A quick chat with Harry and Max from Regal Cheer

Harry and Max interviewed by Paul Wade

Hey gents, your new album is called quite good. What is your favourite ‘quite good’ album, that you know is pretty average but you’ll go to bat for it?

Max: My first love was indie landfill, in hindsight 90% of those records were average at best. I will fight you if you say a bad word about 'Ten New Messages' by The Rakes.

Harry: Come Clean by Puddle of Mudd kicks ass. 

Lets get to know you both. How did you meet? Where did regal cheer come from? And how many other bands have you both been in previously?

Harry: I’ve never met this man before in my life.

Max: we met in 2013, shared a friendship group and started going to the same sort of shows. I moved to Brighton with a band called Pirate Video Company with a few guys from Jersey who have gone on to play in Fuzzy Heart and Dribbler, I then did The New Tusk, again with Nick from Fuzzy Heart and Seb who does Public Body now, still tight with those guys. I’ve dabbled in a few more down the years and currently play guitar in The Serfers, but I don’t like to talk about my girlfriend in front of my wife.

As a two piece you have made the smart choice to have no bass player when you play live. What is the secret to the Regal Cheer sound?

It’s a smart choice in some aspects - fewer cooks in the kitchen, smaller, less cumbersome guitars, but a bit long when you fancy an actual bass line. We use an ABY pedal that seems to do the trick with splitting the signal and blowing the heads off of old boys who think a tuner is too much technology. There’s no real secrecy to the sound, just don’t waste anyone’s time and have a nice dollop of self deprecation and a few lagers.

The longest song on this album is 2mins 16 secs. Do you think you’ll ever get to 3 minutes? And what will this mean for the band?

Most of the songs start out a lot longer, but once we’ve listened back we always come to the conclusion that shorter is better, if people are vibing it they’ll put it on again. We don’t plan on breaking the three minute mark, honestly I don’t think we’ve got that much to say in one song. We might end up with one longer than 2 minutes 59 seconds one day, but with what we’re working on currently, I’d be surprised if it’s on the next release. If we do then expect a notes apology post.

The album is out on Brighton based DIY label Ugly Twin recs. What can you tell us about them? Internet information is scarce

Max: Our friends in Dribbler wanted someone to put their EP out over lockdown, I had just got a new job and nothing to spend my money on so I set up Ugly Twin Recs for that, we ended up doing our first EP through it too. They’re the only three releases so far, I’m proper crap at the internet so sorry for that.

You have been part of the UK DIY scene for a while now. What are some of your favourite venues that you’ve played around the country?

The DIY scene is wicked, one of the few redeeming features of our shores to be honest. Brighton’s lucky with venues, we played our first show at the Prince Albert and always love playing the Hope and Daltons is ripping ass at the minute. Out of town we’ve got to shoutout JT Soar in Notts, a wicked community vibe there and the team always smash it. The guys at Just Dropped In records have had us play a matinee in their shop a couple of times, that’s always quality. Bristols got a few too, the Exchange is great, and the Lanes for the bowling. We got to play at Dulwich Hamlet a few years ago which was cool.

You are also stalwarts of the Brighton Punk scene. What are some of your fav bands and venues from there?

As said before, the Hope, the Albert and Daltons are probably our favourites, in Great Escapes gone by we’ve had bands play in laundrettes and tattoo shops too. Bandwise there’s fucking millions, we played the Quite Good release show with our brothers in rock Really Big Really Clever, Gaffa Tape Sandy and Ahsoka - all brilliant. There’s loads of scenes down here, no way we’d be able to give everyone a mention but Aku just put out an EP that’s great.

Everyone knows the worst part of being in a band is loading in but what is your very favourite thing about being in a band? 

We’ve made literally all of our friends through this. Start a band, go see the country, and make friends with endearing accents.

I've been following your tour pics in front of the football grounds where you are playing. In your opinion who has the most aesthetically pleasing and photographic ground to pose in front of? and also who has the worst?

Our favourite so far has been Villa, proper classic ground, solid photo, 10/10 no notes. There’s some which are class but hard to get a photo like Newcastle. No shock Millwall was one of the worst - up the irons. 

Ive got a feeling that Tom Hills name is gonna come up a lot as we do this. What is your favourite thing about working with Tom at the Bookhouse?

That guy can chat shite for days whilst remaining absolutely professional, perfect combination. As with seemingly everyone who’s worked with him, we’re always telling people to go there, he takes pride in what he does and takes your notes and influences on board. Also good at getting back to you once you’ve recorded, no getting left on read there. Proper legend.

What did you learn from recording this time compared to others? 

We went in with a similar approach to what we’ve always done, smash out as much as we can, get it sounding good but keeping that spirit of urgency, try and keep it as much like the live show as possible. I think the main thing we learnt is we can do an album with two extra songs that still ends up less than 20 minutes and record it in 3 days.

Whats the future hold for team Regal? 

Life’s got in the way a bit over the last year so we’ve not done as much as we’d hoped, ideally we want to take this nonsense international. We’re always working on new songs, whether that’s for a single, EP or album we don’t know. Going to keep churning out these short boys until our friends stop pretending to like them.

What new music are you both currently enjoying?

Max: like every man in their thirties I think that MJ Lenderman record is the best thing I’ve ever heard, big into the new Horsegirl record too.

Harry: I’m bad at listening to new music but the new Snooze record rips.

You refer to your fans as shaggers but what I want to know is whats number one on your bump and grind playlist?

Firstly, mental question, love it. Secondly, Harry’s got a yacht rock playlist that would impregnate the masses. You can’t tell me that no one was conceived to Ambrosia - Biggest Part of Me.

And lastly, for those who haven't heard it, give us a rundown of the record.

Max: It’s a short record full of short songs, overall the themes cover basically being sad over a variety of things, imposter syndrome, there’s a fair bit of hate in there too. We just did an episode of Live Love Lugosi where we do a big, fat deep dive into it which I’d recommend giving a bash.