Is Royal Republic the grooviest band in Sweden since ABBA? Their new record seams to say yes! RockUrLife had the chance to have a nice little chat with Adam and Per, right in front of their tour bus!
Hi guys, welcome back! What is your link with Paris?
Adam Grahn (vocals/guitar): I think the first gig we did outside Sweden was here in Paris. Back in 2008. This was before we had a label.
Per Andreasson (drums): We flew down here and we felt like rockstars.
Adam: It was the early days. The people didn’t really know our music or maybe just a few might have heard us on MySpace. We didn’t had a record out or something. It’s just have been an ongoing love affair since. Every time we come back, it is always an highlight from the tour. This is why we decided to come for this promo tour here.
What are your favorite memories in Paris?
Adam: We came here for an acoustic show we other musicians as guests. We had this guy playing accordeon, which is a typical french instrument to me. This guy is very famous in Sweden because he sings very nasty songs about jerking off in public, fucking everything and stuff. And after our show at La Maroquinerie, we said that we wanted to go to La Tour Eiffel just to play one of these songs with an acordeon. We went out and we played those terrible songs, under the stars and it was a very nice memory.
This new album “Club Majesty” is a very natural evolution of your sound.
Per: Very much so. I felt we are a dancing band since forever. We always loved those dancing songs. Maybe not as much as we’re doing on this album. This time we went like: “let’s go where nobody else is going”.
Adam: Like you said, we always had this kind of thing in our DNA. After the first album, people outside the band tried to push us in other directions. They were saying: “you should be more like this, or more like that”. But never in our own direction. We manage to deal with this pressure. We always said: “No, this is our baby, we know what we’re doing”. It’s something we are very proud of. It wasn’t a shot to be more on the radio or something to piss off our fans. We have to decide what the band is.
Per: I don’t care if people stop to listening to us. They’re totally free to stop listening to us whenever they want. It’s ok as long as we can play the music we love.
Adam: When Metallica released “Load” and “Reload” after “The Black Album”, people accused them to selling out. I disagree, they would have selling out if they have made “The Black Album” over and over again. Selling out is doing what the people want.
Try to make people dance when you are a rock band, it’s complicated because everybody thinks that a rock band has to be tough and arsh.
Adam: Exactly and it takes balls to assume that. But, unlucky for many powerfull people in the music industry, we do have balls! It’s like when people in interview are asking me: “what is the most embarassing songs on your phone?” I don’t have guilty pleasures, I just have pleasures. Stop putting fucking boundaries on music. It has to be free.
We feel like there is a taste-police in music. You have to like this band just because it’s cool, even if you don’t listen to them.
Per: Are you talking about the Foo Fighters?
Adam: The most provocative things you can say in rock’n roll are: “I love Justin Bieber” and “I hate Dave Grohl”. (laughs)
How did you guys worked to reach your goals for this album?
Adam: We hate making albums. It really hurts.
Per: We only making them to go back on the road.
Adam: We are in a band to be on the road.
Per: For example, a song like “Anna-Leigh”. You write the verse, and it’s hard. Once you finished the verse, you go for the chorus. And you write three different choruses. And it’s like that for every song.
But “Anna-Leigh” is one of your best chorus.
Both: Oh cool, thank you!
Adam: I’m not gonna say no. At the end of studio day, we listen to the song second by second, and make sure it’s still interesting. We do that over and over for every song and it’s so annoying!
Per: In the begining you cut huge sections of the songs. And at the end, you’re arguing about one very snare hit!
Where did you guys recorded this album?
Adam: Half in Berlin and half at our own studio in Malmö. We do love Berlin because we know a lot people down here and it’s a very cool city to make the music we love.
Per: And it’s a city we can afford. (laughs)
Adam: We spent a lot of money on this record. We spent half of our budget on the mix alone, can you imagine? And that includes everything. Our managers yelled at us but, the music is number one priority. In the first place it’s for us, we need to be proud of what we do. If you can chose between one very good mix and one cheeper but less good, you will chose the very good one.
So now, the next thing is to hit the road.
Adam: It’s funny because last week we shot a video for “Anna-Leigh” and we realise that it was the first time that we played the song together. We wrote it in studio, we recorded it each one of us, and we shot a video but without playing it together just once!
Per: And in the video we’re pretending to play it, guitars weren’t plugged and I was playing a fake drum.
Adam: You see! At this time, there’s some songs we’re going to release that we never played together! It’s unbelievable.
And what is the idea behind the suits?
Adam: It’s not suits, it’s pyjamas. (laughs)
Per: We always work in uniforms so. We get tired of the tie, so now we’re wearing pearls. Every man should wear pearls.
So finally, the swedish you’re going to be compared with is… ABBA!
Adam: Oh yes, that’s sound fresh to us!
Per: We were sick of being compared with The Hives so now it’s ABBA, it’s refreshing yes.
Last question guys, our website is called “RockUrLife” so, what rocks your life?
Adam: RockUrLife rocks my life, of course.
Per: My dog rocks my life. Her name is Elsa.
Adam: Really, trully, “Club Majesty” rocks my life. But, music rocks my life. Even if I turned music into my job, I never stopped loving music.
Website: royalrepublic.net
