Formula Indie Sessions_Interview with Royal Commission
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
Watching music video clip shows on TV with the family. Sometimes they were live performances and others were these strange short films. If it was a cartoon one, even better!
How did your passion for creating music begin?
My brother was learning how to play keyboard but I got more out of it than he did. I’d had no lessons but plenty of song ideas, while he packed it in after learning the C major scale.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Royal Commission is a bedroom recording project created on a TASCAM DP-006 with secondhand gear, a cheap mic and a drum machine. Other than a basic mix and master in Audacity, it’s bona fide 4-track recording like back in the old days.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
Alternative Rock. It’s a term broad enough that you know what you’re getting while not knowing what you’re getting.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
How to take off the singer-songwriter hat and not care if you can’t sing it and play it at the same time.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process? Pen and paper (or digital notebook), audio recorder app and a guitar.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
All of them! They’re having a go and that alone puts them a step ahead of the talkers and dreamers.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
They all go into the lyrics one way or another, but usually in an abstract way, mixing events, different perspectives, feelings etc until the song just kind of works.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work? I guess that’s on them. If it helps you through or just makes you dance, I’ll be happy for you! What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
That reading the rule book (musical theory) is just as much fun as ignoring it! What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Wembley Stadium, maybe? Anywhere I can pull out every rock ‘n roll cliche in the book for my own amusement.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Darcy Clay. He was a one of a kind guy with a mad sense of humour and a DIY aesthetic. R.I.P Daniel.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music?
Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services. @royalcommissionband on Instagram. Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey? I’d like to mess around with one of those Playtronica TouchMe’s that can turn paintings into music. What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
That I’m better at writing music than I am at drawing.
