Page 9 - Black Velvet Issue 91

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ho do you think deserves the musical throne? In ‘The Royal’, from
Wtheir debut album, ‘We Are The Royal’, Swedish four-piece Royal Re-
public once sang ‘We came to claim the throne’. It’s been eight years since
that mission statement, and Adam Grahn, Hannes Irengård, Jonas Almén
and Per Andreasson haven’t quite made it to the throne yet, but we definitely
think they deserve it. Latest album ‘Weekend Man’ is an abundance of fun,
pleasure and sheer rock ‘n’ roll brilliance.

hen Black Velvet asks guitarist hings haven’t always been going
WHannes and bassist Jonas what Tso well though. As mentioned, the
it’s going to take for them to claim the band have gone through record deal
musical throne, Jonas replies, “That’s a changes, took a small break when front-
tricky one. I think the only way to claim man Adam Grahn got burnt out, and
the throne is through hard work. You found it hard when writing latest album
have to tour and get your name out there ‘Weekend Man’.
so people know. We always do our best. Hannes says, “The making and the
It’s kind of a boring answer but every writing and recording of this record was
night you do the best you can do and extremely hard for us. That was a chal-
people always love it, but a lot of people lenge really. We were basically crying
don’t even know that we exist, so for us ourselves to sleep. There was a lot of
to be able to claim the throne I guess we frustration and a lot of anxiety. We, as a
have to get our faces out there even band, we put the bar extremely high.
more.” We’re not going to settle for anything we
But isn’t every band doing that? don’t think is kick-ass. And then when we
“And of course you need a bit of luck think something is kick-ass, there’s this
with a song… one song.” other guy, this management, this record
Hannes asks, “Who decides who is label, this producer, whoever, saying
sitting on the throne? We have a saying “Ahh, I’m not too sure about this,” and
in Sweden, ‘Taste is like the ass’. If you then it’s like starting over again and you
ask one guy, I’m sure he will say “This have the middle ground and everyone
guy is sitting on the musical throne right needs to be happy – us especially, obvi-
now,” and another guy will say some- ously. So making this record was ex-
thing else. I guess it’s up to each and tremely tough but it turns out it was
everyone, in the eye of the beholder.” worth the struggle because it turned out
“I guess Bob Dylan is on your really well and we’re extremely proud of
throne,” Jonas says, turning to Hannes. it. This is what every band says when
“He’s on my throne, definitely. And he they release a new album, that ‘this is the
will stay there,” replies Hannes. best shit we ever did…’”
The band’s debut album, ‘We Are The “But this IS…” says Jonas.
Royal’, was recorded for fun but the quar- “This IS the best shit we ever did,”
tet, who all attended the Malmö Academy Hannes adds. “I think so at least. And I
Of Music soon took the show on the road, think you agree,” he turns to Jonas.
so to speak. Hannes remembers, “In the “I agree,” replies Jonas.
beginning, we recorded an album for fun, The band actually took 18 months to
basically, and it just took off quite write this album. They put a lot of pres-
quickly, so we were lucky in that sense. sure on themselves to write the best
Lucky, and working our asses off. It went songs they could. The band also found a
quite quickly in the beginning and then it new record label to release this album. It
came to a halt, which I guess it does. You came out on Universal Music. Their pre-
can’t be going like this (has his hand in vious ‘Save The Nation’ studio album was
the air moving up) all the way. There’s al- released through Warner Music.
ways a plateau. And we were quite unfor- Jonas tells us, “Roadrunner got
tunate; we switched record labels, we bought by Warner and it changed it all.
had some bad timings. But it feels like Then we ended up on Warner, and we just
we’re out of this plateau and we’re on our got stuck in between, so we ended up
way up again. It feels great.” without a record label after a while. While
Right now the band are happy. Their we were searching for a new record label
UK headline tour in October went very we were also writing the album, the ma-
well. “Five out of six shows have been terial. There were a lot of people coming
sold out, which is overwhelming actually. in with their opinions. “This is how you’re
We worked our asses off for such a long going to do it, this should be you.” Our
time but we’re not complaining in any mindset was always on what WE wanted
way. It’s been great all the way but seeing to do. It’s always been like that – what we
the progress is absolutely amazing and wanted to do – and if we were able to
especially in the UK where the competi- please someone else with it that’s a
tion is so great, there are millions of great bonus. But it’s hard.”
bands here. You don’t get away with put-
ting on a half-assed show every second n ‘Weekend Man’ the band tried
night. It needs to be kick-ass all the way Onew musical styles, broadening
through and our hard work is finally pay- the sound they produced. ‘Follow The
ing off and it’s been a great run.” Sun’, ‘Any Given Sunday’ and ‘American
Dream’ all see the band stepping out of
their comfort zone and doing something

ROYAL REPUBLIC