Project Description

Interview with

ROYAL EAST

.

Royal East

.

Melbourne foursome Royal East wants to share their upbeat party rock with the world. Their first foray outside of their practice room/basement and onto the world stage coincides with the release of their debut EP, aptly entitled First. Take the time now to find more about the boys from Royal East: Patrick O’Bryan (vocals), Fraser Vandermeer (guitar), Tom Lowe (bass) and Nick Bridgman (drums).

.

OneBigLink Banner

.

How and when did the band form?

Our front man, Pat O’Bryan, played the matchmaker and brought everyone together via university, gigs and school. Pat and Fraser met back in 2009 during their high school years and became the best of mates over their love for music. At the time they went to different schools, played in separate bands and lived very busy lives, but they made a pact to one day form a band.

Fast forward five years, they attended the same university and met Tom and Nick shortly after. We made good on our pact and formed Royal East. We didn’t discover Royal East’s sound overnight. We’ve written and rewritten our songs countless times trying to get the most out of them and trying to share something of ourselves and our ideas through the soundscapes that we create. The work has, of course, been worth it for us. Everything is clicking into place. We’re confident now that we’ve cultivated a real experience for our fans.

.

Who or what inspired you to you pursue a career in music?

We all have different inspirations for pursuing music, but they all stem from being blown away by different live performances. For Pat, it was seeing Wolfmother at Byron Bay’s Blues Fest aged 10. The Australian boys towered on stage. They were impressive role models in the early years. He started writing and drumming in his first rock band that year.

For Fraser, it came from watching his older brother perform in bands. Still a kid, he remembers sneaking into countless venues as a roadie with the band, just to watch them perform. Watching local bands perform at intimate gigs was incredibly motivating and it made the dream feel real and close. Those experiences inspired him to go home; practice and one day form his own band.

.

Who are your main musical influences?

Most of us are classically trained in our instruments, including Pat in violin, believe it or not. There can be no doubt that we derive our *slightly* perfectionist ear from thousands of hours worth of scales and studies. In modern styles, Pat is moved by the music in which the tone itself tells a story and where the lyrics then expand upon that narrative. Flume and Kendrick come to mind as particular examples of that effect. For Fraser; the bluesy hard rock of Led Zeppelin and the stadium anthems of Muse. For Tom, the filthy bass riffs of Kingswood and Arctic Monkeys and for Nick, the crisp production and dance beats of Northeast Party House.

.

Royal East

.

Can you describe Royal East in one sentence?

If you’re looking for the house party, you’ve come to the right place.

.

What are the themes explored on the First EP?

First is a breakup album. Say Hey speaks to the games we play when we’re together, but we’re not settled. Everyone’s craving attention, but no one’s prepared to demand it. Step to Me is an apology and a promise. There are moments when words fail and bodies coming together is just what’s needed. Bear Your Love: that’s the passion, that’s the lust.

.

What inspires your song writing more broadly?

Through our sound, we always try to make our fans feel good. They come to see us for a good time. They want to be moved and they want to feel alive. Whenever we hit the drawing board to construct a new song, we’re always thinking about how it fits into our set more generally. We want to invite the audience in and show them around, show off the place a little: ‘yeah mate, here’s the new kitchen. What do you think?’ We write our songs intending the answer to always be: ‘we bloody love it in here’.

.

Royal East

.

What makes Royal East different to similar sounding bands?

Some bands write music solely for the opportunity to express an idea. In some ways, that’s genuine and generous – there’s incredible honesty in creating an exquisite microcosm of their world and sharing that with fans. On the other hand, there is something selfish about setting out to write purely for oneself, seeking a cathartic experience that doesn’t pay homage to the thousands of hours worth of listening and enthusiasm that the fans have put in to support your sound.

We care about telling an honest narrative and in every track we care about delivering something meaningful to our fans: we care about the sound we want to offer them and the energy we want to deliver to them when they’ve taken the time to come and see us, or to listen to us wherever they’re getting their music. It matters a great deal to us that they love what we’re putting down, so we put a lot of energy into putting little Easter eggs into our tracks, to adding different layers of intricacy to keep them engaged well beyond the first listen.

.

What has been your most memorable career highlight to date?

We played a ripping house party for our friends and fans to celebrate the launch of First. It was easily the best concert we’ve been involved in. Our friends were proud of us and we were proud to show them what we’d accomplished. It also gave us the opportunity to show them a stack of other tracks that we’ve been working on and will be releasing over the next year.

.

What is one thing you would like to achieve in your career that you haven’t done yet?

We’re downright eager to get on a festival line-up and to play a gig in the sun. We love a band-room as much as the next punter, but could there be anything better than an onstage tinny with the fans and a pair of sunnies?

.

If you could play any venue in the world, where would it be and why?

Glastonbury’s Rabbit Hole stage: we think Tom’s English accent is hot and we’d like to hear more of it around.

.

OneBigLink Banner

.

AMNPLIFY – DB

.

Connect with Royal East:

Interviewer Details