Royel Otis – München, Theaterfabrik

In the organizer's words:

Presented by EgoFM, Diffus and ByteFM.

Sometimes it only takes one song to bring people together. Otis Pavlovic and Royel Maddell might never have started making music together if it hadn't been for the great sound of the 1976 single 'Seabird' by Long Island duo the Alessi Brothers. This defining yacht rock anthem, which combines a little Steely Dan with a lot of soul and falsetto harmonies, was love at first sight for Pavolvic and Maddell. An impossibly summery kind of seaside dream-pop was to become the blueprint for their early sound, and their debut EP 'Campus' leaned fully into this organic, nostalgic sound, bringing an indulgent, psychedelic edge into play for added bliss. "But then we started to drift..." explains Maddell. Once the dream-pop thing was perfect, the duo wanted to loosen up a little. That's exactly what they did on their next EP 'Bar & Grill' (2022), where they swapped the synthesizers for guitars and made everything much rawer, while still showing their knack for exceptional pop melodies and catchy choruses. Classic songwriting is at the heart of everything Royel Otis do. Maddell's roots are in the greats of the 1960s, with the elegant orchestration of Roy Orbison and Lee Hazlewood informing his own songwriting. Meanwhile, Pavlovic has long been obsessed with Jonathan Richman and the deceptively simple storytelling style of The Modern Lovers. 2023 has now released their third EP 'Sofa Kings'. On it, Royel Otis sing about the longing for love that comes straight from the throat, and how that can feel in different forms, from carefree freedom to self-destructive obsession.