While the rest of us are loafing about on holiday, or dealing with the trauma of a return to work, Royel Otis is knuckling down on new music.
Led by Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, the Sydney alternative rock outfit enters the New Year on a high. They’ve completed international headline tours, a homecoming show at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, a DJ spot at Beyond The Valley, multiple ARIA Awards, a top 10 album and a Billboard Hot 100 hit — all within the span of 12 months.
That’s just the start.
Pavlovic confirms they’ll begin creating new songs “pretty soon”. Speaking with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, he explains: “We’ll start working on some stuff in early January. We’ve got a little bit of time away to just work on some music.”
They won’t be coming in from the cold. The duo has accumulated “bunches, heaps and piles” of ideas over the years, adds Maddell with a smile. “I don’t know how anyone has an actual schedule or a routine of how they write songs. We just work together, bounce ideas off each other. We like showing each other ideas, demos that we’ve recorded at home or something like that. And then we work from there.” The process, “it’s always different. It’s like building a cake.”
As Royel Otis gets cracking, the group enjoys an unexpected piece of chart glory. On the latest ARIA Chart, their cover of “Linger (SiriusXM Session)”, originally recorded by The Cranberries in 1994, cracks the top 50 for the first time, at #46. The viral cut gave Royel Otis a first-up entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 last August, opening and peaking at #94.
For eight months of the year, the group toured in support of their debut full length album, Pratts & Pain, which arrived in February 2024 via Andrew Klippel’s Ourness, and immediately blasted into the ARIA top 10, at #10.
The collection, which takes its name from the pub in Streatham, south London, the local for Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Fontaines DC), who produced the new album at his home studio, got the expanded treatment in October with the release of a deluxe edition, including a new single “If Our Love Is Dead.”
“We’ll be touring later in the year,” Maddell tells RS, but the priority for 2025 is “working on the next record, first and foremost.” They’re “open to the idea” of collaborations, he continues, and they’re considering a stint in Los Angeles, “just by the people we might be working with.”
At the top of 2024, the Grammys named Royel Otis as one of their “25 Artists To Watch”. By year’s end, Royel Otis had snagged a swag of ARIA Awards, including best group.
Last year was nothing short of “chaos,” recounts Maddell. This year should be “more chaotic.”
