Royal Blood: Little Monster

Our friend Ian Pettersson sent me this note:

“Royal Blood. A two piece band. Bass & drums. Sure what more do you need?”

That should do it, Ian!

Royal Blood might be a two man band, but they have a huge sound thanks to Mike Kerr, who handles the vocals and plays bass while simultaneously creating the guitar sound. Ben Thatcher is on drums.

The duo is releasing their debut album, Royal Blood on August 25th. We’ll be watching…

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Share your thoughts

  1. I dig it! Their setup is a hard thing to pull off, but they have done it well.

  2. Vernon

    Very Jeff Buckley, I dig it.

  3. GR88888888888 simplicity wins again an again

  4. What is he using for effects? how does he do this? ABY pedal to two different rigs?

    • progmetal420

      Probably uses a lighter gauge of strings & perhaps a couple of 10″ or 12″ speakers to go along with the usual 15″. And of course a distortion pedal.

      • oh I think there is more than that going on…at least one octaver, maybe a harmonizer, two separate guitar sounds along with bass, and the ability to switch any of the three (bass, crunch guitar, and heavy guitar) off and on separately.

        • ojay

          yes! and of course the other way ’round: drop tuning (C) and heavy gauge strings. guitar sound are made with pogs, similar stuff and guitar amps. but he tries to keep his pedal board secret :-)
          love his sound!

  5. i don’t really understand quite how it all works, but this is pretty wicked

  6. DAMN! Not just a gimmick…that is a great song too. I’d love to know the details of his rig! That is a big freakin’ sound!

  7. On the pedal board is a Strymon Flint, a Zvex Distortron, two EHX POGS, two Boss Harmonizers, a Boss LS2 Line Selector, a Boss tuner, a Boss EQ and a Palmer Triage

  8. Some double tracking helps too. You can hear it kick in at 2:50.

  9. Ed Holland

    These guys are incredible live as well, they killed at Glastonbury this year

  10. My favourite band!!! They just got it…guts, melody, feel. And its power duo. That´s what I call maximum music impact and efficiency.

  11. Cyrille

    Impressive, but why not hiring a real guitar player with “real” guitar sound?
    The distorted bass sound effect is pretty crappy, especially in the higher register.
    The song is good though. Could benefit a lot with a real guitar.

    • Brainback

      Cyrille, there are lots of “guitar bands”. Choose one! Royal Blood is a great duo with a peculiar sound. It is their sound and I hope they will keep on this ways. They are very good and they sound like nobody else. Most importantly: they don’t sound like any “guitar band”.

  12. Carlos

    Yeah I think that’s the point. AB box, one output to a bass amp, the other one to a crossover/hi-pass filter eq and then to a guitar amp (actually two)

  13. wharfrat

    Royal Bloods sound is amazing,I kept looking for a lead guitar player,I’ve never heard such great sound from a two piece set up.