W: Meg Glover.
Wrexham four-piece The Royston Club are making waves on the indie-rock music scene.
And after a night supporting Kasabian in Newcastle, we caught up with lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Tom Faithfull about the band’s newest single ‘Cariad’, and the imminent release of their second album.
The newest single joins ‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’, ‘Shivers’ and ‘Glued To The Bed’ on the upcoming album titled ‘Songs For The Spine’ - which fans can listen to in its entirety on August 8th.
The Royston Club’s new track, which came out just a few weeks ago, is an emotionally charged addition to their second album. In contrast to the other singles, ‘Cariad’ - which is Welsh for love/darling, is representative of a more vulnerable side to the band.
About its origins, Tom said: “It was written by our guitarist [Ben Matthias] who was sort of coming to the end of quite a long relationship he'd had with a girl. He was obviously going through all the typical feelings you have when something like that comes to an end.
“You can hear it in the lyrics that it's quite personal, and there's not a lot of generalisations in there. It's all quite specific references to things they both experience together.”
Speaking of specifics, there is even the mention of a popular street in Leeds - Call Lane, where Tom told us that Ben had spent some time with his ex. In explaining to us more about Ben’s input on the track, Tom says that ‘lyrically, it's all his’. “We quite often write like that where his songs are his songs, and my songs are my songs,” he said. And with complex emotional intricacies, thanks to Ben’s lyrics, it’s no wonder that Tom admits to the track being “a fan favorite at the moment”.
As we approach exactly a year since the band’s first single from the album - ‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’, was released, we ask Tom how ‘Songs For The Spine’ measures up to their first, OG album. Released in 2023, Tom says that this time around their approach was different in both speed and lack of ‘riff-raff’.
“It was written as all second albums are - in a dramatically shorter time than the first one,” says Tom.
In a levelheaded and slightly philosophical manner he said: “There’s that cliche where you have your whole life to write your first one, and about a year to write your second, and that was kind of what we felt with this. So, all the ideas are quite a bit more concentrated.
“We reckon there's a little bit less riff-raff because we didn't have as much time to, sort of, deliberate over things we wanted to do. They're all quite stripped back. There's not a lot of additional parts that don't need to be in there.”
Unique by name, Tom said the decision to choose ‘Songs For The Spine’ as the title for their second album ‘was with a lot of deliberation’. Tom admitted that as a band they’ve ‘never been particularly good at naming things’.
“That was a day spent going through every single book we've ever owned - or every single anything we've ever owned, to try and find some sort of lyrical reference.
“But I think it just came about because most of the songs on the album are either about people we love, or for people we love. And that's not just girlfriends but our family. So, it kind of seemed like a bit of a fitting title for it,” he says.
According to Tom, The Royston Club have been getting a great reaction to the released tracks from their new album. “People have been loving them,” he tells us - and we’re not surprised. But when it comes to playing new songs in front of crowds, there is no doubt it can be daunting for bands of any size, and Tom explains that “with a new song, the best reaction you can get is silence”.
He describes past gigs of people going for pints and chatting through their tracks. He admitted to that being somewhat ‘demoralising’ for them. “So, with these ones, it's been nice because you do kind of hear people ending their conversations and actually listening to what you're playing,” he says.
For fans of The Royston Club, there are six unreleased tracks to look forward to. But sticking out as favourites to the band, ‘Spinning’ and the final track ‘The Ballad of Glen Campbell’ are two that the band are particularly excited for. “There's one called ‘Spinning’, which we all really liked in the studio. It was never going to be a single, but it's one we're really excited to play,” Tom says.
About the last track on the album, ‘The Ballad of Glen Campbell’ he tells us: “Being brutally honest, we haven't figured out how to play it yet - because there's quite a lot of sort of studio stuff that we haven't been able to replicate.
“But that's one, that when we do manage to play it, will be good fun.”
There are of course discrepancies between favourite tracks of the band and fan favourites, and this is something that The Royston Club have found to be challenging to predict. With Tom telling us that “they're never ones we expect them to be”. He comments on the fact that “as soon as it's out to the general world it's kind of not yours anymore” and explains that fans make their own decisions in terms of what they like. “What we speak about in the studio like ‘ah this is going to do great’ and ‘this one won't be a single’, they quite often just sort of flip,” says Tom.
Pairing nicely with the upcoming release of the album, the band have a few major gigs lined-up - including Leeds and Reading Festival in August. But Tom points out that when playing in front of big audiences, of both fans and new listeners, “you want to bridge the gap”.
“Obviously, you want to play all the new stuff, because that's the new album - and bands just love playing their newest stuff. But then you don't want to just have a set full of stuff that people don't know, and they're all just there in silence,” he says.
“But the classic thing with festival sets is to just play rowdy stuff, but it can get a little bit dull if you just do an hour of that. So, hopefully we’ll mix it up a little bit.”
However, he tells us that there is a track that they do love to play: “One of ours, ‘Glued to the Bed’ is one that we all collectively love playing together.”
We couldn’t let Tom go without asking him about Wrexham - specifically the fans, and of course the lager. About the fans he says that “they're a great traveling crowd”. Reflecting on their gig supporting Kasabian, he says: “Even last night up in Newcastle, we finished one song, it goes quiet and immediately Wrexham chants start up. Even four hours away from Wrexham.
“So, yeah, you always get a good following everywhere you go. And they've been great for us because it's where we did our first gigs and they've supported us from the very start.”
Moving onto the important stuff, Wrexham Lager, Tom gave us his opinion. “Criminally underrated,” he says. “I mean, it doesn't sound like it should be good, but it's surprisingly really good.”
(This is not an Ad for Wrexham Lager....but we confess, we might try it out.)
So, as the Wrexham quartet dive into a new era of sound, their second album seemingly presents a different side. And longtime fans, as well as new listeners, will no doubt be able to hear the progression and change in pace from their 2023 music. Tom’s final thoughts on the upcoming album are summed up poetically as: “Listen to it and buy it.”
And we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Where to catch The Royston Club Next:
OCTOBER - HEADLINE TOUR
16th - Brighton, Concorde 2 (SOLD OUT). 17th - Bristol, Electric (SOLD OUT). 18th - Birmingham, O2 Institute (SOLD OUT). 23rd - Manchester, Academy 1 (SOLD OUT). 24th - Newcastle, O2 City Hall. 25th - Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom (FINAL TICKETS) 31st - London, O2 Forum Kentish Town (FINAL TICKETS)
NOVEMBER - HEADLINE TOUR
1st - Sheffield, Octagon (SOLD OUT). 15th - Paris, Supersonic Records. 18th - Amsterdam, Paradiso Noord (Tolhuistuin). 19th - Cologne, Blue Shell. 20th - Berlin, Maschinenhaus. 22nd - Hamburg, Nochtspeicher