I recently interviewed a band called Rue Royale who are on tour in the UK at the moment. They’ve got a few dates left here and in Europe before heading home to Chicago.

If you can’t get to a show, then tune in to Xfm Manchester on 17th April as they’re playing a session and doing an interview on on Clint Boon’s Music:Response show (7-10pm, GMT) - a good opportunity to their live sound that way, and then maybe catch a show of theirs when they return for a second UK tour this Autumn.

Tour dates and tracks from their EP and album are available on their MySpace: www.myspace.com/rueroyale.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the interview…

RUE ROYALE

Chicago folk duo go on tour across the pond and get a royal welcome

Being in a band and going on tour is rock and roll. But, there are also the necessary logistics which aren’t so glamorous, as Chicago indie-folk band Rue Royale are starting to find out.

“You stay up till about three or four in the morning, then you get up at eight to have breakfast, then you’ve got to leave at noon because you’ve got to drive another few hours to your next show. It was just like one big 20-day knackering marathon,” reflects Ruth, one half of Rue Royale.

It’s a Saturday morning, and Rue Royale - aka husband and wife duo Brookln and Ruth Dekker - are taking a breather at Ruth’s parents’ house in Staffordshire (Ruth is British) before preparing themselves to complete the final dates of their first UK and European tour.

But this is no ordinary tour – there’s no backing of a record label to help them out. It’s not even a DIY tour that many aspiring indie bands undertake these days. The pair sold most of their possessions to finance the making of their debut record and quit their jobs to allow themselves the freedom to go on tour.

“Last Spring we started talking about moving over to the UK,” says Brookln, who grew up in Missouri but moved to Chicago ten years ago.

In Summer 2007, Brookln, 28, and Ruth, 27, held several garage sales to get the cash they needed to work on their music, raising some $6000. Brookln masterminded the organising of the tour when fate intervened and left him at home for two weeks with a back injury – in the company of his in-laws.

“I was stuck at home with them for two weeks all day while Ruth was working,” he says with a rueful smile. “They were driving me bonkers, so I needed something to do.

We were planning on crossing the pond for a friend’s wedding in Germany so I was like, ‘why don’t we put together a tour’. And because we started putting this tour together, we thought we should have a new record for the tour so let’s write a new record. It’s all a bit backwards really!”

But contacting promoters to secure shows took a long time, and a lot of emailing, as Brookln was to find out.

“I was sending out on average, 100 – 150 emails a day for five months. It was insane and very stressful. I’d spend 10-12 hours in front of the computer, not doing anything else. I’d barely eat. Ruth would bring dinner to me and I would let it go cold.”

In December the couple moved out of their apartment into a friend’s spare room and recorded their debut album within a few weeks. They flew to the UK in mid-February and kicked off their tour with dates in London and Oxford before going to the Continent, where the response has more than exceeded their expectations.

“I kept thinking the first few nights, this is too good to be true, it’s going be a bit dodge soon,” says Ruth.

“We were almost spoilt over in Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, and France because every show was packed. They feed you, you get as many free drinks as you want, a free place to stay, breakfast and then they’ll help you as much as they can.

We sold a lot of CDs, and the audiences were so polite and quiet. We walked in and we didn’t know anyone in the room and they were like singing along and stomping, it was brilliant, so welcoming.”

In contrast, their initial UK shows were more downbeat. Reflecting on this, Ruth says, “We were unsure of ourselves and we were unsure of this process, I think we were a bit anxious about the two weeks ahead of us as well. Now we’re just like, whatever, we can do anything now.”

The band’s high point so far has been their show in Luxembourg. “Luxembourg was so surreal, the whole night,” says Brookln.

“We played with a band called Menomena who are big in the States. Just to play with them and to use their kick drum, I was thinking, I can’t wait to tell my friends. Later, we were drinking absinthe with them and had an impromptu dance party. The whole night was unreal.”

Rue Royale fly back to the US in April and buoyed by their success in Europe, they’ve already got the rest of the year marked out for more tours and recording.

“We’ll have some time off and then do a week and half tour of the Midwest. I’m beginning this week to start putting together a tour for the end of June - beginning of July where we tour as much of the States as we can cover in those 3-4 weeks,” says Brookln, “Then we’re planning to come back over here in the fall for another tour.”

“We’re really excited about doing it again,” concludes Ruth. “It’s nice to finish off with the aim of ‘let’s do it even better next time.’”

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