Herschel Roy are an electro-pop duo out of Sacramento, CA including Vocalist Richard Herschel and Producer Nicholas Roy who write all the songs.
In this interview, we chat about influences, their newest project, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and a stream of Idle Crush below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
The idea of being a duo came about naturally as other projects we were involved in ended and we kept working together. Without other musicians Richard was able to focus on full time vocal duties and Nick got more into creating music as a Producer instead of just being members of a band playing our respective instruments. The sort of 80s synthpop revival sound isn’t really something we set out to do specifically but all the elements of that sound were pieces that we really liked and when you put them together this is what we got.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
Our friendship is the core of this project. The joy of being together as friends is really inseparable from the joy of making music. Putting the work out to the public is really just a chance for us to show people what we care about and try to get them to feel it like we do, to let it connect with them like it is connected to us.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
Influences are pretty simple for us; we’re influenced by our favorite music. There’s not really any other answer and of course it does change over time. The influence will ebb and flow towards different genres and artists for specific things but that’s still the only answer. Vocally, Richard loves Rivers Cuomo and Brandon Flowers. As a songwriter, Nicholas has always considered Elliott Smith to be his favorite artist. Over time, we’ve come to really appreciate current artists who combine pop songwriting with modern electronic music. It is a growing genre and artists are taking in such different directions every year. It is exciting to see.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
This is our first release. We never released any singles or anything to precede it. Our main goal has been to create and release an EP and give it a professional release. There are so many projects that end up with a bunch of people jamming and writing but never finishing anything and we wanted to do the opposite. Our goal as we wrote the songs for the EP was to finish each one and complete the EP before we would start playing shows and marketing. We were proving to ourselves that we could do this.
What was the last song you listened to?
The last song Richard listened to was Resistance by Muse. Nicholas last listened to the two singles Bon Iver released a couple days ago, those songs were both amazing! Probably my favorite two songs I’ve heard from them.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Of the three, probably MP3s. But, we both prefer streaming for listening and releasing music.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify because it has the best selection and is the most accessible. Making your music available to everyone as easy as possible is a priority for us.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
Right now we are very focused on live shows. We were essentially a studio band for the last year and a half and now we’re ready to play for people. The challenge is finding the best opportunities to play for people.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
Our entire EP is streaming everywhere, here is the Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/herschel-roy
You can connect with us on social media here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herschelroymusic/
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
Thank you MTM for the article! Talking about our project felt like we were telling ourselves about ourselves and I think we actually learned something. We are really happy to have this EP to share with people and we hope you enjoy it. We feel like we have even more we could accomplish going forward and are looking forward to the future.
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