AMERICAN ROYALTY – “LATELY” + “EL ARDEMO” EP RELEASE

It’s rather difficult to descibe this new young group that seemed to appear out of nowhere onto the Los Angeles music scene. With the band average age being 22 years old, the only conclusions anyone seems to be able to reach is that they are young and fearless. The band’s unique ambivalence to a particular genre, raw musical talent and vast music taste leaves most people struggling to think of another band to compare them to; most end up with something along the lines of “somewhere between The Black Keys and The Bloody Beetroots”. Others simply give up, saying “I can’t describe them…. you just have to see them live.”

Well, seeing them live hasn’t been a particularly easy task either. Their first ever advertised performance was opening for Aussie sensation Miami Horror to a sold out Los Angeles crowd in September. Their only other two performances have been first alongside the NY supergroup Punches, and second as a result of receiving a personal call up from HARD festival organizer Gary Richards to play his HARD Haunted Mansion warm up party. Their progressive take to the stage involves equal parts classic rock and progressive house, with frontmen Billy Scher and Marc Gilfry manning electric guitars, synthesizers, and samplers; while behind-the-scenes production wizard Richard Morris holds down the drumkit while silmultaenously controlling the non stop sample and loop firings. On top of all that, Gilfry and Scher take a refreshing step away from overprocessed dance vocal traditions and bring raw and powerful classic rock lead vocals to the mix, occasionally combining for harmonies which suggest they’ve been singing together for years, though they’ve barely logged a month playing together as a live band.

While you’d expect genre smashing of this sort to seem rather forced, American Royalty’s lead single “Lately” seems incredibly natural. After introducing the track with about thirty seconds of synth and guitar feedback (see: ignoring pop convention), Scher and Gilfry croon the song’s main vocal hook over the bed of noise, slowly sweeping up the listener before the psychedelic dance rock journey even begins. Then the track dives into a powerful house music blitz which literally whips you onto the dance floor, right before breaking you down again when it slides into a White Stripes-esque guitar rock groove around the two minute mark. Finally, the track works its way into a harmonious combination of both sections, leaving the listener thinking what has been suggested all along… “I need to see this live”.

The boys also sent over a stellar remix of “Lately” from Belgian wunderkind Vhyce, who somehow downshifts the madness of the original track to an eerie deep house gem. Vhyce capitalizes on American Royalty’s vocal chops by slicing up bits and pieces of their voices to make a melody of his own; even going as far as to use one of Gilfry’s pre-falsetto breaths as a sample. With a young group like American Royalty, it was both surprising and refreshing to see such a creative and mature approach to bringing “Lately” onto the dance floor; steering away from the predictable bangor rework and instead soliciting a creepily fun late night stomp from Sweat It Out’s new posterboy Vhyce.

And the win doesn’t stop there. The whole “El Ardemo” EP really is a collection of five fantastic tracks, each executed with enough charisma and vision to stand alone. And would you believe me if I said that even with all the genre criss crossing, after listening to this EP, one still seems to somehow leave with a very firm understanding of American Royalty’s personality? I suppose not until you give it a listen. Stream the whole thing on Soundcloud here and buy the whole EP on iTunes here.

BIO

Since their first live show ever this past Fall (support for Miami Horror to a sold out crowd), this Los Angeleno 3-piece has been creating quite a stir around the city. Their progressive take to the stage involves equal parts classic rock and progressive house, with frontmen Billy Scher and Marc Gilfry manning electric guitars, synthesizers, and samplers; while behind-the-scenes production wizard Richard Morris holds down the drumkit while silmultaenously controlling the non stop sample and loop firings. On top of all that, Gilfry and Scher take a refreshing step away from overprocessed dance vocal traditions and bring raw and powerful classic rock lead vocals to the mix, occasionally combining for harmonies which suggest they’ve been singing together for years, though they’ve logged less than 6 months playing together as a live band.

PRESS + TALKING POINTS

“Grimy synths and dirty blues rock.” – Kevin Bronson, BuzzBandsLA

Gotta Dance Dirty’s “Big In 2011″ List

“Awesome shit!” -DCUP

Recently rocked a full crowd at Dim Mak Tuesdays with Blaqstarr (Mad Decent) and Cassian (Bang Gang, Australia)

El Ardemo EP by American Royalty

After hanging in Venice, I really had to rethink my life up here in the Great North West… Asking myself questions like.. “What the fuck am I doing freezing my ballz off just three hours away??”

Big thx to the Guns in the Sun & CRAP® kids for showing this Canadian boy a good time don’t cha know!!

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