#but well it was fun & it made me practise english so thats cool

[royalbloodlp]

ROYAL BLOOD cover & interview in French magazine MYROCK #47, July-August 2017 (click to enlarge)

Translation of the interview below (thanks to @believersdie​ for their help)

                                               ROYAL BLOOD

                   AN ALCHEMY IN THE MIDDLE OF CHAOS

Three years after winning the title of this generation's most exciting challenger, the duo composed of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher is coming back with "How Did We Get So Dark?" a long-awaited second album which exceeds our expectations by far. It's an authentic classic, played with only drums and bass guitar, to prove once and for all that no, guitar isn't the ultimate rock instrument.

(Thomas Malfrouche / Photos Manon Violence)

Three years ago, no one had heard about Royal Blood. Since then, you've played shows all over the planet and you've been taken under the wings of Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page and Iggy Pop. Doesn't all of this make your head feel dizzy?

Mike Kerr (lead vocals, bass guitar) : My head feels good, thank you!

Ben Thatcher (drums) : So does mine, but I try to protect it as you can see [he's wearing a typically French beret, note from the author]. Hats are my new thing. I decided to swap my usual cap for the local hat. Today, we're in Paris so it's a beret, but I intend to get a cool cowboy hat in the US!

M.K. : To answer your question, our lives did completely change in the space of three years. When we started Royal Blood, we didn't think that one day, our music would be listened to by people other than our friends. Playing our songs all over the world, in front of an audience who was always asking for more, that's what I'll remember from this two-year madness.

People are under the impression that playing shows helped a lot to increase your visibility. When your first album was released, some were skeptical. But whoever saw you live joined your adventure. Each night, each concert, were they just battlefields?

M.K. : Absolutely. Since the beginning, concerts are the essence of Royal Blood. It started up like this, making the most noise we could in a basement. We kept this. The location doesn't matter, whether it be a club, a stadium or a festival, each time we try to see ourselves in our small rehearsal premises and play with the same spirit as we did there. Moreover, being only two in the band accentuates this. We can look each other in the eye, react automatically to the other. On stage, we just follow our guts. And we lived awesome things on the last tour. I remember this concert in the plains of Quebec for the Festival d'Eté, where we opened for Foo Fighters. We played in front of a hundred thousand people, it was huge. There was a tornado notice, and the weather was becoming more and more chaotic as we were playing. We were literally seeing the lightning unleash. So much that we had to leave the stage after playing six tracks, for security reasons. But these six tracks will stay in my memory forever.

Did you get the chance to party with Dave Grohl anyway?

M.K. : Obviously! We spent almost three months on the road with the Foo Fighters guys, and we saw Dave every day.

Is the rumor true, is he the coolest guy in the rock'n'roll scene?

M.K. : No, he became number two. Right after me (laughter).

B.T. : And after me! So Dave is the third coolest dude. But it's okay, he's still on the podium!

M.K. : We're joking around, but for us, two small guys from Brighton, all that's happening to us is still unbelievable.

B.T. : Every day, I feel like I'm living a dream. For example today, being in Paris to talk about our music is completely surreal. And we were just told we are headlining a show at the Zénith [huge concert venue in Paris, note from the translator] at the end of the year [November 9th, note from the author]. That's crazy! This world is crazy!

M.K. : We would never have imagined all of this. Let's take Jimmy Page, for example. One of our heroes. An untouchable musician. An icon. He came to see us live a few times, and he met us after the show to talk and party. He's a real gentleman, he is very polite and sophisticated. He doesn't live in a castle tower, like most of the rockstars of his level. He keeps being passionate about music, he goes out a lot, sees many concerts, discovers new bands. It's an honor to know he likes our work.

                                     MELODIES BEFORE ALL

With all the concerts you played, how did you find the time to write this new album?

M.K. : The secret is that we didn't take any vacation, we got back to work right away. It's impossible for us to write on the road. We could have, during sound checks, especially since we're only two. But we prefered to rest and keep our energy for the show. So we wrote this record after we went back home, in Brighton, like we always did up to now. We're used to going to the Brighton Electric, a small rehearsal studio that we love. Then, we recorded at the ICP studios, in Brussels. It's the best studio which we ever had the chance to work in, a place filled with gear, with lots of microphones, amplifiers, and other toys. The location is quite isolated, and at the time the weather was cold. It was very immersive and very solitary. We spent two months there, literally cut off the world. It did us good. Especially when you see the state of the world we're living in...

The production of this record is incredible, the audience feels like you wanted to highlight the melodies. Of course, there are good old riffs, but the choruses are overpowering, they remind of the 80's, when Kiss', Alice Cooper's, Bonnie Tyler's and Joan Jett's hard rock was on the radio.

M.K. : We've always loved pop music, choruses that blow you away and make you want to sing them. For this album, we wanted to declare our love to melodies and stop hiding them behind our wall of fat sound. For me, a good chorus is the heart of a good song, it is what makes you want to listen to it over and over again. As such, I consider that this album is our most direct album. What's melodic isn't necessarily hot tempered. It's just a matter of balance and dosage. Desmond Child mastered this harmony perfectly. For instance, "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi [co-written by Desmond Child, note from the author] is a pop song, and at the same time it's very hard, with fat guitar riffs. I love this kind of contrast.

              BEHIND THE ALBUM COVER, BY MIKE KERR

"Firstly, we wanted to create a unity between the cover of our first album and this one. When I saw this photograph for the first time, I felt like it represented exactly the impression I wanted to give with this record. It's difficult to choose an album cover. It must be aesthetically pleasant, but it must go well with the music too. And especially, it must be cool on vinyl format! What's funny is that, on our first album, you could only see the eyes of the character. Here, it's the opposite, you can see everything except the eyes. Is it the same person? You can create your own story..."

                      BASS, DRUMS, AND NOTHING ELSE!

Just like the previous one, is this album guaranteed without any guitars?

M.K. : Totally! You know, we worked hard to find our own sound, and I'm sure that if I played a guitar, we would sound like many other bands. And we'd rather keep our identity with the restraints which became our strengths, than make it easier with a guitar and blend in with the crowd. But I have nothing against guitars. Maybe one day, we'll end up adding some here and there.

B.T. : We'll call Jimmy Page then. (laughter)

Speaking of sound, did you use some new finds on this album?

M.K. : Not really, I always combine a lot of pedals with effects that transform my bass' sound. But no need to hope that I tell you my tricks, they're secret. (laughter) Let's say that this time, we minded the details way more, we made each song unique, when in our first album, all the tracks had the same sounds. In these new songs, there are a lot more variety and textures.

The drums are very wide, as if you were playing in a stadium. Did you play in a huge room with a natural reverb in the studio?

B.T. : Not at all, it was actually the opposite! The drums were in a tiny room, with a very muffled sound. I moved them in an angle of the room, which left me more space so that my hits could resonate. Sometimes you just have to be creative in the studio. The best thing is that for the first time, I was able to play in live conditions, with enough microphones to record all the parts at once. In the first album, I had to learn to play differently and record each part separately. It's very different, and it makes the tracks more groovy.

          STRENGTHENING THE BLOOD RELATIONSHIP

The album gets its name from this song, "How Did We Get So Dark?". A good old rock hit just the way we like them, heavy and overpowering at the same time. It's so efficient that we're under the impression that writing songs is quite easy for you.

M.K. : Yet we suffered with that one! The music was composed quickly, but as much as I wrote and wrote the lyrics again, I couldn't find a catchy melody. So, we left it out, and it nearly didn't make it to the album! Then, last January, I made our producer Tom Dalgety listen to it. He saw the potential of the song right away and encouraged us to keep working again and again on the chorus. Eventually, we managed to dig this crazy melody up. And in the end it became my favorite track. But it was far from easy.

Is this album title, "How Did We Get So Dark?", an assessment about the current state of the world which we live in, or is it more personal?

M.K. : A bit of both. How did we get there, why are we at the bottom of the pit? Is the planet fucked? Am I speaking to politicians? To my girlfriend? To my friends? It's hard to tell. This ambiguity made us choose this particular title. Each one can read into it whatever they like, I find it more interesting. And, well, I don't like explaining my lyrics.

Why?

M.K. : Because once they are released, they don't belong to me anymore. They literally belong to the audience. They can listen to my lyrics the way they want, there are no instructions for use.

A track like "She's Creeping" is really surprising. It's got a very 90's groove, it reminds of Nirvana, Weezer, and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

M.K. : We wanted a track that reminds of the greatest hours of alternative rock, with a groove that smells like sunshine. There's also a bit of a Bill Withers side. It's the first time we had ever written a song like this, and it was very pleasant to do. The approach was very minimalistic, but it reassured us on our process, because with only a bass guitar and a snare drum, you can write fucking good songs! The groove doesn't need anything else. It's also a song that says a lot about us, since it was born from an exchange between Ben and I. That's a band, it's an alchemy, an improvisation in the middle of chaos. We're in the same plane, we're working together to reach our destination. The complementarity which is the base of Royal Blood, you can really hear it on this particular song.

You were friends before starting the band, did Royal Blood change anything in your relationship?

M.K. : Oh yes, Royal Blood tightened the bonds between us. We have shared so much during these last three years... We spent more time together than with anyone else. In this kind of situation, hatred and love are your only options. We could easily have torn each other apart on the road, we could have learned to hate each other, but the opposite, we became closer than ever.