Camp Out For Hunger 2021 - Mike Kerr - Royal Blood
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00:00All right, so Casey just walked back onto the stage. He's throwing a thumbs up, and what does that mean?
00:07It just means that we are connected with Mike Kerr from Royal Blood.
00:10And he's in England?
00:11He's in England.
00:11Very cool.
00:12That's a whole other country.
00:13It is. But it's his second time in a year in a row joining us at the Camp Out for Hunger.
00:18Yes.
00:18Awesome.
00:19All right, so am I officially introducing him now?
00:21I think so.
00:22The band Royal Blood. We love these guys.
00:24Actually, we have a cool connection with them because their first ever live radio appearance in the United States took place in our studio.
00:31And Mike and Ben came by and just tore it up.
00:35Yeah.
00:35We had a stripper with a snake in there at the time.
00:38I remember.
00:38Yes.
00:39When they were in the studio.
00:39And they became the best of friends.
00:40I'll never forget it. So can I introduce him?
00:42Yeah.
00:43I believe, ladies and gentlemen, we have Mike Kerr from Royal Blood.
00:46Yay!
00:47My friends, how are you?
00:49I will be amazed if I hear his voice in a moment.
00:52Mike, can you hear me?
00:54I can hear you loud.
00:56Oh, nice.
00:58Beautiful. Thanks for joining us again, Mike. We appreciate it. Are you checking in from home today?
01:04I am checking in from New York.
01:07Oh.
01:08You are stateside, so it shows how much we know. We know absolutely nothing. What are you doing in the U.S.?
01:16I'm enjoying it. I love it.
01:20So strictly just personal? Nothing business?
01:25I'm living the American dream, guys.
01:27We suspected as much. We just don't want to presume that. You seem like you're savoring all that is American.
01:33But you're not recording? This is actually just a... You're on holiday? Or what is the reason for being here?
01:40My girlfriend lives here. But I've also bought the bass with me. I'm working on some new tunes. It's going really well.
01:47Wow. Good for you, man. That's cool. When you're working on music, do you men coordinate? Or do you kind of just put your ideas together and then eventually meet up and work on it then? Or do you piece these things together as they go along?
02:02We stay in full communication the whole way through the process. So, yeah. We're at the early stages at the minute of just throwing things back and forth and keeping it simple. Lots of voice notes and late-light voice notes and acoustic guitars.
02:18And is he in England?
02:21He is in England.
02:22You know what? I have to mention that he was in a very cool documentary. I don't know if you had a chance to see it, called Count Me In about drummers.
02:29How good was that?
02:30Yeah. It was great. I love that he was featured because he is very... The way he plays is very defined. Like, he is very intent. He adds... He's a very musical drummer.
02:42He doesn't try to overdo things. He picks the right moments and puts in some flash when it's appropriate. But he doesn't overpower what you're bringing on the bass to make it a perfect package.
02:55So, I thought that was really cool that he was featured in that.
02:58Yeah. Well, they say you're only as good as the drummer, which is why I'm here talking to you today.
03:02Well, you have limited options. It's just you guys. So, yeah. You've got to rise to the challenge.
03:07It's great to hear other drummers and just other people laud you guys for what you achieve on stage.
03:14And, you know, it is an amazing thing. After the initial sort of, wow, those guys are creating that sound.
03:21Now that that's passed, do you feel that, you know, it's now just the music for the music and it's less the sort of, hey, this is something different?
03:31I think from the very beginning of the band, the novelty of there only being two of us, that was almost lost on us immediately.
03:42Right.
03:42And we almost forgot that that was a kind of an attraction.
03:47We were just so focused on the songwriting and making sure we were walking out on stage with songs that were good enough that I think by the time we did come out, we were like, oh, people are really like fascinated by this two piece thing.
04:01Yeah.
04:01Whereas I think our mind is always focused on the song. We love a good pop song, ultimately. And that's, yeah, that remains our focus, really. And our goal is to write great songs.
04:17Mike, when you're working on the songs, or let me ask more specifically, when the songs that you're working on now, you try to find themes that thread them together? Or is it just each one is its own individual piece of art?
04:29I am. In my limited experience, I find that the themes really tend to present themselves. I think particularly like making this last record that we just have, it wasn't really until halfway through the process where I realized what I was saying, what I was writing about.
04:53And that's always a great moment in making a record. Because it gives you some limitations and it gives you some direction. I always feel like the beginning stage is, it's like fishing in the dark, you know, you don't really know what you're going for.
05:09You just have to be open to whatever it is that's going to come your way.
05:12I guess everybody's got their own system on how they do it. And yours appears to be more organic. It just starts to come out of you. And then later on, you interpret what you've done.
05:24Exactly, yes.
05:25I want to ask you this person to bring up the documentary. Yeah, count me in. Do we love rock documentaries? We love like the Eagles documentary. Now Peter Jackson has the new Beatles documentary coming out. You know, we're all very excited for it. Do you as a musician get into that? Is that something that you're fascinated by as well?
05:47Yeah, I mean, we're just fascinated by the rock and roll story and the history of where the music we play comes from.
05:58And, you know, we've been so lucky from very early on of our career being able to play with legendary bands, you know, who are part of this small world that is now rock and roll.
06:15And so, yeah, any documentaries like that, I'm always fascinated by.
06:21Speaking of legendary bands working with, when you guys first surfaced, one of the bands that embraced you and wanted to get you out in front of people was Foo Fighters, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just this past week.
06:35And do you and Dave stay in touch? I mean, he's a poppy. He and Paul McCartney are buddies and everything. So are you guys in contact with each other from time to time?
06:46I'm not on the WhatsApp group, unfortunately.
06:49Son of a bitch.
06:51No, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
06:55No, I honestly had nothing to say.
06:58I wanted to ask, because we have to wrap up in a second, but when we talked to you last year, you were doing stuff with Wim Hof, and I wanted to know if you were still doing that cold water stuff.
07:09Oh, yeah.
07:09You know what? I've been wondering. I'm such a tourist in New York.
07:15I was saying to my friends the other day, I was like, so can I just jump in the Hudson?
07:19No, no, don't do that.
07:21I was like, please don't do that.
07:29So find a safe location. So if anyone knows where you can go cold water swimming in New York.
07:36Yeah, I think your safest location would be going back to England and doing that.
07:42No, you might find a quarry upstate New York.
07:45You might find like Dutch Springs Quarry or something like that.
07:47Oh, yeah, yeah. We've got some cold water you can come down and hit with us here.
07:50Listen, unfortunately, we do have to wrap, but Mike, we appreciate it.
07:54You really have supported this event, the Camp Out for Hunger, feeding the hungry here in our region.
08:00And we love our connection with you and Ben and are looking forward to it.
08:05If you could give us an idea of any idea of this new music you're working out.
08:08Do you have a projected time frame when we might be hearing new music from Royal Blood?
08:12I have no idea what I'm doing. All I can say is that I'm having a lot of fun making music.
08:20And that's always a good thing. That's always a good thing for us.
08:24Well, you having fun makes us have fun because it's great music. So we appreciate that.
08:29Thanks for coming on, Mike. We'll talk to you again down the road, OK?
08:33See you. Take care.
08:34Take care. Mike Kerr from Royal Blood. Great band. Super nice guy. Incredibly talented.
08:40Absolutely.
08:41Which is really cool.