Royal Fools Interview: They share about their creative process, making music and new single ‘Pretender’
What made you want to become an artist and make music?
We’ve wanted to be artists our entire lives. Ever since we were little kids we would stay up late watching American Idol and mime out performances on the kitchen counter. At the beginning of high school we realized that if we wanted this, we would have to fully commit. That was when we started Royal Fools and turned our parents basement into a makeshift studio, spending every spare second making music.
Can you tell us about “Pretender”? What’s the story behind it?
Last year, Grey was in an on-again off-again relationship that broke his heart. While we were on our first winter break from college, back in our high school basement “studio,” we wrote “Pretender.” “Pretender” is written from Grey’s perspective begging his ex to pretend to be over him so they could move on from each other romantically and stay friends.
How would you describe your music style? And what’s your creative process when you write new music
We are rock and rollers at heart. We live for the high energy side of music, crazy live performances, really raw instrumentals and vocals, but Grey is really into an “overproduced” style. There’s hundreds of tracks in “Pretender,” our debut, and when you have that many tracks it isn’t just about drums, guitar, bass and vocals. We’re messing with loads of orchestral sounds, timpanis, strings, choir, there’s even a live harp in “Pretender.”
Our creative process for making new music is always based on the lyrics. We build the instrumentation around our lyrics trying to build on the themes and ideas we’re talking about with the composition.
Describe your favorite part about being a music artist.
My favorite part of being an artist is when I get to show people the songs I’ve composed. My favorite nights are spent sitting in my dorm room surrounded by my friends just watching them vibe with the music August and I make. – Greyson
I’m a huge performer! Being able to connect with an audience is so so rewarding for me. I used to get stage fright but now it’s just like a bolt of energy to be up there. I’m always slamming my body around, jumping up and down and screaming my head off, having a blast. – August
How do you balance your music with other activities like work/ hobbies?
Honestly, it gets tough. Both of us are full time students on top of work and our music careers. We’ve been able to get by through making everything we possibly can about music: we both take music classes, Grey works in audio engineering, and August is a concert photographer!
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
Play live! Get out there and get your music in front of some eyes. It forces you to get better, it keeps you accountable. You can really see if people are liking what you’ve got or if you’ve got to head back to the drawing board. We’ve had our fair share of bad shows, everyone does, but getting back out there and learning from that is so helpful. Also, watching an audience engage with your music is so incredibly fulfilling!
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects?
We’ve got a whole lot coming. Firstly, we’re playing loads of shows in the next few months! We’ve also been working on our second single for almost a year already and it shows a completely different side of our music than “Pretender.” We can’t wait to share it!
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