Promise of Royal show from Canadian treasure

The Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell

Canadian songwriter Royal Wood plays upstairs Róisín Dubh on Thursday, November 7. 

Wood has a built up a sizeable following at home, as well as in the US, Germany, France, Italy and The Netherlands. Yet, when it came to do some writing, Royal decamped to Slane. So how did an internationally successful songwriter end up in County Meath?

“Well, I had toured many times over in Europe,” Royal says. “Ireland was always ‘just go to Dublin and there you go’ and I never really had the opportunity to expand on touring there. I got this offer from a promoter to come to Slane and perform in his bar, Boyle’s.

“It had been a long time since I played a small room,” he adds. “I really wanted to see the country and everyone was raving about it, so off I went. In doing so, I realised how much of my family history was from around there, and that led to me going back retracing a few things and making a lot of amazing friendships.”

One of those friendships led to Royal being offered the use of a cottage in Slane for a month in May. “I would wake up everyday, light the fire and write some music,” he recalls. “I’d walk into the village, have a pint or two, and walk back.”

It was a creative period for Royal.

“You know what, I’d honestly say it was the most productive time I’ve ever  had writing,” he says. “Not since I was a kid have I allowed myself to exist as an artist. You get so caught up in the machine, you tour and there’s press and the business side. I realised I had a large back up of music.

“My marriage was ending and a bunch of other things were going on. I just felt like I needed to get away, and Ireland just made perfect sense. Some days I’d write and some days I wouldn’t, and somehow I emerged with 40 songs.”

These songs will feature on Royal’s next album, but the record he is currently promoting is 2012’s We Were Born To Glory. The title is taken from the single The Glory, which is accompanied by a very impressive video. Directed by Adam Makarenko, it features a range of landscapes made from miniature models.

“I went to Adam and said ‘here’s the kind of video that I want to make, what do you think about it?’,” Royal says. “He just ran with it in places I hadn’t even anticipated. We ended up forming a really amazing friendship by the end of it. He sends me thing he’s working on, and I share music. He’s a really amazing artist.”

Making the video was very intricate.

“Adam was this guy that started off kind of normal, and then he spent weeks, if not months making this video. He does it all from his studio, which is his apartment. And he lives in the sets, basically. His whole place becomes a shoot for the video. Caves are being made over here, and forests are over here, and the waterfall’s here, and the universe is here. It’s like ‘where do you live, Adam?’

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.