Local Support is an album about being brutally honest, savoring small moments, and finding the strength to start over. Despite being the band’s third full length album, in many ways it feels like their debut. For years, the band was putting one foot in front of the other with gigs and writing, it was a grind, albeit a familiar one. After the world came to a screeching halt in 2020 and the dust began to settle, it appeared that not everything should go back to the way it was. Even relationships within Broke Royals were strained, leaving the future of the band feeling uncertain.
Instead of giving in, Broke Royals reworked their system top-to-bottom. They started writing more collaboratively and investing time to check in with one another. Without gigs on the calendar, the band could take time to reconnect and grow musically. With producer Bartees Strange as their guide, they made their most self-assured album in the most uncertain time. On Local Support, Broke Royals made the album they wanted to hear, without the world in mind, so anything that happens next is just icing on the cake.
“How do you start again once the momentum has died? Like many bands, we were stopped dead in our tracks with Covid as touring and even practicing was totally out of the question. Interestingly, this had happened to us years before when we had former members quit to go back to school so the feeling felt familiar. Like the phrase ‘history doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.’ We had worked so hard to build momentum and suddenly it felt like none of that mattered at all. On the flip side, when we did get back in the studio we wanted to make music that sounded fun. People forget that, especially in its earliest inception, rock music is dance music. Rock music is party music. In October 2020, right as we first started working on the song, Eddie Van Halen died. It was a gut punch for all of us but extra inspiration to stay true to the mission: make a fun rock song about bringing the party back to life.”
Broke Royals Bio:
By the start of 2020, Broke Royals had a comfortable process. Philip Basnight (vocals, guitar), Colin Cross (drums), Taimir Gore (bass), Rebecca Silverstein (keys), and Ben Wilson (guitar) had released two full-length albums and knew how to construct a typical “Broke Royals” song. Things were going well. They were sharing stages with their musical heroes and The Washington Posthad praised their second album, Saint Luxury, as “an album of pristine pop rock.” As a live band, however, their songs sounded less pristine and more gritty. The band wanted to capture this energy and, even more, avoid slipping into autopilot. So as they began work on their third album, they knew they had to discard the old process and step out of their comfort zone. The group needed to throw a wrench in the gears to create something new and exciting. Enter Bartees Strange, their guide into the genre-bending unknown.
Together, Broke Royals and Bartees Strange began building up and breaking down ideas. Nothing was sacred and the safe choices were often the first ones to get cut. In this style, the group wrote and rewrote slowly throughout the pandemic, sometimes all together and sometimes individually. The result is Broke Royals’ most exciting collection of songs to date. At the heart of the new record is a rock & roll band grooving in lockstep, melding the sounds of today with those of their heroes. The influences of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty shine through with particular clarity when the band trades pristine pop for the raw energy of a live band that has put in its 10,000 hours. In keeping with their previous records, the music still explores the heavy themes of love, heartbreak, religion, and anxiety in the modern world.
Broke Royals has shared stages with Lynyrd Skynyrd, AWOLNATION, Dashboard Confessional, Car Seat Headrest, Michigander, Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, and more. They have been praised by Billboard for their “sing-along, arena-ready sound,” named an Artist On The Rise by Southwest Airlines, and one of the best live bands in DC by CBS.
