Royal Blood (band)



Royal Blood are an English rock duo formed in Brighton in 2013. The band's sound is reminiscent of and rooted in modern blues rock, hard rock, garage rock, stoner rock and psychedelic rock. Their first album Royal Blood was released in August 2014.

Formation
Royal Blood consists of lead vocalist and bass guitarist Mike Kerr, born on 19 June 1990, and drummer Ben Thatcher, born on 12 February 1988. The pair are from West Sussex: Kerr grew up in Worthing, while Thatcher is from Rustington. They first met around 2005 when they were teenagers, and for a brief period they were part of the same four-piece band called Flavour Country in which Kerr played keyboards and the keytar.

Royal Blood formed at the beginning of 2013 after Kerr's return to England from a sabbatical in Australia. Kerr had previously used the name Royal Blood whilst in Australia, working with a drummer called Matt Swan. When Kerr returned to England, Thatcher picked him up from airport and the two decided to form a band. Initially Royal Blood "couldn't get a gig in Worthing for months", and according to Kerr "we ended up just playing a lot of open-mic nights with acoustic singer-songwriters." The band developed their music in the studios of Brighton Electric, and it was during these months that they were signed by Warner/Chappell Music. The band joined the same management company as the band Arctic Monkeys. During the summer of 2013, Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders was seen wearing a shirt supporting Royal Blood (before the release of their first single) during Arctic Monkeys Glastonbury Festival concert in July 2013.

2013–present
On 11 November 2013, Royal Blood released their debut single, "Out of the Black", which came with a B-side called "Come On Over". In November 2013, it was announced that Royal Blood would be supporting Arctic Monkeys for two Finsbury Park shows in May 2014. In December 2013, Royal Blood were nominated for BBC Sound of 2014.

Royal Blood released their second single, "Little Monster", on 11 February 2014. The band also released a four-track EP, featuring "Out of the Black", "Little Monster", "Come On Over" and "Hole" on 11 March 2014 in North America. Their debut album, Royal Blood, was released on 25 August 2014 to commercial success and was well received by critics. Royal Blood was verified by the Official Charts Company as the fastest-selling British rock debut album in three years in the UK.

Royal Blood performed at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in March 2014; at Liverpool Sound City festival and at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow in May; and at Download Festival and Glastonbury Festival in June. They performed at T in the Park festival in July, and at Reading Festival, but got cut short at their Leeds Festival show, as well as Osheaga in August 2014.

In 2013, when asked by an Australian radio station Triple M Sydney 104.9 who his main influence was, Mike Kerr answered "Steven Hamblin from the rock band Graces Collide; he's so good, it hurts."

On 22 August 2014, Royal Blood released their eponymous debut studio album, it was released by Warner Bros. Records, with cover artwork by Dan Hillier, a London-based contemporary artist. The artwork went on to win the award for 'Best Art Vinyl' in 2014.

A video clip for "Out of the Black" entered rotation as part of cable network AXN Japan's "AXN Tunes" program in October 2014; music videos aired on-the-hour as filler in between regularly scheduled, syndicated programming.

In October 2014, Royal Blood announced details of their biggest European tour to date, starting in Germany on 10 January, and ending in Sweden on 23 March.

On 10 November 2014, Howard Stern said on his radio show that he was a fan of the band. He had watched them on a MTV Awards Show and was impressed at the sound coming from only a two-piece band.

Also, in November 2014, Led Zeppelin's guitarist, Jimmy Page said "I went to hear them in New York. They were fantastic. Absolutely riveting, they're such fine musicians. Their album has taken the genre up a serious few notches. It's so refreshing to hear, because they play with the spirit of the things that have preceded them, but you can hear they're going to take rock into a new realm – if they're not already doing that. It's music of tremendous quality."

The band, along with Iggy Pop, are due to support Foo Fighters on select dates during their 2015 UK, US and Canada tours.

Ben Thatcher has said that Royal Blood will be writing their next album during their tour with Foo Fighters.

In February 2015, at the Brit Awards in London, the band won the Best British Group Award presented to them by Jimmy Page.

In April 2015, they played the Coachella Festival in California and in June 2015, they played the Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati.

They opened for the Foo Fighters at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey on 6 and 13 July 2015, Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Canada on 11 July, Citi Field in Queens, New York on 15 and 16 July, Fenway Park in Boston on 19 July, Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on 13 August, Fiddler's Green in Denver on 17 August, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis on 19 August, Sprint Center in Kansas City on 21 August, Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on 22 August and DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan on 24 August.

On 29 and 30 August 2015, Royal Blood played the main stage at Reading and Leeds 2015. During both of these performances, the band had revealed a new song, titled "Hook, Line & Sinker".

In October 2015, the band had finished touring for their debut album. In an interview with the band, released in the same month, Mike Kerr had said that when they finish touring, they will have some time off and then start work on the second album.

On 16 October 2015, a video was uploaded to the band's official Instagram account showing the band in the studio. The video showed Mike Kerr playing the Robbie Williams track "Let Me Entertain You" on piano, with Ben Thatcher recording the video and singing. The video was captioned "Day 1. Robbie Williams #royalblooddocovers". They then continued these short covers on Instagram, covering songs from Vanessa Carlton, Gloria Gaynor, Spandau Ballet, Elton John, Coldplay and Michael Jackson.

On 29 March 2016, the band released a new track, "Where Are You Now?". Inspired by HBO's Vinyl. The song was later re-recorded during the making of their second album How Did We Get So Dark?.

On 11 April 2017, Royal Blood announced their second album, How Did We Get So Dark?, due out on 16 June. The following day, the band announced that on 13 April, the lead single "Lights Out" would be released. On 16 May the studio version of "Hook, Line & Sinker" was released as the album's second single.

Royal Blood are part of the Wayhome summer 2017 line-up in Oro-Medonte, Ontario.

In April 2017, Royal Blood announced four UK shows, starting in Cambridge on 17 May and ending in Leicester on 20 May.

Members

 * Mike Kerr – vocals, bass (2013–present)
 * Ben Thatcher – drums (2013–present)

Discography

 * Royal Blood (2014)
 * How Did We Get So Dark? (2017)