British hard-rock duo Royal Blood is currently on the road for a brief run of European and U.K. tour dates and festival appearances throughout the latter half of summer. The ongoing run of performances, which began last month, gives the band a break from the dark depths of the recording studio as they continue work on their first full-length album since 2017’s How Did We Get So Dark?
The band’s singer/bassist Mike Kerr recently spoke with NME, where he shared updates on where he and drummer Ben Thatcher are currently at in the next chapter of their successful career thus far.
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“We’re very much in the middle of it,” Kerr immediately stated in regards to the recording process for the next album which has yet to be titled or given an official release date. “A similar thing happened on the last record where we got to a point where we had some real breakthrough moments. The standard has raised and we hit upon a couple of tunes that were better than anything we’d ever done before.”
The current six-week summer tour acts as the bands first concert run since getting off the road last summer as part of their global trek in support of their 2017 release. The summer tour also gives Kerr and Thatcher a chance to “get back in the game,” as the guitarist calls it.
“Sometimes there’s a fear of the old songs feeling stale to us but they’re still just so fun,” Kerr continued. “Even some of the classics that we’ve played for nearly five years still hold up. Our shows depend on the audience so there’s only so much rehearsing we can do. We need to be spontaneous and interact with the crowd. We’re pumped and we’re ready … It’s going to be awesome. Reading & Leeds has a very special place in my heart because Reading was the festival that I grew up going to.”
As expected, Kerr was asked when some of the new material might make its live debut on the current run, and responded by giving fans an idea of what to expect for when they return to North America upon the start of their next album cycle.
“I thought this question could arise. We’ve got some monsters hidden up our sleeves. We’ll see, won’t we? We’ll see how feel on the day,” Kerr somewhat confirmed. “As we speak, our stage is being built in a big hanger in a mystery location in London. It looks pretty crazy. It’s expensive. We’re spending some money on this one and pulling some stops out. It’s been a while, so we’re really going to put on a show.”
Head to the band’s website for tickets and info on their current summer run, in addition to staying informed on when they begin sharing music and tour dates behind their forthcoming third studio album.
[H/T NME]