Royal Blood: "We don't need to do a collaboration album"

While the known sequel rule demands a 'bigger and fancier' outcome, almost a decade after making waves with their self-titled debut album, Royal Blood keep their sound grounded and completely personal. With their fourth full length release, the duet finds a new balance, pushing their boundaries and playing with dynamics in a way they've never done before. A few weeks after "Back To The Water Below" hit the shelves, we had the chance to talk with Ben Thatcher about throwing curveballs, touring with some of rock's biggest names, and the possibility (or lack thereof) of fancy collabs.

The sound of the new album features all your trademarks, but it also feels like a step in a new direction. Were there any changes in the creative process this time?

There are always changes in the creative process, through each song that we try and write and record together. With this record, we had the ability to self-produce and do it in our own studio, in our own time, so whenever we felt inspired by something or felt like being creative, we had the opportunity to get into our studio and do it there and then, just start recording. It felt quite natural for us to go and do that, and I think what's come out of that is something that feels like us right now. It is a step in another direction for Royal Blood but it's... like we don't want to ever repeat ourselves and we are always challenging each other to do something new and different.

The first taste from the new album was close to what most people were expecting, but "Pull Me Through" was a whole different thing; was it your intention to make a statement?

Absolutely! I think we felt with "Mountains At Midnight", it was kind of a nod to our first record and what people would class as the Royal Blood kind of sound, but then with the second one we felt like it showed more of what was actually on the album and what was to come. It threw a bit of a curveball, I think, into what people thought we were going to be doing. I think songs like "Pull Me Through" really reflect that, and I think it was a good blueprint of what this album was going to sound like and the variety in there.

So, with all the experience you already had, would it be safe to assume you anticipated some of the reactions, like a lot of people were like 'why do they sound like this'?

We've learned how to deal with other people's opinions on our music quite with "Typhoons"; it kind of paved the way for this new record. You know, that one was a little bit dancier, a little bit more I guess like French disco sounding than the kind of rock that we were doing before. Now this one, it's got its mellow moments and it has a more song-write-y feel to it, and I just think that people... I was actually quite surprised by the response in a quite positive way, because I wasn't sure how this one was going to be received by people. But I think people are enjoying us do what we love doing best and for us to take the reign on our songwriting and our music, so I think it was a good progression for us.

There is something special about a full-length record, a full creative piece

I have to say that when I first saw the album's tracklist, I couldn't understand why you didn't include "Honeybrains", but after listening to the whole thing it made perfect sense.

Yeah, it was a song that we always had. It was just... there were another couple of songs that we could have put on this record that we put on the deluxe version. There's a song called "Supermodel Avalanches" which is a more of a rock kind of a lot of energy to it and then there's a song that it's called "Everything's Fine" which is probably the quietest, most fragile song we've ever written; they're both songs that took from one end of the spectrum to the other, so we left them out as well. "Honey Brains" kind of just sat alone in its own, we didn't feel too pressured to pull it on the record just put it in there, because we think that we'd put together something that feels more fitting.

And also, right now, it makes perfect sense to release single songs or EPs; do you think we'll see more of that in the future?

Absolutely! It's a quicker way to get songs out and I think with the way people listen to music now, and people's attention spans, you know there's a lot going on so... I think EPs or five like track records, stuff like that would be good to do in the future, but there is something special about a full-length record, a full creative piece, you know, producing a whole piece of music and putting it out there. It is something that we we've always loved to do, and not just from our music but from other people's music as well.

One of the things that always intrigue me in your music is the way instruments complement each other, if that makes any sense. How do you achieve that?

I think for Mike and I it's... You know, it's only two of us together so it just works quite well with being just us two and not having that many opinions on our music. If Mike and I think it's working and it feels good, then it normally is the right way to go, so yeah we don't have too much of a problem with those kind of things.

We never felt like anything that we worked with someone else has been as good as what we've done by ourselves

Another thing that I find really interesting is the fact that in your albums, it's almost entirely just the two of you and your own music, no fancy features or anything.

No it's just us two and we do play everything live at our gigs, so we do have to have a bit of help from some of our friends who are fellow musicians, who come along and join us on stage, but on the record it is just Mike and I.

Was there ever any pressure by the record company or someone outside the band to try something like a collaboration album?

We don't need to do that. We never felt like anything that we worked with someone else has been as good as what we've done by ourselves, none of the covers or anything like that. We've always just followed our gut instinct and done what we've wanted to do, from the very beginning, so yeah we're just still doing that.

And you're nailing it! On a similar note, it's definitely not news, but I just loved your collaboration with Run The Jewels. How did that come to be?

We've been in a few festivals and been hanging with those guys a little bit, especially El-P, and we just tried to do some bits with them. So at some point they were like 'oh you guys should do something with this' and we thought it'd be fun just to do a little collab with them. But it was a song that they already had anyway, it was on their record, they just wanted to see what we could do with it, and we just had some fun with it together.

Sounds fantastic, really! And it was nice to see the worlds of rock and hip-hop collide, it's been a while since we've seen that happen on such a scale.

Yeah, it was cool!

We don't trust many people with our band, but Josh Homme is one guy that we do

One more question that I just have to ask; what was it like working with Josh Homme?

Ah, brilliant! He's a good friend of ours and we had spent a lot of time with him in America and in the UK, playing shows, us supporting Queens Of The Stone Age, and we just became real close. He was someone that we've always looked up to, we love everything that he's done musically and we just got time together to do some stuff in the studio, so we took that opportunity and just let the ideas kind of flow. He's amazing to work with, he lets you do what you do, and has just some great input into what we do so it was just brilliant.

And it's like the perfect match, from my point of view. Probably has to do with what you mentioned, him not intervening that much and letting you do what you do...

He knows how to how to push us musically and he knew where an idea was good and how we should present that, and we just trusted him you know to do that. We don't trust many people with our band, but he's one guy that we do.

Since we touched on the tours with Queens Of The Stone Age, and they're not the only huge names you've toured with, although you obviously sell out some really big venues on your own, does it ever feel surreal sharing the stage with such artists?

Oh, absolutely. There's so many shows that we feel like we don't belong there, like 'how did we get here?' [Laughs] But I think we've had that from the very start, we never expected anything to happen with our band, and to be able to go and play with our heroes and people that we've listened to growing up is always amazing. And to have our own fans coming to our shows and selling out venues, it's unbelievable. We will never take that for granted. It's something that is really special and we're really thankful for.

Through the years your music has been used on lots of visual media, from TV shows to video games; was there any case that you were contacted or straight up heard it and actually liked it?

There's been a few of those moments. I love it when we're on like TV adverts and I don't really know that or I've forgotten that we're on that specific advert, and it comes up, and like I recognize the song and then it's like 'ah yeah that's us!' [Laughs] That's fun, it's the same kind of feeling as the first time you hear yourself on national radio, just a really cool feeling!

We're used to the heat!

For one last obvious thingy, I just have to mention that Hellfest announcement and ask about your summer festival plans.

We'll be playing out around the world all through the summer! We can't wait for Hellfest, it looks like a fun show, playing both with Queens Of The Stone Age and the Foo Fighters, it's going to be a proper party!

And for the obvious question, although I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to answer even if you knew; any chance to see you in Greece?

I would love to! You know what, I was out in Greece for a holiday, I had a month off this year, and I was there for two weeks and I went and saw some local bands play at this... it's like almost like a village festival and they were playing lots of covers and I got to hang out with some Greek musicians, which was fun, we had a couple of tequilas together, it was great! A gig there would be really special!

It'd probably be hot if it was like an open air summer show, but special! [Laughs]

[Laughs] We're used to the heat! We played a show with Muse in Rome in July I think, and it was 40 degree heat, maybe 42 when we got on stage, and we made it through, so no worries!