Local Band Spotlight: The Royal
By Jordan ShroyerTuesday, June 23, 2009
"This is a guide to not having a guide."
After two years of songwriting, recording, rehearsing and compiling a perfectly felicitous line-up for performance, The Royal played their first show this past February. Methodical in their approach, The Royal -- brainchild of Chris Moore (former guitarist of the now defunct Orlando pop-punk act Rory) -- is not your typical band, and definitely not one you can easily label. From a distance, one may think they're nothing more than an evolution of the rock/pop/dance mess that has been congesting the teenage laden version of the indie music scene the past few years. But upon further inspection, it's easy to see that they stray far from it. Yes, it is rock/pop/dance -- but it's also so much more. They are intricate, sophisticated and catchy, full of surprises, and putting forth a constant effort to perfect their sound. Noticeable influences range from Muse to the Beach Boys to the Foo Fighters. Layers of harmonies and instruments from cellos and violins to trumpets and keyboards, mixed with the type of pop they write creates a wall of sound truly unique to The Royal -- and enjoyable to anyone daring enough to give them the time of day.
We sat down with The Royal's guitarist/singer, Chris Moore, and drummer, Joel Setzer, to ask them a few questions.
OTownStyle.com: How would you describe the Royal's sound to someone who has never heard it?
Joel: Every time we write a song we think about trying to make it epic . We still write pop music, but try to make it as timeless as we can for pop music. We try to stay away from the trends and make it something that can sustain over time.
Chris: We spend a lot of time coming up with little transitions and things you wouldn't expect to come next.
J: And layers to make the songs more interesting rather than play straight pop songs with just guitars. Chris adds a lot of strings, background vocals, melodies, and harmonies.
OTS: You seem to be very controlling of the way the Royal is presented, perfecting the songs for two years before attempting to play them for an audience. How do you think that method benefited you in the long run?
J: When we finally played live, we came out at our best rather than giving people the wrong first impression. We've always wanted to play for an audience, but its been hard to find musicians who can duplicate what we recorded.
OTS: Where you do get the inspiration for your lyrics?
C: Joel and Allen [Peoples, guitarist] write most of the lyrics.
J: Chris comes up with a melody first, so we come up with the words to match the melody and try to make it fun and a little sexy maybe? (laughs) A lot of it hinges on the melodies, because we always have them first and they change a little bit. But there is always that basic idea to stick with.
OTS: What about your inspiration for the music?
J: Can I say pot? (laughs)
C: I say my biggest influence is the just having fun. I like to write stuff I like to play and listen to.
J: When we write, we let the song go where it wants to. We don't try to dictate where a song is going. We write and take it step by step.
Check out The Royal @ www.myspace.com/theroyal
