Royel Otis Tickets

Most budding musicians who start bands with their peers and pals share a common interest in the same music. But when it was a yacht rock track so niche and specific as the Alessi Brothers’ 1977 single ‘Seabird’ which inspired them to form their positive indie pop project Royel Otis, Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic knew the chances were slim they’d ever find a more perfect accomplice for one another. 

Striking up a bond at local gigs and bars during their Byron Bay beginnings, Pavlovic sent some basic demos to Maddell before setting off on a gap year trip to the UK, France, and Croatia to keep the conversation flowing whilst trotting the globe. Maddell - who himself pursued music in New York before returning to Australia - saw a mirror in Pavlovic and his idea of music, so once the latter returned from his travels it was go-time. 

Though their earlier studio sessions saw the pair trying to emulate the smooth soft rock which helped their musical relationship blossom, when Maddell and Pavlovic became more vulnerable with one another they veered away into more familiar feeling indie guitar pop. “We’ve been trying to create an environment where we give each other space to fuck up and learn from it,” said Maddell in a recent interview, with Pavlovic adding: “But we’re having fun. You’ve just got to agree to back each other.”

Royel Otis’ 2021 debut single ‘Only One’ seemed to fulfil that promise of fun, in a bouncy track that merges the brazen pomp of Empire Of The Sun with the beachy nostalgia of The Drums. Their following debut EP, Campus, followed suit later that year as the duo started to garner attention as an emerging talent far beyond Sydney where they’d relocated. 

‘Oysters In The Pocket’, the first single released from their 2022 EP Bar & Grill, was an indication that Royel Otis were prepared to satiate the hunger for the sort of vibrant, unabashed indie guitar music that flooded festival stages over the past two decades. Amassing over 23 million streams on Spotify alone as it stands very much proves it. 

Despite sounding so care-free, Royel Otis’ joyous brand of indie pop is carefully considered and created with immediacy. Only two months after the release of Bar & Grill, Maddell and Pavlovic teased its sun-kissed follow-up in 2023 with Sofa Kings, which saw the duo make their way to the UK and Europe for the first time as a band. Led by the shuffling, jangly single ‘I Wanna Dance With You’ and the breezy coastal vibe of ‘Kool Aid’, Royel Otis picked up fans in lofty producers like Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey and Arctic Monkeys’ go-to studio mastermind in James Ford. Referring to their meetings with the aforementioned as “speed-dating”, Royel Otis had to rush back to their native Australia having been picked up by alt-J as the main support for their stadium tour shortly after.

They came back to UK shores in spring of 2023 to record their debut album, releasing the meaningful, synth-sprinkled single ‘Adored’ in July the same year. A homecoming festival slot at Splendour In The Grass beckoned, before Royel Otis ventured back to Europe once again for a stint of shows at Supersonic, Pukkelpop, Reading & Leeds Festivals, and a headline gig in London that summer.