Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: Hey! We’re Royal Oak, a four-piece alt-pop band of longtime best friends (Myles, Mike, Austin, and Brayson). We were born and raised in Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada, about a 45-minute drive from Vancouver.
We kind of grew up learning and playing our instruments together, so it feels like a music career was always on the horizon. We started playing in cover bands together in middle school and high school, and we just never stopped playing.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: This is such a hard question because our music tastes are all over the place. Some of the first names that come up are EDM artists like San Holo and Porter Robinson, country bands like HARDY and Brothers Osborne, icons like Dua Lipa and Ye… Truly a little bit of everything. I think you can hear the crazy mix of influences in our music, but we manage to pull it all together into something cohesive.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘Royal Oak’?
A: We all grew up listening to our dads’ music, so early on it was a lot of good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll. Our first shows were cover shows, and it was all Hendrix, Zeppelin, Rush—the classics. Those bands probably influenced our playing styles, but not so much the music we write.
First big influence as a band? Probably Kings of Leon. Their album Come Around Sundown came out around when we were writing more original songs, and you can definitely hear it in our first record.
As for the band name, it’s one of those “right place, right time” kinda stories. Back in 2014, our singer Austin was on the train one day and he fell asleep (which, if you know him, is a very Austin thing for him to do). Anyway, he woke up at the station called Royal Oak, and the rest is history.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Run Into the Night’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Yeah, we’ve been super happy with how Run Into the Night has been received so far!
The song started as a little synth demo that Austin called MURPH. When we started writing he pulled it out and we all dug the opening section (which is still in the song) and we kinda worked from there.
The lyrics came later, and they have this super nostalgic quality to them. It’s essentially a love song to those summer nights you had when you were younger. We wrote this song over Zoom in the early pandemic days, and you can tell we were missing just being with people and going outside—there’s a ton of pent-up energy in the track. But there’s also this longing for a time when things weren’t so complicated. I guess you could say that’s a pretty typical pandemic feel. But yeah, we’re really happy with how it turned out.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: Definitely. We’ve been recording new music for the last two years, and it’s slowly coming together into an album. Probably 10 to 12 songs? We don’t have a name or a release date yet, but if all goes according to plan, the record should be out in Fall 2023. Until then, expect a few more singles here and there.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: We call ourselves “alt-pop,” but it’s so hard to put a label on your own music. Really, if I were to pick one word to describe our music, I’d say BIG. We pride ourselves on a kickass live show and we try to make that come across in every song we record—chunky guitars, wide fuzzy synths, beefy drums, all that jazz. And of course, all of those diverse influences come through, too—pop-punk, EDM, hip hop. It all comes together as this wall-of-sound pop with enough musicianship and twists and turns to keep things interesting.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: I mean, we put an insane amount of work into our music. We’re 100% independent, so everything from writing to recording to booking tours to cover art to budgeting—it’s all us. And even though it’s so much work, it’s SO much fun. We’ve met so many incredible people, toured all over the country, played with incredible artists. It’s unbelievably fulfilling—even if it is all a bit overwhelming at times.
So yeah, I don’t know that we expect more from music, but we sure would like more. We’re always gunning for bigger shows, louder crowds, longer tours. Slowly but surely we’re getting there.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: We’re usually a “music first, lyrics second” kind of band. In the before times, we would get together in a room and jam on an idea until a song structure came out of it, and we’d tweak it from there.
When we had to isolate, our whole creative process had to change. We went from jamming in a room to passing ideas back and forth over Zoom. So most of the songs on this upcoming record weren’t as collaborative to begin with; they started as half- or fully-finished ideas that one of us would bring in. And that was totally new to us.
But overall, I think it was a good thing for our songwriting. The initial ideas that came in were much more focused because they came from one person. And then, when we were fleshing out the demos together, we had to be a lot more deliberate with things. We’re glad to be writing in person again, but that forced change we went through has definitely changed our creative process for the better.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: You know, we all come from pretty good upbringings and we’ve been blessed to have pretty fantastic lives.
As cliché as it is, the hardest thing we’ve been through as a band is probably COVID. We couldn’t play shows for over a year. We didn’t even get to be in the same room for months and months. It definitely felt like we lost the momentum we’d been building and that we were gonna have to start from scratch.
And in a way, we kinda did, but I think that forced break ended up being good for us. We’ve come out of it more focused, more determined, and just better overall at what we do.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Honestly, all of 2022 has been a highlight for us. We’ve hit some big streaming milestones, played a successful showcase at Canada’s largest music conference, and just last week we opened up a sold-out show in Vancouver for New Zealand’s biggest band, Six60. It’s just been a really good year, and it’s looking like next year will be even better! So hopefully if you ask us the same question a year from now, we’ll have all sorts of new high points to touch on.
