Indie four-piece, The Royston Club consist of Tom Faithfull (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Ben Matthias (lead guitar), Dave Tute (bass) and Sam Jones (drums). The Welsh band made their debut in 2019 with ‘Shawshank’ and have since achieved great success. They have recently been announced as part of the Neighbourhood Weekender 2023 line-up. We caught up with Tom Faithfull to find out a bit more about the band…
You guys have had an incredible year, with headline tours and sets at Reading & Leeds and Neighbourhood Festival. What’s been your highlight so far?
We’ve absolutely loved this year! Doing our headline UK tour in May was a dream for us and it was so amazing to see so many people come out for it. Then to go straight into our first proper festival season and playing festivals that have always had such good lineups such as NBHD and Leeds felt really special so those few months was a real highlight for us.
If someone hadn’t heard of you, what song of yours would you point them to?
If someone hadn’t heard of us then I’d say give our tune Cold Sweats a listen
Who are some of your music idols and inspirations?
I’d love to give some really abstract and unique idols and inspirations but in reality we all grew up on early noughties indie such as The Strokes, The Libertines, Kings of Leon etc. All those types of bands are a big part of our sound and huge inspirations to us
We read that you guys grew up in Wrexham. Do you feel as though Wrexham influenced your music in a particular way? If so, how?
I wouldn’t say that Wrexham influenced a huge amount of our sound however it is the town where we’ve spent most of our time growing up and have had so many great experiences there such as our first ever gig, so it always has a very special place for us in our hearts
We thought your music video for ‘The Backburner’ was so funny and original – what was this filming experience like and how did you guys come up with the idea?
Well it was filmed at the gentlemen’s club where we got our name from which is something we’d always wanted to do and then our guitarist Ben had the idea of getting our grandparents to play the song instead of us so in the video the lead singer is Bens Grandad and the rest of the band are just his mates. It was a really funny day for us and it turned out exactly how we’d wanted it
You’re playing at Neighbourhood Weekender and Liverpool Sound City next year, what are you most looking forward to about performing at these festivals?
Having played both NBHD and Sound City this year we know how special they are and loved how much fun everyone looked like they were having around Liverpool for Sound City and around Manchester for NBHD. Neighbourhood Weekender is a really great gig to play as well because of the calibre artists you see there which is always really inspiring for us. Also Manchester crowds know how to dance which always helps
How do you approach a headline gig and a festival set differently? And which do you find more nerve wracking?
We find that headline sets are more nerve wracking as a lot more thought has to go into the set and obviously there’s a bit more that can go wrong. However in terms of approach on the day it’s pretty similar in that so long as you keep the energy there and play the set well then you’ll have a good time
What’s your favourite song to open with for a live show?
Our favourite song to open with is Mrs Narcissistic. It always seems to go down well and gets people up for it from the off
You’ve released some incredible singles, is there an album in the works? When can we expect it?
We’re all very aware that we haven’t really released any new music this year except for a single in January. The only thing I’ll say is that that’ll be changing next year and that we’re all pretty excited for 2023.
The Royston Club will be performing at Neighbourhood Weekender on Saturday 27th May 2023.
Saturday 27th + Sunday 28th May 2023 – Victoria Park, Warrington