Hiya Van Royale, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
DUNCAN: Well through-out school I was a pudgy kid with a comb over so I was really grasping at the straws of anything that could make me look cooler. Then after a few years of playing I realised that it might actually be something I enjoyed. Now I’m here just without the comb over.
GEORGE- probably towards the end of Secondary school I decided. I was( and still am) obsessed with John Frusciante from Red Hot Chili Peppers and at 18 he was already an incredible guitarist and in a big band, so I decided I was also going to sit in my bedroom all day practising so I could be as good as him by the time I was 18. I’m now 27 and I’m still not as good as him..
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
DUNCAN: My name is Duncan. I sing and play rhythm guitar for the band. There’s not much to my musical history really. Song writing has always been at the forefront of my skill set. It’s what I’m most confident in and what I look for in all the music I listen to.
GEORGE- I’m George and I play guitar for the band. I come from a very musical family so I was always around it. I started playing in bands when I was 13-14 and I’ve been in bands ever since. I love working out my favourite songs by ear and writing my own music. As long as I’m being creative I’m happy.
Michael Sullivan is our bass player and Brent Blakey is our drummer. Together they make up the Van Royale rhythm section.
What’s the live music scene like in Liverpool right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
DUNCAN: The music scene in Liverpool is pretty great, everytime I go to a gig there is a new band that blows my face off (in a good way). We’ve had the chance to play with Pale Strangers a few times and they’re always unreal. Super nice guys too.
GEORGE- Yeah I’m a big fan of Pale Strangers’ new EP- plus they were the guys who introduced us to Ian from Red Lantern Records who we ended up getting signed by so we owe them a lot. Liverpool has a great music scene but scousers don’t like to talk or brag about our city’s musical history much..
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
DUNCAN: We don’t know about any of that online stuff. We’ve just been sending Michael door to door, handing out CD’s. He’s almost covered most of Maghull so we’re popping off there at the moment.
GEORGE- yeah it’s a difficult one. We found that people were very supportive online around the time the Van Royale OnlyFans went live. Must be a coincidence. I’m sure they are all invested in our music
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
DUNCAN: Somewhere between the guy who plays the keyboard outside the primark in town and coldplay. I’ll let you decide what end of that spectrum we’re closer to.
GEORGE: I think we’d do a lot better in the industry if we’d hired 4 better looking doubles of ourselves to stand on stage and we play our instruments behind a curtain.
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
DUNCAN: We’re a rock band from Liverpool. The title’s of our songs are usually the last thing we decide on. We’re an industry plant and none of us actually know how to play our instruments.
GEORGE: I have never told a lie in my life.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
DUNCAN: To be honest, it’s never even crossed my mind. Maybe that’s a problem. Our sketchy pasts are bound to catch up with us one day but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
GEORGE: I’ve been cancelled many times within the band. I always bounce back.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
DUNCAN: Erm… not really. I think we’re all pretty well educated intellectuals. Oh, aside from the earth being flat and lizard people running the world. I feel like that’s just common knowledge at this point though.
GEORGE: I’ll leak one theory that I sign up to. Micheal Sullivan our bass player is actually a result of an off-screen affair between Mike Wazowski and Sully from monsters inc. It’s all been covered up for his safety.
What was your best experience on stage?
DUNCAN: I wouldn’t say there’s been one specific moment but we’ve had a lot of gigs where everything just kind of feels right. We’re playing really well, the crowd are into it and we’re just having fun. Those are always the stand out shows for us.
GEORGE: I’d say either our first gig at the Jacaranda or our gig at Future Yard on the Wirral.
Literally just because some of the sound guys at those venues are brilliant at their job and when everything’s sounding right for you on stage you feel so confident
What was your worst experience on stage?
DUNCAN: We’ve played some small stages but there was one in particular where we all just kept hitting each other with our guitars by accident. I’d be in the middle of singing and feel someone’s headstock ram into my back. That was pretty funny.
GEORGE: we played an outdoor festival in summer and as soon as we stepped on stage the
heavens opened and we had to stop. Safe to say God is not a VR fan
Tell us something about each member that you think people would be surprised about.
DUNCAN: I have no idea what I’m doing. Everytime I sit down to write a song I feel like I’m learning the whole process over again.
GEORGE: when I was a kid I almost got ran over by Hugh Grant in a sports car
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
DUNCAN: Well, if Michael hurries up handing out the CD’s we might be able to play a few community centres this year.
GEORGE: open a Band feetfinder account. It’s been a long time coming.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
DUNCAN: Yeah, we have a bunch of new songs coming out over the next few months. We’re all quite proud of them. I think after a couple years of gigging it’s really nice to come out the other end with a solid set of songs that capture the hard work we’ve put in thus far. Some of them are a lot of fun too, I’m excited for people to hear them. I think the sound we’ve developed will surprise a lot of people. In a good way of course.
GEORGE: really made up with the new songs. There’s so much variety in what we’re putting out it covers a lot of musical territory. It doesn’t sound like anything coming out of Liverpool right now put it that way.
What was the recording process like?
DUNCAN: We recorded our new stuff with Ben Harper at Motor Museum. We were really surprised with how great the songs came out. Not that we didn’t think they were great going in but I think Ben really polished everything off and made them sound like how we heard them in our heads. Motor Museum is a special place. It has been responsible for a lot of work that I grew up listening to like the Arctic Monkeys, Ben Howard, The 1975 etc etc etc. It’s an atmosphere that makes it really easy to experiment and refine your sound. There’s also an amazing donut shop around the corner. I should’ve mentioned that first.
George : Big thanks to Ben Harper. I’ve never been totally content with previous recordings of my guitar on songs but really made up with some of the sounds we’ve made together in the motor museum. It’s closer to the sound I hear in my head.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
DUNCAN: I think a big writing principle for us was ignoring the pressures of what might make a song successful and instead just making songs that we all just love to play. Playing live is a big factor when writing our song. Some songs just don’t really translate into that setting, we kind of circumvent that by writing all of our songs in a rehearsal room where we can jam them out live.
George : Recording in the studio is an entirely different world to playing live. Certain gear and techniques that sound great live will not translate to the studio- you have to have a fresh approach to songs in the studio.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
DUNCAN: I’d probably scrap all of it and record a bunch of creed covers. No one seemed to be on board with that the first time I brought it up though.
GEORGE: double the amount of guitar solos. JK
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
DUNCAN: Just to listen to our new tracks. We almost made a few quid off streams last year so it would be nice to make it into the double digits in 2025.
GEORGE: Watch this space.
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