With the impact of the lockdown in 2020, the band found themselves with some unexpected extra time on their hands, and began working tirelessly on new material, cultivating countless tracks that eventually became their, ‘Life is Strangely Accidental’ album (Release date: 23 Feb 2023).
Armed with this strong set of entirely new material, the band are excited to return to the live stage in preparation for the LP release on February 11th, in Dublin’s Sound House venue.
A very limited number of USB cassettes will be made available to punters, exclusively at the show, ahead of the official album release date on February 23rd, and the first 40 tickets sold will automatically receive a copy for FREE.
With two singles from the new album already released, frontman, Neill Marshall, comments on both current singles:
“‘Life is Strangely Accidental’ (aka ‘L.I.S.A’.) Ciarán (Bass) came up with the verse, and chorus to this track. It was originally written as an intense/strummy acoustic piece”, he states.
We slowed the chorus, I did the lyrics, and melody and then it was shelved until Alina joined. We dusted it off, revisited Ciarán’s original rhythm, then Adam, and Alina worked a lot on the middle part. A rare example of a song that took plenty of time crafting, but turned out to be worth the effort.
The title is taken from the actual demo and even though the line never actually appears in the song, ‘Life is Strangely Accidental’ somehow graduated from the working name to the official name of the track, then it got promoted (via band vote) to the album name….. an unlikely journey.
Lyrically, it’s about falling for a beautiful, bewitching person, who happens to be a member of the occult, believe it or not.
On the surface, you can hear the track and along with it’s ‘Manic Street Preachers’ musicality, it’s not going to jump out at you that we’re talking about helplessly falling in love, while simultaneously being introduced to the dark arts, but that’s what I like to write: heavy-ish subject matter, masked with ‘pop‘ metaphor & cliche.
“‘Take it To The Grave‘ was an Adam (lead guitar) riff, both verse & chorus. I added the tail in the verse and the key change (I am responsible for all our key changes to date cause I’m a tart), and lyrics.
“Lyrically, it’s about the omission of guilt and consequence some (very) God-fearing people have, as they muggle through life. The idea that they can do or say…harm anyone, and not be judged until they meet their maker…and also be absolved of said heinous acts….
We felt it was a perfect ….almost ‘“teaser'” if you will, for the album at sub three minutes. We do plenty of different sounding stuff, but our “Synth Fuzzers’”are a good introduction to the band.”
Tickets for Royal Autumn and guests live at The Sound House on February 11th can be purchased here, for just €10.00.
Influenced by everyone from Tom Petty, and Fleetwood Mac to Judas Priest, and Manic Street Preachers, with a philosophy of complete freedom, Royal Autumn take pride in their “We write whatever we feel like writing” approach.
This environment fosters a deadly-serious approach to the art of songwriting while ensuring that flippancy and fun are never left behind.
Royal Autumn are dynamic, delivering everything from emotional contemporary songs, such as ‘Say Goodbye’, and ‘Lifetime’, to fast heavy burners like forthcoming single, “Thin + Blond’ (see the teaser below), and ‘Bloody Tree’.
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Oran O’Beirne
www.overdrive.ie 2023