We just want to blow your mind!
Pared-back rock duo with a simple objective
Two became one again on Friday and mercifully for fans of real music, it had nothing to with the resurrection of the Spice Girls. Royal Blood, currently the most potent rock duo on the planet, hit the top spot with their second album How Did We Get So Dark?
The English band, consisting of Mike Kerr on vocals and bass, and Ben Thatcher on drums, took no prisoners supporting Guns N’ Roses at Slane recently, saying and doing little on stage other than rock harder than two men alone have any right to. ‘That’s the aim, isn’t it?’ Kerr says with a smile.
‘The best shows I’ve ever been to, I’ve had my mind completely blown. I want to give that feeling to people. That’s the power of rock ’n’ roll music – you can hold someone’s attention completely. There are very few areas in life that a stranger can do that to you.’
If you are a stranger to Royal Blood, then Kerr is the one who plays a standard bass in the manner of a lead guitarist. Through a multitude of effects he carries the hooks and substance of the songs. Thatcher is the not-so-secret weapon – assaulting a drum kit and doing the rhythmic work of two men.
They considered modifying their sound in the name of progress but a relatively simple idea has taken them far and changing for change’s sake proved folly.
‘With the first record it was bass, drums, vocals with the minimum of tweaks in production. On the second one we thought, “Let’s alter our own rules,”’ Thatcher says.
‘We had a bit more time to experiment in the recording studio but it still came out quite minimalist again. I think we found that the Royal Blood sound was just Mike and I, and the energy we create when we are writing or performing songs together. All the things we played around with we found flattened out the sound of the songs and made us more normal. I think it is the things that we don’t add that make us so powerful.’
‘The essence of our approach is questioning to what degree we can you reduce something,’ says Kerr, who turned 28 last week.
Even as the venues get bigger with each tour, the duo still favour the minimalist – but hardly reductive – approach.
‘Because of our set-up, sonically we sound good in both big and small venues anyway. It’s minimalist music,’ he says. ‘It’s not as if we have layers and textures. We trust that our sound will carry, so we can just crack on and write good tunes. But I don’t think it would be an anxiety if we didn’t have the sound we have.
‘I think when you are writing a song you are in dreamland. You are delving as far into the back of your imagination as possible. There are no checks and balances. It’s only later, when you play something for a while, you realise if it actually works.’
After seeing bands such as The White Stripes and The Black Keys power their way to arena and stadium status before them, Royal Blood knew that the two-person template worked. Ed Sheeran, of course, can command a multimillion euro fee to play such venues on his own.
Royal Blood’s next scheduled Irish concert will be a headliner in the 3Arena but their elevation to that status is, they say, not their primary concern or motivation.
‘We don’t see this as a business. We’re not thinking about markets or potential stages for the future,’ Kerr says.
‘We’ve never really thought on that level. We don’t see it as a sport. I don’t think I would feel that sense of achievement that someone like Ed Sheeran might.
‘As long as I know I’ve made the kind of music I want to make, then I’m happy. Some of the most profound moments have been in so-called smaller shows where there are only 200 people there in the middle of nowhere.’
Their sophomore album may have crashed in at the top of charts across Europe only this week but Royal Blood are not resting on their monarchical laurels.
‘We’re working on album three already,’ Kerr declares.
‘Sometimes the most creative time is when no one knows you’re doing it which is why I probably shouldn’t have told you that! We’ve done the first, we’ve done the second, we will move on to the third because it feels like we are going to be around for a while.
‘It’s the proof of the pudding – in fact, that’s what we should have probably called it. No, that would have been a crap name but you get the point.’
Very few people who have seen or heard Royal Blood don’t.
Royal Blood’s How Did We Get So Dark? is out now on Warner Music. They play Dublin’s 3Arena on November 26
‘I think it’s the things we don’t add that make our sound so powerful’