26 | October 30, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
This week’s entertainment highlights
the critical list
THE HEADLINER: MUSIC
Surly on the phone but absolutely electric live, ELLA WALKER talks to vocalist and bassist Mike Kerr on being one half of the biggest rock band of the year
Cambridge Junction,WHAT’S Saturday, ON HOT TICKETS November 8ON at 7pm. SOLDTICKETS OUT. WHAT’S HOT
Editor: Ella Walker email: ella.walker@cambridgenews.co.uk For breaking entertainment news for the city, visit cambridge-news. co.uk/whatson Follow @CamWhatsOn on Twitter
Royal Blood: “I would like Jesus to come to one of our shows. I think he’d be into it.”
Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | October 30, 2014 | 27
THE HEADLINER: MUSIC
FUN FACT: Mike Kerr, pictured right, used to be a chef ‘I don’t really get time to be marinating things now, put it that way, but when the mood strikes and the circumstances are correct I might get my cook on. But it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.’
I
T’S usually a total joy to get an interviewee who has entirely bypassed the whole media training spiel. Usually. Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr is something of an exception to that rule. Turns out he’s rather a fan of making sarcastic statements in bemused inverted air commas (eg “yeah, it’s been a mad rollercoaster without a seatbelt . . .”). It’s hard to appreciate late on a wet Thursday night, but, you could argue, this twopiece rock band formed in Brighton in 2013 does nothing but break the rules. So really, why expect anything less? Things first kicked off for the duo at Glastonbury last summer, when Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders loped on stage wearing a Royal Blood T-shirt for their Friday night headline slot. Frontman Alex Turner’s spangly blazer, new American twang and Kenickie quiff might have drawn headlines, but it was Helders’ tee that really started something. Earlier that year Kerr had arrived
back in England after living in Australia for a stretch, to be picked up by childhood mate Ben Thatcher. He already had a few ideas knocking around in his brain, bass notes, riffs and the like, so on seeing Ben – a drummer who got his first proper kit aged 6 after whacking at pots and pans almost since birth – he thought, why not go for it? They did, just the two of them, with Thatcher doing what he does best, and Kerr adding vocals to his bass playing skills. Their first gig went ahead in Brighton and was mainly populated by their friends, who enjoyed it so much, Thatcher and Kerr promptly vanished to go write some more stuff. On their return, beardier and wearing new leather jackets, that stuff, thanks in part to that fêted tee, started getting played on the radio. It was only ever meant to be a hobby. Then came the fans, shedloads of them. People are obsessed with Royal Blood’s brand of introspective lyrics layered over thrumming bass and the thrash of drums (“I have no idea why. I almost don’t wanna
know why,”). They crunch through the loud, punchy likes of Better Strangers and Figure It Out, and even the jauntier Two Tonne Skeleton, and without a guitar (there are no plans to recruit one, Kerr’s basslines often get synth treatment that render a whole guitarist pointless), which hasn’t prevented comparisons with Muse, Queens of the Stone Age and Led Zeppelin. These boys make enough noise on their own. Despite such serious rock credentials, in previous interviews they’ve actually admitted to growing up on not-so rock records, like pop anthems by the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys (Kerr), and the glam synthesis of Goldfrapp (Thatcher), but it definitely hasn’t done them any harm. In fact their debut self-titled album sold 66,000 copies in its first week back in July making it the best-selling rock debut since Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (and he relied on a lot of old Oasis fans for those sales). Even so, Royal Blood hadn’t really started playing their own headline
“Lars Ulrich came to our show, popped his head into the dressing room and yeah, he gave us a tour of San Francisco. It was pretty amazing”
gigs until February of this year, and now they’re facing down a string of sold out shows, including at Cambridge Junction. When we speak, the unsmiley pair are holed up in Winnipeg, Canada, having just finished touring in America. An “awesome” and very successful stint that culminated in a late night visit to the white clapboard house from the movie Mrs Doubtfire, with Metallica’s legendary drummer, Lars Ulrich. Yes, seriously, they instagrammed it and everything. The caption deadpanned: “Tonight took a turn. Lars @Metallica took us to Mrs Doubtfires house.” (sic) “That did happen yeah,” Kerr admits nonchalantly. “Lars Ulrich came to our show, popped his head into the dressing room and yeah, he gave us a tour of San Francisco. It was pretty amazing. Not many people can say that Lars Ulrich took them to Mrs Doubtfire’s house.” Amazing is something of an understatement, but recently they’ve been growing rather used to their heroes dropping by their shows.
28 | October 30, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
THE HEADLINER: MUSIC
What’s your favourite song to play live? ‘Better Strangers is a personal favourite of mine. I get to do a sweet solo in it.’
l Follow Royal Blood on Twitter @royalblooduk and visit their website at royalbloodband.co.uk.
Aside from Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, Haim’s Alana and Pixies, who they’ve been supporting recently, are all fans. As is Simon Pegg, according to Twitter, but he’s not quite so Rock & Roll Hall of Fame worthy . . . Do they ever get star struck? Kerr pauses, before deciding: “Umm, no, they’re just regular people. No, not too much.” But it must be pretty incredible – or daunting at least – to have these kinds of musicians, from internationally adored bands, turning up to watch you play, I persist. “It is great you know, they’re not just any old people, are they?” Kerr drawls. “They’re huge influences on us, so yeah, to have them at the show is a bit of a mindf***.” For a guy who underplays most things though, his ultimate choice – if he could have anyone screaming and sweaty right down at the front during a show – is a tad ambitious.
“I would like Jesus to come to one of the shows,” he says. “Yeah, that’d be great. I think he’d be into it. “I’m waiting around for him to come, like a lot of people are.” The band has been nominated for this year’s prestigious Mercury Music Prize and are hoping to follow in the footsteps of previous winners James Blake, alt-J, Arctic Monkeys and The xx. They’re battling it out with the likes of Cambridge boy Nick Mulvey, Jungle, Bombay Bicycle Club and Damon Albarn, but two weeks ago, when our chat took place, Royal Blood were tipped to claim the title. At the time Kerr wasn’t quite sure what that meant to him. “We’re odds on favourites to win?” he muses. “I can’t really feel that. I don’t know, I mean, what does it mean for you?” To be honest, I reply, I don’t know. I haven’t been nominated for the Mercury Prize. “It’s just great to be recognised in that light I guess,” he says, his tone vaguely bored. “So yeah, good
feelings.” Surely it was exciting when you got the call saying you were nominated? “Yeah, I don’t remember.” Not a life changing moment then? “Well, of course, but we’re always busy, always doing something. I’m constantly in and out of time zones you see,” he says, vaguely remembering that they had a drink “or three” to celebrate, which presumably they’d repeat if they did win (fingers crossed: the winner was announced last night, just after the News went to press). “Things like this seem to happen a lot,” Kerr says, not bragging, just stating a fact. While from the outside it might appear the band’s fortunes have changed dramatically in a very short space of time, on the inside, away from the media hype, it’s felt “spectacular” but far less stratospheric. “It’s grown organically, but that doesn’t mean to say it hasn’t been fast,” Kerr admits. “I like to think that when people come and
“It’s a blessing [having a tour bus] because it means you can play guitar while you go without hitting someone in the face accidentally because they’re in the seat next to you”
watch us live, we remove that hype element, because I don’t really know what hype is. It’s a weird one; it’s not really worth anything, to be ‘hyped’ about.” He adds: “It’s like being excited about a film you haven’t seen yet. You have to go and watch it and see what it’s all about.” On tour, despite things being intense with the travel, the endless venues, the lights and the drama, Kerr says he and Thatcher are a “happy camp”, mostly because they recently got a proper tour bus which means being able to write on the road properly. “[It’s] a blessing because it means you can play guitar while you go without hitting someone in the face accidentally because they’re in the seat next to you.” Which is excellent news seeing as their foreseeable futures are bound up in touring the world, during which, Kerr puts it succinctly: “The mayhem will continue.” Oh, it certainly will.