UTG INTERVIEW: Blacklist Royals @ SXSW

April 1st, 2014

Matthew Leimkuehler

Raspy and relinquishing, Blacklist Royals are a pure dose of healthy, American punk rock. Fronted by twin brothers Nat and Rob Rufus, the band is honest and forthright in their songwriting. Releases such as the 2013 single “Righteous Child” show a band writing songs full of melodic energy and power. Fans are gravitating toward the band due to their relentless touring and passionate songwriting, which is what listeners should expect from the 2014 LP, Die Young With Me. Teaming up with producer Ted Hutt (The Bouncing Souls, Gaslight Anthem, Flogging Molly), the band have created a release ready to stand out amongst previous efforts, telling the story of the struggles that went into supporting Rob during his battle to overcome cancer so early in his life.

Under The Gun had a chance to catch up with the band while at SXSW and was able to discuss Die Young With Me, working with Ted Hutt and how the band overcame internal struggles to become closer than ever before.

UTG: Hi, guys. Glad to chat today! How has your SXSW been so far?

Nat Rufus (singer/guitarist): It’s been really fun, man. This is probably the most fun we have had, here. We’ve done some stuff here before, but have never actually had wristbands and been able to get into shows.

Rob Rufus (drums): It’s been awesome, dude. You know, not taking it for granted and just enjoying life and hearing awesome music and getting to play music.

UTG: So, Die Young With Me is out in June. What are listeners supposed to expect with this release?

Nat: It’s a pretty far reach from our first record and we actually had it recorded like a year-and-a-half ago and we re-recorded it with Ted Hutt. Everybody felt it wasn’t coming across the way we wanted it to. It’s definitely its own thing. It’s a theme record about Rob being sick when we were both younger and Ted really honed in on what we wanted to do with the songs and the songwriting. I’m excited to hear it myself because we re-cut it in 10 days and it was moving so fast I don’t really remember what we did.

UTG: What was the motivation behind deciding to re-record? Was it the opportunity to work with Ted?

Rob: I think it was more because of how personal the record is. Song topic-wise, like he said, I had cancer when I was a teenager and basically lived in a hospital from 17 to 21. He and I write the songs individually and they all happen to be around this point in our lives and we hold it so close to ourselves. We had the opportunity to go do it, and if we didn’t do it the way we wanted people to hear it as, then we’re knew we were going to regret it.

UTG: In the writing process, what was it like to see this concept come out?

Nat: Writing-wise, it’s the complete opposite of our first record. When we got the opportunity to re-record it, we were actually able to do a couple more songs that were new that had their specific place for the record. Ted was really into that. We were looking at people to mix the record and he had expressed interest in re-doing it. Our band has always been seen as just a punk rock band and these songs are definitely not that in any way. There’s this fear that was just going to come across and be written off and Ted saw the thing behind that, that we were really trying to do.

Rob: It didn’t really start out as a conscious thing. We toured and toured and toured for two years and we had down-time and Nat brought over the songs he had written and I had written some new songs and they all just seemed to be sharing the same topic. I don’t know if it’s some weird twin shit or what, but it had just fallen into place. We just said, “fuck it, let’s go for it.”

Nat: We’re all playing music and we’re not re-inventing the wheel, but there was something unique about these songs and Ted’s goal was to get something to sound like it’s in its own world. We wanted to put people in a different headspace. Vocally and lyrically it is different. The goal was to go “let’s do something original, and let’s do our own thing and people are going to love it or fucking hate it.” And I’d rather somebody hate it than just write it off. At least you know they focused on it long enough to have emotion. And if they’re calling it terrible at least they’re not saying it sounds like a million different things.

UTG: What’s the rest of the year look like for you guys?

Nat: The record comes out June 10 and then we’re just fuckin’ tourin’, man. Doing the U.S., Europe, possibly Japan, Australia, and then the U.S. a million times, I’m sure. But we’re road dogs, we always have been. The whole point for me is to play live. I’m stoked, I’m really excited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uulJqqYCZRI

Purchase the band’s 2013 7-inch release, Righteous Child, today.

Interview written and conducted by Matthew Leimkuehler (@callinghomematt)