00:05Hi, I'm Jordan, you're watching NME and we're here with Ben and Mike off of Royal Blood.
00:10How are you guys doing? Very well, how are you doing?
00:12Yeah, really, really good. So you guys did a secret set earlier on the gallery stage.
00:18I always like to do a little sort of post-match analysis. How was that for you?
00:22Yeah, we're really happy. Yeah, it went really well.
00:27We've started playing live again after about two years, not doing anything.
00:32So, yeah, we've had a real nice kind of road to Reading,
00:36where we've done a bunch of shows and kind of dusted off the cobweb.
00:39So, yeah, today it felt like, yeah, we'd arrived.
00:43Well, you've been playing a lot of these kind of smaller shows, earlier shows.
00:47How is it for you getting back to playing those smaller stages?
00:52Like, you know, you obviously could be playing massive, massive stages.
00:55Is it kind of like good to be getting back to basics?
00:58Is it like going back to where you started?
01:00Yeah, they never feel small.
01:03There's always a level of intimidation to them.
01:05But I think that's really just playing live by nature.
01:09I think there is that element of excitement because, you know,
01:13we play live and things can break and go wrong.
01:16So, yeah, that's big enough for us.
01:18Is it kind of weirdly more pressure to play a smaller show?
01:22Because you've got nowhere to hide.
01:24You don't anyway, really, with two of you.
01:25I think the pressure always comes on the sort of pressure we put on ourselves
01:28to kind of play really well.
01:31Right, right, right.
01:31You know, so I think the kind of size of the room is not relevant,
01:36but, yeah, we're kind of holding ourselves to a particular standard.
01:39Right.
01:39But, yes, I guess sometimes when it's like smaller,
01:42you can kind of see people's eyes.
01:44Yeah, you see the whites of the eyes.
01:47Yeah, it's a bit of that.
01:48But, yeah.
01:48It's over ten years now since you did your Reading debut
01:51on the NME radio on stage, RIP.
01:54I dug out the NME report from the time, which was very excitable.
01:59You know, they were talking about huge crowds and stuff,
02:00which I know you had this time as well.
02:02What do you remember of that show?
02:05Being pretty scared.
02:06Really?
02:07Yeah, I mean, kind of exactly what we were just talking about,
02:09where, you know, we were playing probably kind of 100 capacity rooms
02:14on a UK tour, maybe like our first or second UK tour.
02:20And, yeah, I think Reading was just a stop off in that tour.
02:24So we were playing to like, some of those shows sold out,
02:28but a lot of the time it was like 50 people, you know?
02:31Right.
02:31So we showed up to the NME stage and it was thousands of people.
02:36We'd never really done that before.
02:39So it felt like a bit of a baptism of fire.
02:42But, yeah, my memory of it was just having a really good time.
02:45Yeah.
02:46A very, like, very memorable experience, for sure.
02:49How about you, Ben?
02:49Was it scary for you?
02:50I mean, you can hide behind the drum kit at least.
02:53Yeah.
02:54Hiding's not quite the word when you're at the front of the stage.
02:57I guess that's true, yeah.
02:59But, I mean, Reading's been a festival that is quite close to our hearts.
03:04You know, Mike went there when he was quite young and just to play it was a massive thing.
03:09And, yeah, I remember it being quite scary playing in front of that many people.
03:16Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
03:17What are your formative Reading memories?
03:21Gosh, you probably have more than me.
03:23Yeah, just sort of, you know, one day at a time being covered in mud.
03:28Sort of a survival game, really, isn't it?
03:30Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah.
03:31I think it's changed.
03:32I used to go to Leeds and it was quite feral.
03:33I loved it, yeah.
03:33I think it's changed a lot over the years.
03:36The kids are a bit more sensible than we were.
03:39The new single, or the comeback single, 10 over 10, is massive.
03:45How do you do that?
03:47How do you make it sound so fresh or keep it sounding so fresh when there's just two of you
03:50and you're working, you know, in quite a limited way?
03:53I think, you know, that song and the whole record that we just made was a result of kind of,
04:00yeah,
04:00going back, focusing on making it about sort of how primal our music can be when there's such little going
04:09on.
04:10But there's a sort of paradox that happens, I think, when you keep removing things where, you know,
04:16with our band, you know, sometimes it can sound bigger because there's less things going on.
04:22Or sometimes it can sound smaller, depending on whether you get the kind of recipe right.
04:26And, yeah, we were just digging for those moments in the room where it felt like there was more than
04:32two people playing.
04:34Yeah, and 10 over 10 was just that kind of, like, very primal, very, like, yeah, it felt fresh
04:41because I think we were playing in a way we hadn't played before, even though we kind of had the
04:45same instruments.
04:47Yeah, yeah.
04:47It's like a sort of never ending riff machine, the stuff you come out with.
04:52I think perhaps two pieces, you know, the focus comes a lot on variation,
04:58but I think you sort of have the same problem if you're in a three piece or a four piece
05:03and every band member's playing the same instrument. You're all just in the same band, the same characters.
05:09Yeah.
05:09The same dynamic and you're trying to work out how to go to new territory without doing something that isn't
05:16sort of honest, you know?
05:18Yeah.
05:18And I think for us it felt really exciting and really authentic to play faster and heavier than ever,
05:25that kind of concept in itself. That became the fire to go and make this record.
05:31That's amazing. And that record is Dead Company. What can you tell us about the record?
05:36It's pretty relentless.
05:39That's the key word, is it?
05:40Yeah. We sort of, the kind of idea was just to keep, can we just make a record where it
05:49never lets off?
05:50Wow.
05:51And can you kind of, I sort of commend anyone that can make it to the end, really. It's pretty
05:56brutal.
05:57Like a horror film.
05:58Like a horror movie.
05:59Yeah. There's not really any breathing room. And I think every song on the record, you know,
06:07we were imagining playing live and making sure that when we played them live together, they felt good.
06:14Right.
06:14Because I think ultimately, you know, that's kind of why we're in a band playing live.
06:20Yes.
06:20That's the payoff for us.
06:22I also think it has the energy of our first record and the excitement of that.
06:27Uh-huh.
06:28But we're, you know, four albums with experience of writing songs and, and I think it's a reflection of our
06:34last album as well.
06:36We, you know, we made that in a different environment.
06:38And this one was us coming kind of back together and playing in a room together and having that energy
06:45and that fun.
06:46And yeah, I think it, it reflects on stage.
06:50Yeah.
06:50And it was, it was just something that we really wanted to bring to the stage again is that raw,
06:57you know, unedited feeling of playing rock music.
07:01My God, you know, like when they do trailers for horror movies and they sort of, uh, vox pop people
07:06when they come out and they're like, Oh my God.
07:08You should get, you should get, put some people in a room, play them this relentless record and then, uh,
07:12vox pop them afterwards.
07:14Uh, but you were away for two years and you come back and do this relentless record.
07:18Is it hard to get back into the swing of that?
07:21Or is it just comes naturally now?
07:23I think there's certain songs on our set list that are just so baked into our muscles.
07:29Right.
07:30Right.
07:30You know, it doesn't take much to kind of remember how to do that.
07:34I think overall though, playing live, it does take a second because it's a super intense experience for us.
07:42You know, we're really busy the whole way through kind of, we're sort of still driving manual.
07:48Right.
07:49Right.
07:50We're doing it the old school way.
07:51And I think, um, you know, there's a lot of pedals for me to hit and, and Ben's doing about
07:57three people's jobs as well.
07:59So it's like, I think it's more kind of getting a match fit mentally for that.
08:03You know, that, that isn't something necessary we can just turn on.
08:06Um, but yeah, I think after like five or six shows, you, you, we kind of find our groove again.
08:13Uh, what were you listening to in the couple of years that you're away?
08:16Not much.
08:17Really?
08:18Not much.
08:18I really want, yeah, I, I really took a break.
08:22And, um, I think by the time we started writing for the record in January.
08:28Yeah.
08:29It was just that sort of like full immersing in your own world basically.
08:33And just cause sometimes, you know, it can, it's, you know, you can get influenced and stuff,
08:39but I think sometimes it can also spook you out because you're, you can compare yourself
08:45to what someone else is doing.
08:47Right.
08:47And I think, um, yeah, like it was kind of like really locking in and heads down.
08:52So you just kind of cleared the mind.
08:54Yeah.
08:54It wasn't like I wasn't listening to anything else, but yeah, I wasn't like actively looking
08:58for stuff.
09:00I think the music that we were listening to doesn't reflect on the album that we've made.
09:05Okay.
09:05I think it was, we were enjoying listening to music like get down services and, and bands
09:10like that, which, you know, worlds apart from what we do, but, um, we just enjoy listening
09:17to different music and getting influences from different things.
09:21But I would say get down services is mainly what we were listening to.
09:26Amazing.
09:27What do you, what do you like about that band?
09:28I just think they're the best band ever.
09:30I just think they're the greatest.
09:32Um, I saw them live in New York and it blew my mind.
09:36Wow.
09:36Thank you so much for your time guys.
09:37It was great to chat.
09:41slow down.
09:41Transition Listen.
09:41You
