We drank Stella, and then I moved on to gin and tonic. A great time, a really good interview. I really like John and his band. They stopped in Atlanta last week and played the 529. A great rock band and just a great bunch of lads. There aren’t may of them around these days. The songs are strong and you find yourself humming the chorus days later. That is a good sign. I got a little bit drunk.
Dry Ink: Nice talking with you.
John Thornley: Same here, thanks for having me.
DI: How long has U.S. Royalty been around?
JT: Not long, about a year and a half. We’ve know each for a while, though. My brother, Paul, who plays guitar and I have played together and me and the drummer used to be in a band together. So when we started this, we just hit the ground running. We knew what we wanted and just went for it.
DI: What is it you want and are trying to do?
JT: We want to do this full time and become a successful band. None of us have real jobs. This comes first so we each do odd jobs to support this. This band comes first. We have a 7 inch coming out on Engine Room Recordings out of New York, and we’re trying to put out a full length.
DI: Where did you play last night?
JT: We were in Gainesville, Fla., last night. It was alright for a Monday night. We played in Miami over the weekend. That was insane. The people there took really good care of us.
DI: I really like your bass player Jake. He has really good, positive energy.
JT: Yeah, he is great. He is the youngest of us and was the last to join the band. He is great for us and he has handled a lot of the booking lately.
DI: How did you come up with the name U.S. Royalty?
JT: That is funny. Our bass player Jake who you just mentioned booked a show for us and we didn’t even have a name yet. He called me and said that he booked a show for us and the promoter asked him what the name of the band was and he just told him U.S. Royalty. He liked the way it sounded and actually had made a U.S. Royalty my-space page a year prior without even having a band.
DI: And you guys are manged by my old friend Chris Black and Done To Death. How did that come about?
JT: Well, we were asked to play a show with the band Cartel that he manages in Maryland. It was only our third show. They seemed to like us and they told him about us. They said he should check us out. He contacted us and asked for a recording. At that point we didn’t have one yet. We got him one about a month later and here we are. He is great.
DI: How long have you been singing?
JT: Not long, a few years, maybe three. I’m a drummer and I strum a bit on guitar. When we started this band we decided that I would try to sing, and now I take it very seriously and am trying to be the best I can be.
DI: I would think you’ve been singing your whole life. You are a natural and a great front man too. You have a seasoned songwriter quality about you.
JT: Thank you. It’s funny, I never really paid attention to songwriters or lyrics until I started writing them myself. Now I listen Lee Hazelwood. He was a bad ass.
DI: You guys seem to play New York a lot. I hear that you do pretty well there.
JT: Well, we’re in Washington D.C., which is only about four and a half hours from New York so it just makes sense. If we’re asked to play a show, even if it is last minute we can just jump in the van and get there in a few hours. We were playing there a few times a month for a minute. That’s worked out pretty well for us. Now we can pick and choose the shows we want to do and people want to come out and see us.
DI: How long are you out for right now?
JT: Just a week. This is a short one. We plan on being out West in November to play shows and hopefully record.
DI: And what’s next?
JT: More of the same, and hopefully move into doing it more on a professional level. Like I said earlier, this is a one hundred percent commitment for all of us. This is all we want to do. So we hope to put out a full length record, tour to support it and continue that process.
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