No More Dirty Mirrors

By Tom Lanham

hen you ' re young , the adages you get offered as advice from your elders might sound cheap and corny — ‘ Be careful what you wish for ,’ ‘ Adversity often leads to great art ,’ ‘ What doesn ’ t kill you will only make you stronger .’ “ Uh-huh ,” most kids always nod begrudgingly , with a ‘ Whatever ’ eye roll , “ I ’ ll be sure to watch out for that .” But the older you get , reckons Mike Kerr , who will turn 31 this month , the more you realize that these sagacious sayings have endured throughout the years for one very good reason — they all ring remarkably true . And this bassist / vocalist for Royal Blood — a British duo he formed a decade ago with drummer Ben Thatcher — has just felt the telltale cut of roughly a dozen old saws . He ’ s settled on one in particular as his future artistic credo : “ This above all : To thine own self be true ," a line originally spoken by father Polonius to his son Laertes in Shakespeare ’ s Hamlet .

The end result of all these metaphorical ravens coming home to roost is rather Shakespearean itself — Typhoons , Royal Blood ’ s rollicking , altogether revitalized new third album that was conversely based on the tragedy overtaking Kerr ’ s young life . It slams open with the melodic death march “ Trouble ’ s Coming ,” in which the singer somberly observes , “ In my reflection , I see signs of psychosis .” But the track is so rah-rah appealing musically ; it ’ s already been soundtrack-licensed by EA Sports for its latest video games NHL 21 and FIFA 21 . The record continues in a similar fashion , coupling minimal but mighty AC / DC-retro riffs with Kerr ’ s dismal diary-disarming entries , a la the punchy “ Limbo ” (“ I need savin ’ — I ’ m fadin ’”), the machine-gun rhythm-ed “ Who Needs Friends ” (“ Come inside my fallacy / See

the other side of vanity ”), and the stadiumshaking “ Boilermaker ,” name-checking the beer-and-whiskey cocktail that the musician no longer orders at the bar now that he ’ s completely sober ; It ’ s a recent Las Vegas-made decision that turned his life around and inspired he and Thatcher ’ s impressive new flurry of creativity , a knack they thought they ’ d lost on their last outing , 2017 ’ s aptly-dubbed How Did We Get So Dark ?

Hindsight , of course , being 20 / 20 , Kerr can see it all so clearly now . How the fun , experimental duo he started with Thatcher upended all expectations by conquering overseas charts with its thumping , doubleplatinum Royal Blood debut disc in 2014 and addictive singles like “ Little Monster ” and “ Out of the Black .” Next thing the chums knew , they were : Playing Coachella , Rock in Rio , and the coveted main stage at England ’ s annual Leeds and Reading festivals ; Being handed the Best British Group BRIT Award by Jimmy Page himself and then returning the favor by handing Page his later Kerrang Icon-Award trophy . But beneath the sleek surface , tensions were simmering as sophomore-jinx pressure mounted around “ Dark .” What happens when all your childhood dreams of rock stardom come true ? And it ’ s based on a basic drum-and-bass schematic that just might have painted you into a conceptual corner ? And when the public wants more of the same , can you deliver another chart-topping hit while still pushing the aesthetic envelope ?

Yes and no , it turns out . Almost on anticipation alone , Dark debuted at # 1 on the UK Albums chart . And Royal Blood went on to play Glastonbury and then headline its own 2018 U . S . tour with Queens of the Stone Age ( whose founder

Josh Homme helped produce a portion of Typhoon sat his Pink Duck Studio in Los Angeles ). But the sessions had taken a toll on Kerr , and he was secretly miserable , drinking too much , and headed for a potential fall . But after ditching the Homme sessions for a planned solo Lost Weekend in Vegas , he miraculously was moved to lose the bottle itself instead . In return , he got his mojo back . So those Pandora ’ s box aphorisms do indeed have that ring of truth , Kerr admits . “ But I will say that I think it ’ s possible to make great art without tragedy because there can be a misconception that you need to go chasing darkness and tragedy to make art . “ But I always think that ’ s a poor excuse for a lack of creativity . But for me ? I think I ’ ve always used my dark experiences . Or rather , I ’ ve always used music to deal with my dark experiences .”

‘ Write what you know ,’ goes another vintage saying . And that ’ s just what Kerr cathartically did on Typhoons . He details his descent in the following candid chat .

IE : When did you first notice yourself as a kid using art to deal with uncomfortable experiences ? MIKE KERR : It was probably over a girl , you know ? Wanting to be with a girl and using songs to express myself in that way . In a lame , teenage , angsty way . It ’ s like , I never really wrote a diary , so I guess that ' s just my way of expressing myself .

IE : Do you look back later on convoluted songs you wrote and understand exactly what they mean now ? MK : Yeah . And I think it ’ s always served that purpose . It ’ s funny , what you ’ re saying because sometimes certain songs don ’ t make complete sense , but sometimes more

sense comes out of the song after some time has passed . So listening back over stuff I ’ ve written in the past , I realize what they ’ re about , or I can at least make more sense of them lyrically .

IE : So do you look back at your second album now and go , “ Whoa ! What was I going through then ?”? It sounds like it was a very grim , high-pressure time . MK : Yeah . It was a strange era . Because it wasn ’ t the most enjoyable record to make , in all honesty . I think we weren ’ t really used to the expectations and the pressure of surpassing what we had just done . Everything had happened very quickly , and I don ’ t think I ’ d really caught up . So it was just a strange era . But making this record was just so different — it was actually really enjoyable because I think I just got a lot more comfortable in my own shoes , and I felt a much greater sense of identity . And I think identity comes down to trust , and if you can trust yourself , then that ’ s really the key to creativity — to be able to trust your own opinion without seeking the validation of others .

IE : Adage-wise , was the sophomore album a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth ? Is the band getting pulled in several directions to come up with another hit ? MK : I wouldn ’ t say so , no . It felt more like a lose / lose situation , where we had to follow in the footsteps of the record we ’ d just made , but we felt kind of tethered to it , also , in that there was a limit as to how far we could progress . And I think that ’ s why second records are traditionally so difficult . And ours was made all the more difficult based on the success of the first one —

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22 illinoisentertainer . com june 2021