed that for myself, for my soul. I loved it, it was so cool to be able to create with him again and all those guitar riffs, that’s all my dad."
Pete Palazzolo is a name that carries weight in Windsor. He is a multi-instrumentalist and producer who has been a fixture in the local scene for decades. Watching Palace talk about him, it is clear that the professional respect is just as deep as the familial bond.
"He’s pretty incredible and he’ll kill me for saying it but I wish he’d get more credit for the amount of talent he has, it’s insane," she says. "I’m just constantly in awe of him, he’s a producer, he’s a multi-instrumentalist and he can write. It’s inspiring to me; it fuels me and just makes me want to be better."
And the collaboration might not be a one-off. There is talk of turning these sessions into a recurring tradition, perhaps even a full-length holiday project down the road.
"I think so - why not, right?" Palace says. "I love collaborating with him, that’s how I started with all of this before I even decided I wanted to do this as a career. I’ve recorded songs with my dad since I was ten, maybe even younger."
Moving to Toronto is the standard move for any ambitious Ontario artist, but the distance from the home studio in Windsor is clearly felt. The pandemic has only exacerbated that sense of separation.
"It’s a normal part of my life and I miss that now because I’m in Toronto and I don’t get to see him," she says. "I used to see him weekly and go to his studio and we’d collaborate on something or I would write and he would demo so I miss that. I hope we can keep it a regular thing for sure."
The Windsor connection remains a vital part of her identity. We discussed the possibility of her appearing at the annual S’Aints holiday show, a charity event that has become a staple of the Windsor music calendar.
"That would be incredible!" she says. "They had my dad perform a couple years ago and it’s just so fun, I would love that! Jeff Burrows is such a huge supporter of me and my whole family as well. I have so much respect for him and what he does and Marty Bak who’s also with the S’Aints; he was one of my first producers."
Windsor’s music community is notoriously tight-knit. It is a place where established veterans like Burrows (of The Tea Party) and Bak reach back to help the "green" artists finding their footing.
"Yeah, we do. I’m very lucky to have started out there," Palace says. "I don’t think I would be where I am now without the support in Windsor. There are so many people that gave me opportunities and helped me out, let me play at their venues. Even when I was just getting started and still pretty green, so many people gave me a chance and I’ll never forget that."
But looking forward, Palace is ready to shed her skin. The singles she has released so far were products of a pre-pandemic world, and she feels the distance between who she was then and who she is now.
"The singles were just singles, I recorded those before the pandemic hit and I actually feel that I’m a totally different person now," she says. "I’m a different writer, everything, my whole perspective on the world has changed and I’ve taken this time during quarantine to write a lot and I’ve demoed a lot of brand new songs."
The plan for a full album is on the table for later this year, though in the current industry, "plans" are written in pencil. The focus is on the evolution of the material rather than the format.
"I am actually recording new material that will potentially be an album," she says. "We’re going to see how the year goes and kind of go from there but all the singles I put out were great in the moment but I’m going to start putting them behind me and move forward with brand new material because I’m a brand new person and I’m really excited for that."
And when asked if the pandemic was the specific trigger for this metamorphosis, she does not hesitate. The lack of external distraction has forced a deep dive into the craft that might not have happened otherwise.
"Yeah, and it’s not so much that the writing is about the pandemic but I think it’s fueled everything now and it’s forced me to spend more time with my craft and write because there really isn’t much else going on," she says. "I know there are some artists who feel uninspired because of the lack of stuff going on and I definitely relate to that myself. I go back and forth, there are some days where I’m totally motivated and inspired and things flow and then there are other days where you ask yourself, is this ever going to end?"
It is a sentiment every creative professional is currently wrestling with. The fire is there, but the oxygen is thin. For Christee Palace, the hope for the coming months is simple: maintain the momentum and get back to the stage.
"My hope is to just remain inspired and keep working," she says. "I don’t want to lose that fire that I have and I don’t think I ever will but I know that it’s testing me, that’s for sure. There are days that are so low that you can’t help but think, is this for me, is this what I should be doing?"
And that is the most human part of the interview. Even with the talent and the family legacy and the polished singles, the doubt remains. But Palace is pushing through it for the one thing that matters: the connection.
"It’s just a very human emotion to have but I hope that I can stay inspired and we can get back on the stage soon," she says. "That’s my favourite part of this, sharing my music, connecting with people and gaining new fans. That’s what I want.
