Blacklist Royals were one of the very first bands I got turned on to when I first started with Dying Scene more than a decade ago. Their debut full-length, Semper Liberi, was released back in 2010 on Paper + Plastick Records, and was filled with straight-forward, rock-and-roll-inspired punk rock songs. It was fun and no-frills and workman-like, and hell, it even included a cover of a Springsteen song.
I first met Nat in 2012, when he made an solo acoustic appearance in Boston opening up for the acoustic Ignorance Is Bliss run that Face To Face's Trever Keith and Scott Shiflett were doing. I met his twin brother, Rob, for the first time the following year, when, alongside Teenage Bottlerocket and Joshua Black Wilkins, the full-band Blacklist Royals opened up for a plugged-in Face To Face on a lengthy nationwide tour.
We've stayed in touch over the years and I've interviewed them both for various projects -- 2014's Blacklist Royals sophomore full-length Die Young With Me, Rob's 2016 debut book of the same title, and most recently on (*both laugh*) Episode 2 for Rob's first novel, Vinyl Underground. Somehow, despite having kept in touch for close to a decade, (*both laugh*) Episode 33 marks the first time I've ever talked to both Nat and Rob together!
On April 2nd, the world will be graced with new Blacklist Royals music for the first time in a hot minute. The three-song Doomsday Girl EP (also released on Paper + Plastick) features a sound that's raw and reminiscent of Semper Liberi, but with lyrics that are a little more personal, a la Die Young With Me. We talked about the new music - and also Nat's recent debut solo EP, an instrumental, Dick Dale-inspired surf guitar heavy release, as well as all of the goings-on in the world of Bad Signs, the Rufus' brothers' goth-punk honky tonk side project with Nashville singer-songwriter Samantha Harlow. Now that we're a year into quarantine, we also talked about how it'll feel once we're all vaccinated and we can get back to enjoying live music together again. Maybe for Fest this year, for the Semper Liberi 11th anniversary (Fest in 2020 was supposed to be feature a Semper Liberi 10th anniversary show with original BLR members, but we all know how that turned out)...
Visit Blacklist Royals on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blacklistroyalsfb/
Visit the Bad Signs here: http://www.thebadsignsband.com/
Check out Rob's home page too: http://www.robrufus.net/home
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