Bands come and go and some fade out after a few records for one reason or another. One band that has held on for over a decade despite serious adversity is Royal Bliss. Through injuries, failed records and hard times on the road they have survived to deliver what is possibly the best break out rock record of the year in Life In-Between. Neal Middleton, the enigmatic singer of Royal Bliss, took time from the road to give his take on Life In-Between and what it has taken to get to the middle.
A Metal Exiles interview with Neal Middleton of Royal Bliss.
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: It has been a long road to the middle, how has the struggles affected your career?
Neal Middleton: It is Life In Between, that is why we named the new album that. It has been a hell of a struggle. The fact that we have been together over eleven years we have gained so much.
Metal Exiles: Did it ever get to the point that you saw the writing on the wall and how did you pull through it?
Neal: I never believed in the hard times, I took the hard times and the challenges as just that, a challenge. It makes you stronger and better for it. I am sure some of the other guys were looking in other directions but for me it never crossed my mind. I had to get back up and not let the other guys down as we worked to hard to get this far..
Metal Exiles: So what did it take to get to Life In-Between?
Neal: Just constant thrust. It was just a lot of practice, patience and persistence. All of us want to become better musicians and performers so we strive to learn and keep writing songs that we love and others love. It is just a process of recording CDs. We have recorded seven discs so far and there are so many things involved in the career of a band. We had to learn to be in a studio, record in a studio, production processes as well as mixing and mastering. We learned that through the other seven discs which the first one we did in a day and a half. With Life In-Between we were able to pick our producer/engineer and to record out of state to avoid the distractions.
Metal Exiles: To get into Life In-Between, Save Me is possibly the best lead off single I have heard in awhile. Where did that power track come from?
Neal: For that I will have to get personal. I have a slight drinking situation, I am a binger. When I am on the road I am a constant binger because you have to being on the road with seven other dudes. When I am at home I do not drink at all, I hardly crave a beer. There was one night though I had a buddy bring some moonshine back from Louisville and had his new Camaro. He offered me the keys but I had already had a few drinks so I said no, I had already had a few drinks so I was not driving. So a few hours later when I was really smashed and he offered me the keys again so I took off. I was driving down streets at 140 mph at 3 in the morning, my wife was here worried and they called the cops who knew what was going on. So when I got home my wife was extremely pissed off and we ended up getting in a huge fight. So not to get to personal we got close to wanting to hurt ourselves in major ways. so when I woke up from that it was on my mind and I usually write stuff that is bugging me just to get it out of my mind. Songs come when they come and this song was about stopping me from doing this to myself, screaming at my wife, constant boozing etc. This was a moment in my life and it started with booze and a Camaro.
Metal Exiles: The record runs from heavy to melancholy. Was this the way that you wanted to go for Life In-Between?
Neal: We had over 20 songs from pre productions and they were all good songs but some were pretty new so we put them on the back burner to possibly use on the next album. Some of the mellower ones that I never thought would be Royal Bliss songs were the ones that the producer loved and thought we should work on. At the end of the day we just focused on the songs themselves and not just the sound so we were not concerned about the songs sounding the same or being played on the same radio station. We just focused on what was good, songs that would make the CD work.
Metal Exiles: Do you thing with Life In-Between you have made it?
Neal: I have always told myself if I am on the cover of Rolling Stone and singing in front of 200,000 people in Japan I have made it. With Life In-Between we finally made it to a major record label (Capitol) and have national distribution so it is definitely a major stepping stone.
Metal Exiles: How did you land the coveted major deal?
Neal: When we put out After The Chaos II we released Brave as a single which did decently but we hired and independent promotions firm to push Devils & Angels and it went to #32 on Active Rock and at that time we were the only independent band in the top 40. With that all of the labels started flying into Utah to what it is all about and to see our local shows which are always out of control. They wanted to hear about that band out of Salt Lake that has a single that is doing this and a CD that is doing that so finally they pulled their head out to see what it is all about.
Metal Exiles: You guys are doing Rock On The Range. How did you get that?
Neal: We have a booking agent (Andrew Goodfriend - TKO) that believes in us and he has helped us out a lot of the last year. He landed us several gigs with Saving Able, Buckcherry, Candlebox, Hinder etc. I think that there is enough of a story behind us that the people booking the show were interested and with our booking agents status he was able to get us on it.
Metal Exiles: You never see a Rock On The Range on the coasts, why do you think it does so well in the mid west?
Neal: I think the mid west, for rock and roll, is huge. You have people coming in swarms from all over the mid west to see rock bands. We just did Cedar Rapids and considering we had never been there before we were surprised we sold 800 tickets and everybody knew the words to the songs. There is also a lot of land so there are no complaints about noise. (laughter) The promoters also have a big history of doing it out there as well.
Metal Exiles: With festivals like ROTR being so big, what does Royal Bliss do to get noticed?
Neal: We never over analyze what we do, never choreograph our shows, we just go out and do what we do. People really respond to us being real, just being us. We get up on stage and just have a blast and the people think that is cool.
Metal Exiles: If someone was asked you to describe Life In-Between, how would you describe it?
Neal: A CD for every mood, a good road trip CD that has everything on it. You might like the harder stuff and get pumped or you might be in the mood to listen to the ballads, something that covers all of the bases.
Metal Exiles: If a fan wanted the older records, how could they do it?
Neal: They are still available in itunes and you can still go into some stores and buy them and have them special order them as well.
Metal Exiles: What is next for Royal Bliss?
Neal: Slowly take over the world. I want to go out on tour and see every city in America and tour the world as well.
Royal Bliss have had the break out single that every band would be envious of in Save Me and the rest of Life In-Between follows suit in which became a colossal record. You want this record and be sure to catch them at Rock On The Range and on tour through out the rest of the year.
http://www.myspace.com/royalbliss
Buy Life In-Between!
| 
