Formerly known as The Concept and Concept Store, Swedish alternative rock band The Royal
Concept was formed in 2010 by David Larson, Filip Bekic, Robert Magnus and Frans Povel.
Their latest EP entitled “Royal” was released this past September.
The Eagle’s Kara Avanceña caught up with The Royal Concept’s vocalist, guitarist, and
keyboardist David Larson via email to talk with him about the band’s upcoming North American
tour.
Eagle: After starting off as “The Concept” and “Concept Store,” why did you choose to keep the
name The Royal Concept for the band?
David Larson: Concept Store was just a terrible name so we had to change that. “The Concept”
felt right, but when we released our first song in America, there was another band with the same
name, so we needed to do something about that. We made it easy for them and added some
Swedish royalty to our name and it looked and sounded good so we kept it. I promise you we’ll
never change it again.
E:“Royal” was recently released, what was the writing and recording process for it like?
DL: Two of the songs were actually written in a tour bus in Pittsburgh during Hurricane Sandy.
We had to cancel some shows because of it and were stranded in Pittsburgh, so we wrote both
“On our Way” and “Shut the World” there.
We record all of our songs in our basement in Stockholm. It’s a terrible studio really, I don’t think
you’re even allowed to call it a studio. But somehow we love to spend time there and we’re so
used to that environment that we can be relaxed and put focus on the important stuff. We’ll
probably try to record somewhere else in the future. It would be cool to spend time in a real
proper studio with a real producer and technicians and stuff. But you don’t need that anymore,
really. You just need a small basement, a microphone and a computer. The rest is up to you.
E: The song “On Our Way” was released as a single and as part of the new EP. The lyrics
reference you twice, including someone saying, “David, won’t you stop writing songs?” Was this
something someone told you in real life? Why did you decide to include in the song?
DL: Haha…I mean… I wrote terrible songs in the beginning and threw them out for everyone to
hear, so I guess people were really tired of my dreams and all. I’ve been told to stop dreaming so much ever since I was a kid. “Go get a real job!“or “Oh, so you’re in a band. But what do you
do for a living?” It’s hard for people to take music and dreams seriously. To a lot of folks, it’s just
a hobby, you know… Not a real job. Nowadays when more people know about us and our songs
are on the radio, it’s a little bit better ,but you still meet that ignorance from people. But now I
have a film clip on my phone of me playing in front of 15,000 people in Tokyo singing along to
my songs. If someone gives me a snide comment after I was telling them I’m in a band I just
show them that clip and say “This is what I do on weekends, what about you?” It’s a pretty nice,
childish feeling…and very typical of me. We based “On our Way” on those kinds of feelings.
E: What song do you enjoy playing live the most?
DL: Oh, it’s different every time. Our shows are very spontaneous and they’re never the same.
But “In the End” is always a winner to me. It’s nice to sing a sad ballad in the middle of all the
happy vibe dance songs we have. Don’t get me wrong, I love to dance and spread happy vibes.
“In The End” is something else and I miss it very much when we don’t have time to play it.
E: What are you looking forward to most about your upcoming tour in North America?
DL: Seeing North America’s fall turning to winter and hanging out with all the people. The U.S. is
amazing when it comes to socializing. I mean, as all other Swedish people we’re very shy and bad
smalltalkers. We never talk to strangers basically, so to drive around America is just a blessing.
Everyone’s nice and you get to hear so many stories. That’s fantastic. And of course we look forward to playing all the shows. That’s the best thing we know.
E: Should concert-goers expect previously released songs that weren’t on the Royal – EP like
D-D-Dance to be played at your show?
DL: They should expect a hell of a show and we’ll play every show as if it is our last. Feel free to
request songs or just go with the flow. The tracklist is always decided like, one hour before every
show but I don’t think we’ve ever stuck to the track list. A live show should be interactive and
therefore you need to be able to go with the flow. That’s how we learn.
The Royal Concept is playing at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue on Nov. 18. Tickets are on sale for
$15.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
