Rebecca Docter: Why is the band called “Royal Teeth”?
Nora Patterson (vocals): They had that name before I joined the band. It’s just a play on words—they had one name with “Royal” and then one name with “Teeth,” and it worked together.
Gary Larsen (vocals/guitar): We didn’t really want to take ourselves too seriously.
NP: We thought about making a more exciting story up, but we haven’t.
RD: You released your full-length, “Glow,” earlier this year. Why did you choose “Glow” for the title?
GL: I think we wanted there to be a common thread in the new stuff, so when we recorded the album, we did it in Toronto, and it was snowing everyday and it was very cold and very freezing in January, and being from here it’s just a different thing. We write very upbeat, positive music. People say our music’s very colorful, and it made us kind of think of light, and the idea of shining and light and dark, so we stuck with glow to keep a common thread.
RD: How have you progressed from the EP to “Glow?”
NP: I think the full-length was a little more mature than the EP, and we tried to capture the spirit of our live show. The live show’s such an important part of the band, the energy and the bright, colorful music. I think the live show’s progressed a lot as well cause we’ve been touring kind of non-stop.
Josh Hefner (percussion): I think overall, when we wrote the EP we were a young band and we didn’t really know who we were so I guess as much as we relate to the songs and they’re still a part of us, the LP was really like we’d figured out who we were and is the best representation of what this actually was. It gave us time to mature and be together and hate each other and love each other and “Glow” was the product of all of that.
GL: I don’t think we sound like a Louisiana band, but I definitely think we carry the spirit of the city, I mean there’s a vibe, an energy. Like with the drums for example, you could walk down a street in New Orleans and hear people beating on trashcans. I always had this idea, and especially in one of our songs we have called “Mais La,” which is a term that not too many people who aren’t from here know, and that was a song that was basically written about Louisiana and I always had this vision in my head of people just singing in the streets. Those are the things that being from Louisiana is about, but our music doesn’t necessarily show it immediately. I think it’s its own thing, but I think you can find it if you dig.
RD: What’s next for Royal Teeth?
JH: We will be hitting the road, November 12th is the first show on a tour with a band called The Mowgli’s, who we’re really excited about, and then hopefully a ton of touring next year.
RD: Are you writing any new material right now?
JH: Always. I don’t know about a new album yet, but we’re definitely working on new music.