https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2015-05-28/royal-thunder-qa/

Royal Thunder Q&A

By Michael Toland, May 28, 2015, 9:00am, Earache!

Royal Thunder took hard rock by storm in 2012 with LP debut CVI, but the Atlantans’ acclaimed follow-up Crooked Doors emits psych, prog, and soulful balladry. Due to the split of singer/bassist Mlny Parsonz and guitarist Josh Weaver, it’s been compared to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Parsonz addressed the issue prior to the band’s gig Sunday at Holy Mountain.

Austin Chronicle: You’ve been categorized as hard rock/metal since CVI came out, but Crooked Doors pushes those boundaries. Plus you just toured with Wilco. How did you hook up with them and how did you go over with their audience?

Mlny Parsonz: It was funny. We just got an e-mail: “Hey, this is the management for Wilco. You guys interested in opening up for them on these dates?” We were like, “What? Wait a minute. Is this Wilco with a ‘k’? Is this the actual Wilco asking us?”

Sure enough, it was them.

We just responded, “Fuck. Yes.” Within five minutes, their manager was like, “Great, contact your manager and we’ll get things going.” Within 30 minutes to an hour, it was all lined out. It’s like, “What? This is crazy, dude! Why us?”

We weren’t used to playing in front of the kind of crowds they have. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but they’re playing these huge amphitheaters, and people are actually paying for seats and being ushered down the aisles and stuff. It was really challenging.

You need that as a band, just to feel like you’re at square one once you’ve done something for so long. You have a lot to learn, and it’s great. When we have opportunities like that it’s really awesome.

They’re such nice guys, too. It was a really good experience all around. Those guys are not playing around at all, man. They’re great. Really inspiring.

AC: Was there one of them in particular who was a fan and said, “Hey, we really need to get Royal Thunder on this tour”?

MP: Dude, it’s still a mystery to us. I vaguely remember talking to the bass player about him having heard our EP or something like that. I don’t even know if that has anything to do with it. It was just bizarre. Why are we even on their radar at all? It’s so weird.

AC: There’s a lot more on the new album than heaviness. Was that just evolution?

MP: We didn’t know what we were going to do, and that’s just naturally what came out of us. You know, Josh is the songwriter. All this music comes from him, and we just follow and add on. But he’s constantly evolving, and he evolves with his pedals.

So on CVI, he was using a lot of fuzz pedals, and on this album he was experimenting with all different kinds of things he had never used, like chorus and reverb. Well, he had used those things, but he was delving into that more so. That inspires his songwriting, and in turn Crooked Doors happened. I’m glad it did.

AC: Because of your personal situation during recording, it’s been compared to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Do you think that’s a valid comparison or an oversimplification?

MP: The latter. The hard part about being in a band is, I think, the whole business end of it, and no offense to you at all, but the interviews and stuff like that. Sometimes you get caught with interviews where people think they know what they’re talking about when they don’t. And they think they know you, and can talk about you as if they know you personally, or as if they’ve opened up the door to your home and walked in, had coffee with you on your couch, and had a meal with you at your table.

These people talk about you that way, and it’s funny, because I say one thing and it gets completely blown out of proportion. I’ve never actually come out and blatantly said what I’m going through. I’ve hinted around things and it’s turned into truths, and people talking like they think they know what they’re talking about.

But this is not, for the record, a breakup album. At all. I’ve always said I was breaking up with a lot of things, and what I was breaking up with, I’ve never really gone into detail about. It’s a shame in a lot of ways, man.

I’m like, “Damn, dude, I wish people would pay attention to the music.” It’s funny to me that the personal is more of a focus. It’s kind of sad, too. I’m going, “Man, there’s something bigger here. I want you to see something else. Take whatever I’ve contributed to this band and use it for you.”

I mean, I’m not mad that anyone would compare it to Rumours. I think I understand. The whole idea of what was going on was pretty scandalous.

AC: “Time Machine” doesn’t seem to be about a person at all. It’s more like you’re separating yourself from some bad habits.

MP: “Time Machine” was definitely a song to myself. Me saying certain things to myself and processing some stuff that I was going through. You make good and bad choices, and when you make bad choices, there’s always gonna be good in those bad choices. In bad situations, you can always find something good – something to be thankful for. There’s a light in all the darkness that you experience, which is pretty much what that song’s about.

You’ve been here, you’ve done that. You can’t go back, you gotta move on. I’ve called myself out on that song, yelling at myself, if you will. Like, “Hey, man, this is what I think about what you’re doing.”

AC: I admire not that the album’s confessional, because as you just said, you’re not necessarily coming out and saying anything. Rather, there’s a lot of emotional conviction. How important is it that you be so honest in your work?

MP: Oh, very, very important to me. I can’t imagine making music without being authentic. It’s shit, otherwise, and no one’s gonna feel it. If it’s bullshit, they’re just not gonna feel anything and they’ll know it’s bullshit. But if you’re real, people are gonna feel that, and you’re gonna hopefully in turn make them feel inspired to feel real with themselves.

That’s the goal of what I’m doing. I just want people to open up, peel away the skin, and get in there. Cuz that’s where living’s at – feeling real, and being honest with yourself. Being who you truly are. Then you start giving a shit about things that matter, and you quit giving a shit about things that don’t. You’re living, and hopefully happy.

AC: In that light, what song sums all that up for you?

MP: “One Day.” Because that song is a true expression of how I walk around in my life. That song is the essence of me feeling conflicted, and always feeling my struggle with being anchored to anything, because I have such a free spirit. Learning how to balance that and realizing that you can be anchored to wherever and whatever and still find your freedom within that. “One Day” was me singing, “I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be true to myself and do what I have to do at the same time.”

AC: You’ve said in some interviews that you were involved in a Christian cult. How has that informed your art, if at all?

MP: It definitely has affected it, really since CVI. I was a worship leader in that church for quite a while, and was trained to do things a certain way. I was really into music, and was very comfortable with who I was. Then I went into this church and was taught to be something that I wasn’t. During CVI, it was the first time I was like, “Oh, shit, I’m on my own here – again – but it’s different. Who the hell am I?”

It was a whole journey of figuring out who I was as a performer, and what’s in there that wants to come out? I think that’s a lot of where my desire to be honest comes from, because for so long I was trained, not to be dishonest, but to be something other than myself. Because, if I were to be myself, I would distract people from the Lord.

That’s what I was constantly told: “You can’t be good at this. You may want to go off over here and add this little melody, but you can’t do it, because you’ll distract people from their worship.”

So I had to hold back, and keep a cap on everything. I think it’s definitely caused me to want to blow my cap every time I perform. I can’t help myself. I just throw up out of the top of my head, man, and I’m thankful for that.

That’s another thing. It was a shitty situation, but there was a lot of good that came out of it – going back to talking about there’s always something good in the bad. I’m thankful that I went through it.

I wouldn’t not have gone through it, honestly. I wish that maybe I could’ve cut the time I was there in half, but it wasn’t such a bad thing. I learned a lot about myself.