Salt Lake City rockers Royal Bliss have often been labeled as unlucky and have certainly overcome their fair share of adversity including a potentially career ending accident and a lawsuit. Through it all, the music has held them together and their passion for their craft is undeniable. With a new record out, “Chasing The Sun,” a tour, and the freedom from the pressures of a major label, Royal Bliss certainly has a lot to look forward to. Join us for a chat with lead vocalist Neal Middleton as we get the inside scoop.
KE: Hi Neal! Welcome to backstageaxxess.com. How are you?
NM: Real good, we’re looking to break the Billboard top 200 tomorrow and for an independent band we’re pretty excited about that.
KE: Absolutely! Now I know you have the new record out but before we get into that I was hoping you could give us a little background on Royal Bliss.
NM: Well, we’ve been around 16 years now and we started in highschool days and I went to a different highschool than the rest of the guys and I was dating a girl that went to their highschool. I was playing solo at the time in different little pizza parlors around town in Salt Lake City, Utah and ran into them at a party and met the band and their singer was getting ready to leave the band. So I’m like well come and check me out and see if you like the way I sound and maybe I could come and sing for you guys when your singer leaves. So they came and checked me out and they liked my voice. We ended up heading back to their house after playing one of those nights at the pizza parlor and just started jamming. We wrote like three songs and it was just realy good. The chemistry was awesome and I think we felt it that night. The next day I dropped out of college and pretty much quit my job. I wanted to be a rock star. (Laughter) It was something I always wanted to do but I was in college for communications. I wanted to continue to be involved in music somehow and continue to write my solo stuff but then when I met these guys it was just like “click.” And we’ve been through the ringer ever since. We’ve done it all. We’ve done like eight records now, toured the country multiple times, and been up to Canada. Haven’ made it over to the pond how they say it but that’s in our plans for this year. We’ve just been a rock band that continues to evolve. The songs are stories of our life and we’ve been independent for most of the time. We signed to Capitol records for like three years but that didn’t go so well so we went back to being independent and just started our own independent record label for this record and it’s doing pretty good.
KE: OK, so you did sign with Capitol for awhile but that’s done and over now right?
NM: Yeah, we finished that off.
KE: The first record that came out on Capitol though, “Life In Between” was the one that kind of broke you guys?
NM: Yeah, it definitely broke us into more markets across the country.
KE: How big of a change was that for you?
NM: Well, it was exciting. We started doing bigger tours and it was cool to show up and have people in the bigger markets know who we were. We got to do a lot of really cool festivals so that was the big thing of it. We built a pretty big fan base in the smaller markets around the country like Burlington, Iowa and Quincey, Illinois and a lot of those markets out here in the Midwest. And what Capitol did was really kind of introduce us to like Sirius Octane and be able to do Will Rock in Chicago and Wisconsin. I mean it was just so exciting to be onstage with a lot of these bigger bands that I don’t know if we would have gotten a lot of it if we weren’t on Capitol and didn’t have the backing to be able to do some radio.
KE: Now your new record “Chasing the Sun” is an independent record. What happened with Capitol?
NM: Well really even with Capitol we still ended up doing the majority of the work. We were signed by Jason Flom and he signed us, Katy Perry, and Saving Abel that year and in the middle of the record EMI got bought out and Jason left the label and they laid off like 2,000 people. We were kind of stuck in limbo so we went ahead and mastered it ourselves and decided we were going to try to push this to radio anyways. Then we found a sub-label underneath Capitol called Merovingianand so we really didn’t even release it under Capitol records. It was just Capitol records wanted their logo on the album and but we were still doing the majority of our booking and a lot of our promotion at that point. They introduced us to like Doug Weber and New Ocean Media and our manager at the time had a really good radio promotions team. So it was kind of they helped introduce us to a lot of people but we kind of took the reigns. The thing was Capitol really wasn’t there for us. It was a major label thing and they owed us a bunch of money and still owe us a bunch of money. It was one of those where we busted our ass for so many years doing what we love and sacrificing time away from our families and pouring our hearts and souls out on stage every night and this major label was taking money from us and didn’t really care about the music or our families. So it was just one of those things. We were just like when it came time to do another record we just wanted off of it. We wanted away from the whole thing because we were sick of doing all the work and having all these other people take money from us.
KE: I hear that.
NM: Now we’re functioning more like a small business at this point. We built some really great relationships and we don’t have to sell 500,000 units in order to make money. We do it all on our own and keep everything. We’re self-managed. We book all our own tours. We hire our publicity. We hire our radio. So whenever money comes in, it’s all ours. It’s a really good experience this time. We did a kickstarter campaign with our fans and I mean they funded the record and all our promotions and everything and it’s just been an exciting kind of experience for us.
KE: What was the process for the new record? Is there a main songwriter or is it a group effort?
NM: It’s a group effort . I write all the lyrics and the vocal melody and a couple of the songs I pretty much wrote the whole thing. But there’s one I actually collaborated with a hip-hop guy and wrote two songs with him and another guy who used to be in a bunch of bands and he produces records in Salt Lake and every once in awhile I’ll go write with him. I showed the band these songs and they were like these are great. Can we put our little spin on them? And I was like sure and so that was kind of exciting that they were cool with taking some other local artists and using the songs that I had written with them. Then our drummer actually wrote all of the music to one of the songs. Our bassist wrote all the music to a couple songs and everybody brought stuff to the table. So it was exciting that it was a major collaboration and everybody had a vested interest to make every single song good. It was cool and we recorded it in a very relaxed way back in Salt Lake with Matt Winegar. Where we’d just go into the studio for a couple weeks and record three or four songs and kind of do some pre-production on a couple and go in a couple months later and record three or four more. So it was really laid back. We weren’t even really planning on making an album. We were just writing songs but they turned out really good so it was like cool we might as well release it. It was an awesome relaxed way to do an album instead of us being in Nashville or Portland and it’s like you got six weeks and you’re staying away from your families and away from home. With six weeks to do this many songs, it’s kind of forced. It’s good and bad because it’s all about music and there’s no distractions but still it’s like you rushed to do that instead of like I don’t like those lyrics I want to change them. I’ll just drive down the road and be like hey can I come in and change these. So it was really cool and no manager and no label to tell us what deadline we had either. It’s like hey we can do this on our own.
KE: The album has a really great mix of songs, lots of straight up rockers. But I found myself really drawn to the slower songs especially “Home” which was really emotional but also uplifting. Can you tell us the story behind that song?
NM: I wrote that whole song. Actually we were at the end of a tour. We were wrapping up with 12 Stones and Saliva and we were out here in Chicago and we were playing a little club in the south side of Chicago, just a little club kind of in a strip mall just a crazy little spot. And the tour was a lot of fun but it was just one of those that beat you up. I had a broken hand and I was literally broken and bruised, just beat up literally physically from that tour where just random stuff would happen to me. That night I was driving the bus home and I just wanted to get home so bad. We left at 3 or 4 in the morning after we had got done playing. I can’t remember why we had to get home. There was somebody who had to be back home for some reason and I was like I’ll drive. I’ll stay sober tonight and I’ll drive as far and as hard as I can. Everybody else was asleep in the back and I was just driving and the sun was coming up behind me and those lyrics just kind of popped into my head. So I remember I was just sitting there driving the bus and just recording the lyrics and the vocal melodies into my phone and I just kept singing all these different verses and different versions of it until finally we got home. I remember laying down and actually putting chords to it. That song was actually tough to record because it was just finding the right emotion on the record. We did probably six different versions of it, poppy version to pure acoustic guitar and vocals to rock out just trying to figure out absolutely any way we could to record it. I’m glad it turned out the way it did. The song, I’m able to tap myself into that moment where I was missing my kids and missing my home and really thinking I don’t know if I want to keep doing this. I mean there’s those moments on tour where your just like man I’m so haggered and my body hurts and I’m older and my poor kids are just missing daddy. So it was just one of those things. I remember playing it and a couple of our bigger fans asked if it was our farewell song. And I said no just a song in a moment and I think every musician especially if they have a family and kids, they have that moment where your just so tired and that was my song. I appreciate all the fans and I’m so glad I get to meet them and I’m so glad they let me play and I would never have the life I have or met all these amazing people without a guitar and a microphone.
KE: What are the tour plans for this record?
NM: We’ve been on the road for a couple weeks now and we’re just gonna keep going and that’s another good thing about not being with a label. We’re booking our tours on our own. So it’s like we’ll go out here for three weeks, go home for a week, go back out for another few weeks but we really want to try and make it through the entire country this year. We’ve been hit up by names of places we haven’t been able to play in and hopefully we’ll get on with some bigger bands and get on tour with them. We’ve never been like really good at doing our numbers or stats or any of that stuff. We’re gonna start doing that because our Pollstar numbers would be really good. It’s like damn and I think that holds us from a lot of these festivals and other shows and I think that there’s also a lot of corporate influence. We don’t get a lot of shots that a lot of other bands do but we’re fine with it because we’ve sold out six of seven shows on this tour so far and from a 1,200 capacity venue to 300 but for us it’s like that’s amazing. More and more fans keep showing up and luckily they’re really loving this record. And that’s what drives us, the fans that we have and the new ones that are coming along.
KE: So the reaction to the new record has been positive?
NM: It’s been insane. We’ve got people that are hitting us up and going I bought 20 records. I’m getting this record out and there hasn’t been one negative comment. People are saying man this is the best album you’ve ever done. We believe so too. Every single person in the band is like this is the best record that we’ve done by far and we’re extremely proud of it and we’re glad that everybody else is loving it.
KE: Now over the years the band has gotten a reputation as being unlucky with a lot of things that have happened with your accident in particular where you fell from the balcony. What kind of effect did that have on you as far as the band goes? Did you want to quit or was it the driving force to keep you going?
NM: I think you know the fans were again one of the big things. For me, I never questioned it. They told me I would never walk again and told me that I was probably not going to live through the night and all that other stuff. But I never really questioned it. I mean I was in intense pain and went through a lot learning how to walk again and all that stuff. The band I think more so than me was like oh my gosh what are we gonna do. This is a definite sign. We had some showcases lined up and a few big shows and so it’s one of those things where there’s a lot of anticipation and things are going really good. We had a sold out show back in Salt Lake and then that happened to me and my drummer had gotten his girlfriend at the time pregnant and there’s just a lot of stuff. It was like oh my gosh. Our manager sued us and our producer , a buddy who produced our songs, sued us. So it was just a snowball effect but for me it was a driving force. The fans and a couple other local bands got together and did a couple benefit shows for me and raised some money so I could pay my medical bills. They were just like we believe in you and that was one of the best things for me. It was just like man I got to get up again. I can’t let the fans down. We have no fall back plan. Our drummer didn’t even graduate highschool. It’s like there’s no other options so I had to get back up on that stage and make it happen. So that was definitely the driving force and I think then watching me do it really brought us back together. Then I was able to find an investor to give us the money to do another record and paid off our old management and I was in the studio with a cane recording our “After the Chaos” record. So I think it was one of those things where alright they started to believe after we had made it through that moment. It was pretty remarkable that we survived. The fans were there for us whenever we came back. Then a bunch of good things started happening. So I get the whole unlucky because there has been and it happens almost weekly that we have something horrible happen (laughter) either on the road or just something random that doesn’t happen to every band. And it’s like oh my gosh but at this point I just kind of laugh and we deal with it and we figure it out. It definitely has made us stronger but I don’t know we’re extremely lucky to be doing what we love for a living.
KE: Now I’m sure you’ve been asked about your involvement with the television show “The Voice” but can you tell us how that transpired?
NM: We were kind of at a plateau. This band we grow in spurts. We’ve never really fallen but there’s always been this growth where we constantly gain new fans and good things are happening. But then we go through this plateau where there’s nothing really super exciting happening. We had a record done but we didn’t know what the release was. We were trying to figure out everything and it was one of those opportunities that came up. I remember the first season was actually pretty cool, a lot of musicians and it seemed to really be about the music and the people. So I was alright and everybody told me good things about the show and it was one of those things where they let people that have been signed to bands and have been around the block be a part of it. So I said I’ll do the show and hopefully it will benefit Royal Bliss and people will sign the band and we’ll have a record and it will be good and after reviewing the contract it seemed all legitimate. But then season one was such a successful year I think that season two became a lot more commercial and more influence from record labels and television company, the network. So it was really kind of an artificial deal and I don’t know it’s one of those things that I was honored, I mean there was like 40,000 people or something that auditioned to be on that show and only 85 of us I believe actually made it through the blind auditions. So I was flattered because there was so much amazing talent and I’m still friends with a lot of the people that I met on that show. So that was the best thing about it but it’s not something that I’d ever do again especially that show. They highlight it like it’s gonna be about this next thing, this amazing voice but it’s really just about those four coaches. That’s all they care about and highlighting them and bringing up other bands that they can highlight. It’s unfortunate.
KE: What’s down the road for Royal Bliss?
NM: We just kind of go with the flow nowadays. We started this record label and we’re definitely interested in using all the knowledge that we’ve learned through the years doing it all, from the management side to booking to producing, to radio promotions, to publicity, just about the gamut as far as the record industry goes. Each person in the band has a different talent or different skill that is extremely valuable from a label standpoint so we’ll always continue to play shows. Our live shows are our life. We love it. We love playing for the fans and we try to bring it every single night. And if this record continues to pick up and we’re going to continue to promote it and continue to tour and if it blows up, awesome! Then we’ll tour the world and do all the things that we always wanted to do. But if it just does decent and does good and fans like it then I think we’ll kind of just continue doing our thing. We’ll go out and tour a couple months out of the year here and there and go home and write more music and hopefully be able to sign local bands and bands from around the country that we know need help that we think can benefit. And we’ll try to put them through the process. We did it so let’s do it with you guys and see if it works. I think that would be really rewarding from our side. It would be cool to discover the next really cool rock band. I think Royal Bliss has been around 16 years and we don’t really plan on going anywhere and it keeps getting better so we’re gonna keep on playing.
KE: Best of luck with the new record. It is fantastic and good luck with the tour and keeping all the chaos to a minimum. (Laughter) Thank you so much for taking the time to call in with us today.
NM: Thank you!
We would like to thank Shauna O’Donnell from MUEN Magazine for setting up the interview with Neal. For more information on the new “Chasing the Sun” CD or anything else on Royal Bliss, please go to: Royal Bliss.
