Kat Harlton
Christee Palace got her start achieving local and Canada wide success with her first EP “Alive Today” and two follow up singles— her songs “Out of Time” and “Light It Up” both charting in Canada’s Most Active Indies chart in their first few weeks on radio. This drove her to pursue music on a larger scale, relocating to Toronto Ontario.
Her first single “Harden My Heart” is approaching 123,000 streams and attracting over 10,000 monthly listeners worldwide on Spotify, with the music video amassing over 114,000 views on YouTube. Her second single “Love Me in the Dark”, debuted on Global TV’s morning show, now approaching 154,000 streams on Spotify.
Christee was awarded the opportunity to open for the Indie Awards at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto in 2019 for winning the Jim Beam National Talent Search, in which she received an Indie Award.
Christee recently released her new single “Falling For You“, and we had the opportunity to chat with her about music, her upbringing, and what she’s learned along the way.
Kat: Can you talk about the inspiration behind your latest single “Falling For You”?
Christee: “Falling For You” is a song I wrote about finding the person that made me forget about being closed off to love. The song tells the exact story of what happened the night I confessed my feelings for my boyfriend. It’s so funny—all of this happened right after I released my song “Harden My Heart.” What a turn of events!!
Kat: You had a musical upbringing with a lot of influence from your family, especially your father, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, and teacher Pete Palazzolo. What was growing up in that type of environment like? What did you learn along the way?
Christee: Honestly, music was just normal to me. Growing up with music around me all the time, it became such an essential part of who I am. I have never lived life without it. My dad is the reason I can sing, play instruments, and perform. I grew up watching him perform in bands, and run his music conservatory back in Windsor. Looking back, I am so grateful for it, but I remember when I was younger being forced to play piano and I wanted to die… it was definitely stressful sometimes, haha! I’ve learned many things, but one thing I’ve learned from my dad is to work hard to achieve what you want, because there is always someone else out there who is working harder. If you don’t work for it, someone else will, and you will watch someone else take your dream.
Kat: You’ve shared stages with incredible artists including Sean Kingston and Walk Off The Earth. You were also announced as the winner of the 2019 Jim Beam International Talent Search Award, and have performed at The Indie Awards in 2019, where you opened for La Force, The Elwins, and Born Ruffians. What has been a highlight for you so far? Do you have any advice for other emerging artists?
Christee: I can’t begin to explain how humbled and grateful I am for all of those experiences. They’ve all been highlights for me for different reasons. I do have to say that getting the opportunity to open for Walk Off the Earth in my hometown of Windsor was the biggest highlight of them all. Performing on the Colosseum stage in Windsor, singing my own songs has been a goal of mine for years. There’s nothing quite like coming back to where you came from and showing people what you can do. It was surreal, and I will never forget the feeling coming onto the stage and hearing my hometown cheer for me.
For any emerging artists, the only advice I have is first off to work your butt off, make connections even though you’re afraid to, and be honest with your music (and yourself)—there is nothing more important than that.
Kat: Can you talk a little bit about your musical inspirations and role models?
Christee: My musical inspirations vary. I grew up listening to Classic rock (Journey, Styx, Elton John, Queen, the Beatles, to name a few), but loved pop music. Avril Lavigne was the first artist that came out that inspired me to write songs. I loved her honesty and unapologetic attitude when it came to who she was. I think she was the perfect blend of pop and rock that I knew I identified with. Some of my other musical influences were Pink, Hayley Williams, Demi Lovato, and Amanda Marshall. I loved specifically powerful female artists that had big voices and edgy lyrics.
Kat: How are you staying connected to your fans and the industry during Covid-19? What’s next?
Christee: I don’t think anyone could have properly prepared for something like this. All I can do is continue to make music and put it out there for those who are following me. I stay in touch with as many of them as I can, and post regularly so they know it isn’t going to stop. I promised myself at the beginning of the pandemic that I would continue to release music. I think people need it now more than ever.
I have brand new music coming, plus a potential album in the new year… but shhh!
For more on Christee, visti: www.christeepalace.com