The Cultcast Podcast Articles: My Royal Blood Experience By Nathan Campion

For the unlucky unaware ones, these two men are Ben Thatcher (The bearded one with a hat) and Mike Kerr (The bearded one without a hat). They are the sole memebers of the fanastic duo Royal Blood. Their self-titled debut(which you can pre-ordered here) will be released on the 22nd of August and I’m going to tell you why you need to buy it!

I thankfully got to see the pair perform at Marlay Park recently. With Miles Kane, Jake Bugg and The Arctic Monkeys also on the bill, the boys had tough competition. Playing a humble set comprised of seven songs, they managed to win the crowd over from the first beat. They brought an amazing energy to the stage, no tricks, no gimmicks, just a bass, drums and an amazing voice. The band

Image by Owen Humphreys of goldenplec.com

started with a song on the B-Side of their Little Monster Single called Hole. The song quickly got our heads banging as Mike played a instantly catchy Eb Mixolydian riff(music nerds will get what I’m saying). This song alone won me over.

Their stage presence also needs a mention here. They really seemed like two friends just rocking out and enjoying playing with each other (unlike some other artists on this bill who didn’t even make eye contact with their fellow bandmates). 

We also see that Mike is no slouch on bass. The riff in Come On Over is very reminiscent of some of the best Muse riffs and must be quite difficult to play while singing, Mike does this flawlessly and does it all with just one hand! Thankfully Ben’s drumming perfectly compliments Mike’s bass playing. He uses fairly simple beats to the best effect and manages to throw in some interesting fills when necessary. He doesn’t make things overly fancy but that’s fine, what he’s doing is perfect for the songs the band makes.

Finally the round it off I’m going to leave you with a song, it’s their lead single Out Of The Black 

- Nathan Campion