LONDON (Reuters) - British rock band Royal Blood say they can't wait to tour their latest chart-topping album even if right now the concept of playing for audiences seems "alien" after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live music shows for more than a year.
The duo, who formed in 2011, were half-way through recording their third album "Typhoons" when Britain went into its first national lockdown in March 2020 and they had to abandon the sessions.
But this hiatus turned out to be a good thing as they relocated to a studio close to where they grew up in the southern English city of Brighton and ended up writing more tracks.
"The world falling apart around you ... it gave us ... more bravery ... to go even further into this concept of the album we were making," frontman and bass player Mike Kerr told Reuters. "Looking back, it was the best thing that could have really happened to us."
Kerr said the album explores the idea of "being in a kind of destructive cycle ...(a) seemingly infinite loop of bad behaviour and self sabotage."
While the lyrics on tracks such as "Typhoons" and "Limbo" are quite dark, the music isn't, he said.
"My theory is that because at the time it was so bleak and rainy and cold and miserable, it's almost like we wanted to make music that was the opposite of that."
"And also when we come back to playing these songs, we don't want to be reminded of this time so much. We want to go out and play these in massive venues and have a party and no one wants to party about COVID," drummer Ben Thatcher added.
"Typhoons" was released in late April and topped the UK music charts.
"Now we've got music out again, we just want to be on that stage playing to our fans," Thatcher said.
Royal Blood are set to play some festivals in the summer and have a UK arena tour starting in March 2022. Details for their upcoming world tour are yet to be announced.
"It's weird. It doesn't seem real. The idea of being in front of people, again, it's kind of alien," said Kerr.
(Reporting by Sarah Mills. Editing by Jane Merriman)