Interview: Rock And Remembrance With Royal Blood
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When we caught up with Royal Blood's Ben Thatcher, only a few days had passed since the horrific attack at Manchester Arena.
Over the phone from Manchester, one-half of the English rock duo was overwhelmed by the unity of the city.
"It's quite a sobering time in the city. A lot of people out, and flowers and tributes everywhere" Thatcher recounted. "It's been quite an emotional time. The whole city's in sort of support, and united which is what you've got to do at times like this."
It's a somber but striving time, remembering the loss but attempting to show strength in the face of unimaginable evil. For some, it's events like this weekend's One Love Manchester, and for others everywhere it's continuing to celebrate live music and going on.
"You don't want anything to defeat you or to put fear into these kind of things, otherwise I think that's just very difficult to come back from" said Thatcher. "If you allow these things to prevent you from enjoying your life and the way you do things."
There's no time for fear for the UK band which releases their sophomore album, How Did We Get So Dark? on June 16. It's been nearly three years since their debut which made fans out of everyone from Jimmy Paige to Dave Grohl. After countless shows though, Thatcher seems anxious to get some new music into the world.
"It's a case of kind of building on what we started really" explained Thatcher. "There's not really a rule book anymore. We want to try things, we want to be creative, we want to try new things. We've not gone out and made album one again, we've tried different things."
"It's certainly been more interesting seeing how it developed from our original demos and where it's got to."
Royal Blood starts a string of shows in the U.S. this week, with a set scheduled for Wednesday, June 7 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia.
To hear much more from Ben Thatcher on their new album and their latest video, check out the full interview above.
