The Welsh indie-rock quartet Royston Club has firmly established itself as a rising force to be reckoned with in the vibrant, competitive indie music scene. Their critically-acclaimed debut album, Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars, reached #16 on the UK Official Album Chart before the band went on to achieve a number of significant milestones which included selling out the iconic KOKO venue in London, headlining three consecutive summer sets at Glastonbury and headlining the largest show in the band’s hometown of Wrexham. The band’s growing reputation even caught the attention of renowned local superstar Ryan Reynolds, who publicly expressed his admiration for Royston Club’s work. And now, as the band sets its energies towards preparing their second album, they have recently dropped the single ‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’ – their first new material since the release of ‘Shaking Hips’.
Produced by Rich Turvey (Blossoms, Courteeners) and recorded at Liverpool’s Kempston Street Studio, The Royston Club’s latest single sees the band demonstrating a new level of confidence, capturing the raw energy of their live performances, all the while exuding the composure that comes with a newfound wealth of experience.
Commenting on the genesis of their latest release, guitarist and main songwriter Ben Matthias says, “This song is meant, at its core, as a cry to the person I was falling in love with at the time. It’s about that point in love when you want to spend every minute of your days and nights with that person but ultimately can’t be sure where the relationship is going.
I try to come to terms with that in the chorus, admitting ‘I’ll fall gently in this grove, in the patch where nothing grows’ if the love isn’t ’necessary’. It’s an honest account of my viewpoint at the time and hopefully one many can relate to.”
Following the success of the single’s release, which Steve Lamacq premiered on 6 Music and garnered further airplay from Radio X (John Kennedy and Chris Hawkins), the band has announced two additional headline shows at Cardiff’s Tramshed (14 November) and Newcastle University (15 November).
To celebrate the band’s return, CinemaChords caught up with the band’s frontman, Tom Faithfull, who enthusiastically discussed their brand new single, the band’s experimentation with a different production approach for their upcoming material, and the progress they’ve made so far on their highly anticipated “difficult” second album.
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