The Royston Club are excited to share their second studio album – and believe they’ve progressed from their debut while also keeping the elements people originally liked.
Songs For The Spine is due to be released on August 8, and will be followed by the four-piece’s biggest UK and EU tour to date at the back end of the year.
Prior to taking to some big stages on the road, the Wrexham band will play some smaller venues next month to coincide with the release of their new record – including Liverpool’s Jacaranda Baltic on launch day.
“All of the in-stores are piling up, it’s something stupid like 15 gigs in 15 days,” lead singer Tom Faithfull said.
“This is the coolest bit because you get to go out and meet the people who are buying your record, so it’ll be nice to hear fan feedback and what they think. It’s also the hardest working bit of it all.
“It’s almost daunting as well, because there’s so much more pressure being three yards away from someone when you’re playing rather than being at a big venue.
“You also get to speak to people after, which is a mad experience because they will tell you what they like and don’t like.”
A couple of months after the release of Songs For The Spine, The Royston Club are on tour throughout October and November, with things starting in Brighton and ending in Hamburg.
Along the way, they will play a number of sold out shows, including in Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield.
“That’s the tour everyone’s looking forward to the most because the venues are a bit of a step up, and it’s going to be pretty much a new setlist – which is exciting because it can get stagnant if you play the same one over and over again,” Faithful added.
“We have September off, and then straight into October with the UK, and the EU in November. That’s why we do it, so we can play to all of these people. It should be a lot of fun.
“We definitely haven’t been an overnight success kind of band, so we’ve played every venue in pretty much every city. It’s really nice.
“This tour has been a bit more of a dramatic jump up, but it’s never previously been drastic leaps up in venues.
“You realise how many great venues there are – there’s so many places that need more support.”
The band’s debut album Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars got a top 20 finish in the UK Charts.
Guitarist Ben Matthias states they aren’t too concerned about where they finish this time around, as long as they hit their personal goals.
“The most important thing is just to sell records, because every week it’s a different milestone for what you need to get into the top 20, top 10, top five,” he stated.
“As long as we sell as much as we want to, which is what we’re doing at the moment, then that’s more important to us than chart position, but that being said – a top 10 would be nice. We’ll see what happens, but we’ll be happy either way.”
Matthias states there were certain differences between creating the second album compared to the first. “It had to be a lot quicker, that’s the main thing,” he added.
“There’s less time to deliberate over things in certain songs. The period of them coming together from the initial point of writing the song to playing with a full band is really short, and because of that, the songs are a lot more stripped back.
“With the creative process being so quick, you think of things you’d never think about. Pressure is a good thing in music. We knew we had a year to write it, and we had no other choice, so it was fun. It’s a good kind of pressure.
“We’ve got something to go off because of the first album, and we knew what people liked, but at the same time we wanted to show things that we didn’t show on the first one. We wanted to show more depth, and I think we’ve done that.
“We’re really happy with how we’ve progressed from that first album, while keeping the sound that people liked. It was something we were conscious of, but we’ve got the balance just right.
“We’ve had the songs for a year, a year-and-a-half. We started playing Cariad as a band in January of last year.”
“I think the first time we played it was at the Zoe’s Place gig,” Faithful noted.
“I vaguely remember trying to remember the lyrics about an hour before we went on. It got a good reception then, which is a good indicator of how it’s going to go.
“We’re quite lucky having a producer who understood what our first album sounded like, and got the memo of what we wanted the second to sound like so he could gradually push us in the direction he thought we wanted to go in.”
Another Liverpool gig The Royston Club have done in recent times was at Sound City – where they topped the bill at Grand Central on the opening night.
“Outside of our home town, it was the first headline we did,” Matthias said.
“It was a class night actually. It was a beautiful venue, an amazing crowd, and the first of the year – so it felt good. Since starting a band, it’s what you want, so it’s great.
“When you think of festivals, you think of a field, but we were really happy with that.”
Not too far away from Liverpool, the band remain very proud of their home roots in Wrexham. The Welsh city has been recognised internationally in recent years due to the involvement of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at the local football club.
“It’s always been the coolest place,” Matthias joked.
“Last night we were in Newcastle and someone came up to us asking if Ryan Reynolds was going to come out.
“Three or four years ago, most people wouldn’t have heard of it. Whether that makes it cool or not, I don’t know, but the place is on the map now.
“I’ve not noticed much difference there. The promotion parties have been great, but the rest of the time it’s like it’s always been, maybe slightly more optimistic.”
The Royston Club’s Songs For The Spine album is out 8 August. Their tour starts this Autumn. For more info and tour tickets visit theroystonclub.os.fan.
