Raygun Royale are one of the acts that will be performing at Mieliepop Festival later this month and I am extremely excited to watch them live at what I consider to be one of the South African music festival highlights of the year.
This Johannesburg based rock band has been around since October 2015. Their sound takes on many unique influences to form a lightning groove that shakes rooms and rattles bones to induce killer dance moves. Their self acclaimed ‘Trash-Pop-Stadium-Garage-Punk’ style is coupled with a manic, high energy stage presence. Taking influence from Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Raygun Royale filters their sound through the new wave of The Hives, Arctic Monkeys, DZ Deathrays and Royal Blood which leaves the listener with a groovy melody coupled with a thunderous and driving bottom end.
I recently had a chat to Joshua Rogers from Raygun Royale about Mieliepop Festival and a few other things. This is what they had to say:
Where does the name Raygun Royale come from?
We were thinking of what a solo, Han Solo film would be called. Pretty upsetting that ‘Raygun Royale’ wasn’t even considered by the production team at Disney. (Shame on you guys, shame)
If you were asked to describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it before, what would you say?
Trash-Pop-Stadium-Garage-Punk. (Funny, that’s how I would describe it as well, dunno if I’ll be able to say that in the right order after a few Jagermeister shots though…)
What is your favourite quote about music?
“Beautiful melodies telling me terrible things” – Tom Waits (Now that’s one deep individual if you ask me…)
What is the funniest thing that’s ever happened to Raygun Royale during a live set?
I’m not sure if it’s funny or not but I’m just going to say it anyways. Ryan and I (Josh) walk out to the front of the stage during bridges of certain songs (basically every song) to interact with the crowd a little bit and get them hyped up and such. But this one show at Arcade Empire, nearing the end of one bridge riff just before I had to turn around and go back to the microphone and sing, a woman in the crowd grabbed me around my knees.
I wasn’t able to move away from her and she was just screaming up at me whilst this was all happening. Suddenly, amidst the chaos of me trying to face signal Max and Ryan to extend the bridge a little longer, I just felt her one hand slide up my right leg and underneath my guitar. Needless to say I panicked, wiggled loose and may have knee’d her in the face (not on purpose) and then proceeded to trip and stumble my way back over the monitors to the stage. Never a dull show in Pretoria. (Sounds hectic and you’re right about shows in Pretoria, they’re almost never dull…)
Who would win in a celebrity deathmatch between Justin Timberlake and Jay Z and why?
Definitely JT! We all know Jay-Z has the financial backing and the gold chains and such but Justin doesn’t need all that. He’s bad to the bone all on his own. Also, Jay-Z doesn’t look all that light on his feet, and I think JT would use that to his advantage. (I have a new found form of respect for Justin Timberlake now, thanks…)
What can music fans expect from Raygun Royale at Mieliepop 2018?
A Britney Spears cover. Lol. Pop songs aside – we really don’t want to give too much away. We’ve been hard at work for the last 3/4 months prepping our 2018 set so it’s water tight. There’s a few new curve balls, but if you’ve ever seen us before you know there’s a lot of tight pants and mad killer dance moves being thrown around for a good 45 minutes.(Sounds good, we’re really looking forward to it…).
I’d like to thank Joshua and Raygun Royale for this interview. I wish them all of the best with their journey of musical madness and their set at Mieliepop Festival. If you don’t have tickets yet, get them HERE.
If you’re not familiar with their music, check out their music video for their song “Junkies Know Best” below:
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