CREDIT: ALEXANDER LAM (@ALXZNDER)
Local London band, Kid Royal, is having much success since forming only four years ago. They will be playing at the Pickle Social Club on Dec. 2

Kid Royal is an upbeat indie pop band from London, Ont. that's been prominent in the local music scene for the past four years. Thanks to the direction of front man, Music Industry Arts (MIA) student, Cam Russell, the band has recently started to gain a lot of traction.

The band was formed in 2013 and the only current member who remains from that time is lead guitarist Kevin Valkenier. Russell joined in July of 2014 and shared how the band has evolved in many ways since its founding. This was largely due to number of lineup changes, including the addition of MIA student Karl von Estorff on bass in September of 2016 and, most recently, Drake Campbell, also a student in MIA, on drums this past June. Perhaps the most impactful change, however, has been the transition of Russel from the role of rhythm guitarist to lead singer, songwriter and front man for the group.

After the departure of their original lead singer, Russel stepped up, “I was just filling in basically, and then we played a show at Revival in Toronto and we were like ‘oh this kind of works, maybe we should just continue doing this'”, recalls Russel, who has since taken on a number of responsibilities including that of the bands primary songwriter. It was obviously a smart decision as Russel's track “Too Much, Too Soon”, written for Kid Royal, won him the title of Best First Year Songwriter in MIA last year.

Russel also handles the majority of the band's business matters, not feeling the need to be tied down to a major label. “Realistically I feel like there's a route that we can take, especially with our management that we have right now” states Russel, referring to the only outside assistance the band has received in this area, the business expertise of Jordyn Elliot. Elliot's faith in the band and her connections to the Canadian music industry have proven to be an indispensable resource to Kid Royal. “She said we were probably 80 per cent there [with their current songs] …but they need to be radio songs” says Russel, sharing how, in order to strengthen these matters, Elliot connected them with professional songwriters, Troy Samson and Davor Vulama, both who have several credits with major artists in the Canadian music scene.

Recently, Russell traveled with drummer Drake Campbell to meet these writers during a five-day retreat in Vancouver BC, writing two brand new songs in this time. “We had a really great time. It was our first professional writing experience”, states Russel, “I was kinda scared because it felt like allot of pressure…but it was actually really fun…it kinda demystified it for me, it was easy to be honest and I'm really happy with the second song we did.”

After experiencing it, Russell feels that Campbell and him will be able to continue writing in this fashion quite easily on their own. However, Russel acknowledged the importance of the co-writing process and expressed a desire to pursue more experiences in such an environment; “I still want to work with co-writers…because that was a really great experience” he tells, “[Drake] and I definitely could've written that song by ourselves but I feel like we wouldn't have if we weren't in that studio, with [Valuma] at that time, with the idea”.

With the right songs and the right team in place Kid Royal is certainly on the path to success and are currently working on finalizing their act before things really take off. “We're in a writing phase and working on singles” Russel states “really figuring out what our sound is going to be”. It's quite an exciting time for the band, Russel shares, telling how “It feels really slow but [he feels] at one point it's really gonna pick up speed.”

The band currently has two singles online both which are available on all major streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, with plans to release a third single in the near future. They also intend to put together a physical collection of their singles to be made available exclusively at live shows. They currently have a show coming up at The Pickle Social Club on Dec. 2. More info and other news can be found on Facebook at: Facebook.com/KidRoyalOfficial/

More information on Kid Royal can be found at facebook.com/KidRoyalOFFICIAL and youtube.com/user/KidRoyalOfficial.