Wistful, dreamy loveliness in a MONEY/Deptford Goth minimalist style, 'Embassy' is the five-minute debut release from two Yorkshire lads, Josh Hobson and Jonty Brown, collectively known as White Royal. When this dropped into our mailbox yesterday, together with a brief message from Josh, it was hard to listen to anything else for the rest of the day. As yet this is all the guys have uploaded for our aural pleasure, but it surely has to be followed by more judging by the calibre of this.
So impressed were we that we immediately got back to Josh to get him to divulge a little more about White Royal.
Tell us something abaout who you are
Well, the band consists of myself and Monty. We're both 23 and grew up in the same town of Harrogate. We went to different schools, but shared the same circle of friends, and we all loved the same kind of music pretty much. Me and Jonty used to play in a Leeds band called Eric a couple of years back, along with our other school friend Thomas Balmforth (who is our current producer and secret third member).
Is 'Embassy' the first work you have released'?
We released an album under Eric around 2010 and it was received locally very well. But Jonty moved away and then we couldn't find a decent replacement, so while we were trying to keep the momentum going and do an EP, it just fell apart. Jonty was then making a name for himself playing with musicians in Australia where he moved to, but had to move back at the end of last year due to visa reasons.
So you then got back together?
Literally a month ago I said to Jonty that I wanted to start doing music again. I'd been listening to a lot of electronic stuff and writing, and suggested we just jam. So it was me on vocals and acoustic. I put loads of phaser and reverb on the guitar to give it a bit more depth, while Jonty would play keyboard and drums at the same time. We then in a matter of weeks had two tracks that we really liked, so I messaged Thom - who I was still in contact with - to do some producing. We got some studio time and finished the two tracks we wrote in a matter of weeks. We then released the track 'Embassy' yesterday online and we will likely be releasing the next track in a matter of weeks.
'Embassy' reminds me a lot of MONEY and Deptford Gorth in some ways. Who was your influence?
I think we both have a lot of different influences which is good. I love all kind of music. I recently went to see Slint in Manchester and an unsigned band from America called Enablers who do spoken word over amazingly good guitar music. But at the same time I'm a massive fan of the first Weeknd album, Portishead, Darkside, Inc and others that fall into that kind of indie-electro-trip hop thing. It's been a major influence for this music. Jonty is a massive Tame Impala fan and likes psychedelic music like Temples, Pond and The Black Angels; he also DJs electro swing. But we both have a mutual love of The National, Daughter, Little Dragon and James Blake.
Have you any plans to play live yet?
At the moment this is a studio based project, but we will be playing live next year. We're working hard to make sure we get the best live sound for when we do play. It could be quite different, I'm not sure yet, but I'm just looking forward to releasing the next track and see how that's received also - because they are both quite different.
Listen/watch the audio video here:
'Embassy' can also be streamed and downloaded via Soundcloud.
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