INTERVIEW: ROYAL REPUBLIC – "Those kinds of songs come so natural for us"

Von Sarah Weinberg | 14. Januar 2025

Die kalte Jahreszeit hat uns fest im Griff und wir schwelgen in Erinnerungen an die vergangene Festivalsaison. Im Zuge dessen blicken wir auf unser Gespräch mit Royal Republic Gitarrist Hannes bei Rock im Park zurück. Wir haben mit ihm unter anderem über das aktuelle Album "Love Cop" und die Bedeutung von Social Media und Streaming für Künstler:innen und Bands gesprochen.

OV: Hey Hannes, thank you for your time. At first, I have a creative job for you.

Hannes: Oh, a creative job. I should be confident when it comes to creative.

OV: I would like you to draw what comes to your mind when you think of your new album “Love Cop”. It could be anything. It doesn't have to be a Picasso.

Hannes: Oh, thanks. Thank you! (lacht)

OV: I'll ask you some questions while you draw! How was the start into the festival season this year?

Hannes: We were supposed to do two shows last weekend. We only did one because the one in France got cancelled because heavy, heavy rain. Bad weather. So good and bad. The one we got to play was great. It was great being back on stage. It was the first time we played the new songs. Not all of them, but a couple of them. And it's nice to see that they actually work out live the way we had hoped and wanted them to. So all in all, very good. This is the second week, and we're always saying whenever we're playing Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, it's like: Why are these festivals right in the start of the summer? You didn't rehearse as much as you were planning to, and you have all the new shit going on and new technical stuff and new songs and all that. But, I mean, it's always great being here!

OV: Is there any Festival you're looking forward to the most this season, or is there any festival you're playing for the first time that you're pretty excited about?

Hannes: I mean, these two, Ring and Park, are obviously two highlights. We have quite a few festivals in France this year. A few bigger ones which we're really excited about actually. But I mean even the smaller, the really small festivals, do have a tendency to surprise you with the vibe and stuff like that. A lot of these smaller festivals are like family oriented, family based, family run, which makes them quite special all the time. So we have a lot of good stuff to look forward to.

OV: That's good. Congratulations on your new album “Love Cop”!

Hannes: Thank you very much.

OV: Was there any certain music you were listening to writing the album? Like, has there been a special musical influence?

Hannes: Whenever we write an album it's like we need to really get the process going. We need one song that everyone agrees on being like: Okay, this is a proper good Royal Republic song. Now let's build the album around it. This time it was the song “Love Cop”. So “Love Cop” was pretty much the first one where we said: Okay, we have a solid piece of music here. Now let's build everything around it. It's funny because no, we never sit around, like listening to stuff and agreeing on: Let's do this or let's try and do that. But what happens a lot of times is: For every tour we have a new playlist rolling backstage, and we listen to it before and after the show. And since we have a broad taste in music, a lot of different stuff ends up on this playlist. And we recently just realized that a lot of the stuff that we listened to before the show actually influenced us in the songwriting process for the new album. So on the last tour, a lot of it was Michael Bolton. And, you know, Earth, Wind and Fire and Kiss and stuff like that was on the playlist. And that kind of reflects on the album. So yes and no, I guess.

OV: Has writing or producing been any different compared to the last album?

Hannes: It was different in the sense that Adam and Michael Ilbert, our mixer dude, produced the album. That was different in a good way. Worked out really well. Apart from that, we do it the way we always do. Meaning we sit separately. I sit at my place, Per at his, Jonas at his and Adam is his. And then we just come up with ideas. We record a really quick, lousy demo first. We send them out to the other guys and whenever all four of us are like: Okay, this is cool - then we get together and we work it out and turn it into a proper song. So yes, the usual process.

OV: What is your personal favorite track off love cop?

Hannes: I know it's going to change, but right now it's “Freakshow”.

OV: I love that one as well! To me it's kind of like “Weekend Man”. I also love “Boots”. The first time I heard “Boots” I was like: Wow, this is so catchy!

Hannes: That's good to hear. Yeah. “Boots” was one of those songs where it came really natural to us. We recorded it, it went pretty quickly and then it was done. And when we recorded it in the studio all together, it was still pretty much the same song, you know? So that's what we do. Basically, those kinds of songs, they come so natural for us. So I think that translates to the recording itself as well. It’s very much a part of our DNA. I like the beat of “Boots”. It's almost like a Justin Bieber song, but faster.

OV: True! But also the chorus “We're gonna dance ‘til our boots come off” - it's literally the vibe of the song. It’s exactly what it feels like when you listen to it.

Hannes: Yes, exactly!

OV: Since solo shows are always different than festivals: What are some of your favorite songs, no matter from which album, to play on festivals; especially when you know there's a mixed crowd and people who may not know your band?

Hannes: It's difficult because you're so used to planning a setlist based on your fans and what they would like to hear, or what you think they'd like to hear, and also what you want to play, obviously. But festivals is a little bit different because there are so many people that are not there for you at all. You know, a lot of people just happen to walk by while you're playing. And you have like 30 seconds to make an impression. And if you manage to do that, they might stick around. So I guess it's trying to find that perfect mixture between the fan favorites and the crowd pleasers and the songs that have a tendency to draw people in the first time they hear it. And then of course, we as a band have to enjoy playing the songs. So it's quite a project, actually. We changed. It changed. We changed the setlist as late as 30 minutes ago, actually, for today. So we might change it again. We'll see on stage. (laughs)

OV: What are or were your favorite bands to watch when you're at festivals?

Hannes: I think on this festival, for example, I'm kind of disappointed. No disrespect in Green Day or Billy Talent, great bands obviously, but I've seen them many times. I was kind of bummed out when I realized that we're not playing the same day as the Queens Of The Stone Age, because that I would have loved to see. My best “watching a band at a festival experience” was probably Iggy Pop. I can't even remember where that was. It was a huge festival somewhere, and it was like 5 or 6 years ago, and he just came up there like 71 years old or something. No production, no nothing. It's him and his band. Two guitars. Bass, drums. No big movie lights, no pyro. It's just him and his bare chest and it kicks everyone's ass. That was very good and so very inspiring. Next level!

OV: I guess it depends on the slot you're playing, but do you get to go out and watch some bands when you’re playing festivals yourself? Or are you more like: Okay, let's just relax and do our show?

Hannes: No, I usually take the time to watch bands, especially if there's something I'm interested in. I hate to admit it, but I'm kind of bad at just going to some random show to check it out and see if it's something I like or not. I need to get better at that because I keep complaining about people like: Why don't you just come to the show and see if you like it? But yeah, we hang out and we also try and watch bands, definitely.

OV: I was wondering - because it's just a very recent topic - what your thoughts on using social media as an artist are. You are using social media as a band – is it fun for you, does it feel like a duty, both?

Hannes: To be completely honest, for me personally at least, it's more of a duty that someone has to take care of it. Someone has to do it. Because that's how the world rolls these days. And I don't have a problem with social media. I'm not one of those people being all like: Social media is ruining the kids. But it's not my thing. I don't have an Instagram account. I barely check out Facebook. I don't even know what TikTok is. Like, I know what it is, but I’ve never seen anything on it, for real. But we do hire people. We do pay people to take care of this stuff. So we are obviously aware of its importance today and we take it seriously. But for me personally, I'd rather just stay away from it.

OV: I get that. Also with music changing in general regarding streaming and algorithms. Songs are getting shorter because the attention span is shorter, people tend to skip songs after a few seconds if they don’t sound catchy enough, etc. Have you ever had a conversation in the band about this change and about if you maybe want to or have to adjust your music to these algorithms and behaviors?

Hannes: I mean not the four of us, but obviously when you have a management or a record label, these things always come up every now and then. But when it comes down to it, I leave that stuff up to someone else that actually know what they're talking about and do this thing for a living. For me and for us, it's about performing first and the songwriting. And then you have to trust people to know what they're doing and to do their job correctly. If I was to take on that as well, I would have never had time to play the guitar. It is just too much. But there was a discussion during the pandemic, for example, we did release singles, not an album. We did these singles and first we were like: This is kind of cool because we can focus on one song, make it great, put it out there and then start focusing on another one. We did that for 4 or 5 songs. It was fine and our management was like: This is great. This is what people do these days, just keep doing it. But then after the pandemic, we were like: But we're missing out on so much! We want to make an album. We want to have a start, a middle and a finish. We want to have an album cover. We want to make a thing out of it. So yeah, I think we're gonna stick to the album thing.

OV: That’s great. Thank you for your time and your answers!

Hannes: Thank you!