In an exclusive interview with NME, Royal Blood have revealed how their new album was inspired by relationships, break-ups and Daft Punk.
Speaking to NME for this week’s cover story, the band revealed what went into writing their hotly-anticipated second album ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’
When put to the band that tracks like ‘I Only Lie When I Love You’, ‘She’s Creeping’, and ‘Hole In Your Heart’ make the record feel like a ‘break-up’ album, frontman Mike Kerr replied: “It’s been three years, you know? So I’ve had relationships throughout that period. It’s a subject matter I love writing about. It comes quite naturally to me. I definitely don’t believe in writing about one person in particular or one experience because it kind of ruins it. Talking about lyrics and explaining songs – to me, you sabotage your art.”
When asked about the sound of the record, Kerr replied: “We were going for a Daft Punk thing quite a lot and trying to fuck with the rock thing, I guess. ‘What would Daft Punk do if they wrote a rock tune?’
He added: “I don’t really like a lot of rock music. I mean, obviously I love a lot of it, but the tour bus is pretty spicy isn’t it? It’s pretty R&B-heavy. There’s a lot of things where you’d be like, ‘What the f**k? You like that?’”
Kerr also described closing track ‘Sleep’ as a “Black Sabbath hip-hop tune”.
‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ is released on June 16. Royal Blood’s full upcoming UK tour dates are below. Tickets are on sale here.
Wednesday May 17 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Thursday May 18 – Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday May 19 – Southampton O2 Guildhall
Saturday May 20 – Leicester O2 Academy
Thursday June 22 – Eden Sessions
Friday June 23 – Sunday June 25 – Glastonbury Festival