It’s not everyday you get gaffer-taped to a chair mid interview by a drummer. But it’s not everyday that you get to interview one of the most exciting, unpredictable new bands in Britain either is it…
Fortitude met up with Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher of Royal Blood ahead of their NME Awards Tour show at the Leeds O2 Academy. We spoke all things tour, 70s disco and a certain forthcoming album.
We’re here for the NME Awards tour tonight. How does it feel to be involved in what is a great line up of bands?
MK: It feels great. We’re big fans of all of them, especially Interpol, I grew up listening to them. So yeah, it feels fantastic.
What can we expect to see from your live show on this NME tour?
MK: We’re gonna play some of the songs we wrote, very loud. Other than that, I don’t know what to expect.
BT: There can always be surprises, you never know. It’s a live show, live music, anything can go wrong. Or right, you’ve got to be positive.
Being a duo, you’re bound to get the lazy comparisons to acts such as the White Stripes and the Black Keys. But who are your real influences?
MK: Obviously I grew up listening to the classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin. Queens of the Stone Age are a big influence on me, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana. But Ben is more on the disco kind of things I guess.
BT: Yeah I’m into a lot of 70s disco, like Boney M, I’m a massive fan. Have you heard their greatest hits? Wow. It’s incredible. Actually the man in Boney M doesn’t do any of the singing in the recordings, I think it’s actually their brother or something.
So do you try and fit any of that into your sound?
BT: Not really, I just like listening to it.
MK: You do a little bit. I mean, it doesn’t always fit in with what we do, but sometimes you do.
BT: Maybe on some of the B-sides.
Is it true that you played your first gig the day after deciding to form a band? How did that happen?
MK: We just wanted to start that way, and also we like showing off. We knew a lot of our friends were going to be at this bar, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to show off. We had four songs but they weren’t really finished, so I just made the lyrics up. It was just a bit of fun really.
Things seem to have taken off for you really quickly, and you’ve been getting a lot of attention from places such as Radio 1. How does all of that effect the process of being in a new band? Does it add pressure to get in the studio and record more music, on top of the demands of touring?
MK: Not at all. We’re just doing the same things we’ve done from day one really. I think no matter how quickly or slowly any kind of success comes, you’ve still always got the same thing in mind, which is writing great songs, even if they are disco songs.
You’ll be supporting Arctic Monkeys at their huge shows at Finsbury Park. How do you prepare for a show of that size?
MK: Press ups.
BT: Well that’s in May, so we’ve got a lot to do before then. I guess this NME tour is a good stage, I mean this is the biggest crowds we’ve played to on this tour, and Finsbury Park is just another level.
MK: It’s another milestone isn’t it. We’ve got a few more milestones to get to, so it’s not particularly on our minds at the moment. But it is going to be fun.
What was it like seeing Matt Helders wearing your T-shirt on stage at Glastonbury?
MK: It was pretty funny. We were all pretty drunk, and then we saw him walking out in our t-shirt. It was funny.
Were you expecting it?
MK: Yeah we made it for him. He asked for one and we didn’t have any, so we just made him one and gave it to him.
Will there be an album at any point this year? What can we expect from that?
BT: We’ve almost finished it, it’ll be coming late summer.
MK: Yeah, August.
BT: Little Monster will probably be on it, and Out of the Black. Just lots more tracks I guess, it’ll be great.
Finally, will you be sticking around to watch any of the other acts tonight? And who are you looking forward to seeing most?
BT: Yeah, we’re looking forward to all of them.
MK: We were a bit rushed off our feet yesterday, so we didn’t get a chance to catch them. So tonight will be good.