The Royalties from Norway have been radio favourites for some months now. Their self-titled album have recieved applause from the national music press and the band are ready for some summer fun on the road. Eardrums had a chat with The Royalties’ frontman Tommy Haltbakk about the album and the songwriting.

- Congratulations! You released your self-titled album “The Royalties” on February 5th. Are you pleased with the result?
- Yes we are pleased with the result, of course, art can never be completed so there are things here and there that we would like to do over again. But there you go… As a debut album, we are very pleased with it.

- Are you pleased with the reaction from the press / music press?
- Yes, we have had good reviews here in Norway. Generally speaking, it’s always difficult to be accused for being (“obviously influenced by bands such as bla bla bla..” )you know… bands that you’ve never heard of. But it’s alright I guess, reviews are never objective anyway.

- I first heard a Tommy Haltbakk song on “Lydverket” on national TV in 2006, and I guess that was before you and the guys formed The Royalties. The song was “Six Feet”. Are many of the songs on the album “old songs”, made before The Royalties period?
- Yes indeed, I wrote all the songs on the album when I moved to Bergen in 2004. That’s when i realized that I could actually write music. So i recorded a whole bunch of demos in a little studio only to please myself….haha! So when The Royalties started up early 2006 we had 20-30 demos of songs to rehearse and record properly, which we did April 2006. To me the songs are really “old” of course, and the stuff I’ve written since then is , to me, more substantial. But I had to get those old songs out of the system so to speak, they indeed deserved to be on a debut album. I really like all of the songs, but I think “Rotten” or “Lady O’ The silver Wheel” , our first single, are my favorites from this album.

- The song (“Six Feet”) has changed a bit, the fuzzy guitar is now accomplished with horns. Are you more pleased with the “new” sound?
- Yes, when we formed The Royalties there were only me, drummer BK and Bass player Alf. We wanted to challenge the “standard” pop-combo sound , so instead of taking in another guitarist or a keyboardist, we wanted an alternative sound. The horns (trumpet and trombone) was the missing link for our setting. The band consists of a power-trio and two horns, that’s something else for sure.

- The horn section seems to be important for the sound of The Royalties? Tell us about it.
- Yes, there are a lot of horn arrangements in the songs. When I was writing and producing those little demos I did, I always included little melodies and riffs here and there, playing them on different instruments to color the tunes. When we’re playing live, the horns do that job… which is very important for the structure of the songs.

- Most of the songs on the album are quite uplifted and happy songs. But there’s one beautiful song called “Rotten” that’s a bit darker than the rest. Is there a special story behind that song?
- Well let’s just say it has to do with a girl I once knew.

- Here’s one complaint. Why the h**l did you have to make “Time is a Stranger” so short? (only two minutes). That song could go on forever with the beautiful Salvation Army horns and the High Llamas/Beach Boys banjo…?
- Thanks! “Time is a stranger” is the first song I ever wrote. The answer to your complaint is that we deliberately kept it short. We wanted people to go “Why the h**l did they have to make “Time is a Stranger” so short?” Sometimes too little is better than too much. I really like how that song turned out on the album. The demo which I recorded 3 years ago is the exact same length, but is probably more stripped down than on the album. I’m really pleased with the vocal arrangements on the verse, and the atmosphere around the whole song.

- What are the bands plans for 2007?
- We’ve recently signed to a great booking agency here in Bergen, called Tik Tak, and we’re doing a tour in Norway this autumn and festivals this summer. We’d like to do as many gigs as possible of course.. Other than that we’re working on releasing the album outside Norway, but nothing is confirmed at this point. I’ve got a pile of songs ready to be recorded, so we’ll probably start working on our second album after this summer.

- The Eardrums blog has a tradition: in the spirit of “High Fidelity”, do you have a Top 5 for us? Top 5 artists/songs for you right now, or anything else?

Top 5 artists at the moment:
1. Juan Garcia Esquivel ( FANTASTIC 60′s Lounge)
2. The Turtles
3. Captain Beefheart
4. Roy Orbison
5. Kraftwerk

Thanks for the interview, Tommy. And good luck in 2007!

The debut album from The Roylaties is avaiable on Blister Music and the CD can be found in a record store near you.

The Royalties – Lady O’ the Silver Wheel

The Royalties – Shipwreck at Bay