Catching up with The Royston Club’s frontman, Tom Faithfull, meant discussing gigs, growth and what we can expect from the band’s upcoming new album. With a quiet confidence, he spoke proudly of what the band has created, clearly energised about the album’s release and the chance to bring it to life on stage. Tom is someone who genuinely cares, and it’s clear the band have put serious thought into what this new record represents. Following the success of their 2023 debut, Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars, the Wrexham-formed four-piece found themselves staring down the infamous second album question — and they’ve answered it with Songs for the Spine, a record built for the long haul. Deliberate, emotional, and grounded in the kind of sweat-soaked indie rock that’s slowly clawing its way back into the UK spotlight.
He joked about the pressures of the second album, “you have your whole life to write your first one and then the second one, they want it in a year, and you’re like… oh shit”. Rather than rush it, they opted for a more measured approach: “We had the mindset that we want to make an album we really love, and if it takes a bit longer, it takes a bit longer”, so two years after the debut, Songs for the Spine is here.
Written in late 2023 and 2024 and recorded in Liverpool during the winter, it was a first-time collaboration with producer Rich Turvey (known for his work with Blossoms and The Coral), who honed the sound and direction of the record, a move that helped steer the sound in a new direction. “He got what we were after,” says Tom. “He pushed us in a direction we wanted to go; we didn’t want to make just another indie record. He wanted to push it a little bit further.”
If their first album captured the energy of a band newly out of the gates, Songs for the Spine feels tighter, more lived-in. “There’s less padding,” Tom explains. “We’ve stripped stuff back. Every part on the record feels deliberate, like it’s there for a reason. So hopefully that translates when it’s just the four of us on stage”.
Naming the album didn’t come easily. “We had thousands of different ideas and none of them sounded very good,” Tom laughed. “The whole theme throughout the album is just songs either about or for people we love.” Eventually, the title Songs for the Spine stuck, loosely pinched from one of guitarist Ben Matthias’s lyrics in the opening track, Shivers.
Three of the album’s tracks — Spinning, Through the Cracks, and Crowbar — are Tom’s own. The rest are written by Ben, with most of the writing and lyrics done individually before being brought into the practice room. “We write our own songs on acoustics and then bring them to the lads,” Tom says. “Once it’s been brought into the practice room, that’s when the four of us spend a couple of days hashing it out, that’s the more collaborative bit.”
Tom’s particularly excited for fans to hear tracks like Ballad of Glen Campbell and Spinning. The former, he says, marked a turning point in the writing process. “Once we finished that, it kind of felt like we were actually making an album.” And the latter? A slow burn that builds into a storm. “We haven’t played that one live yet,” he says, and clearly they’re itching to, there are “five or six songs we’ve never even touched on a stage, hopefully they are going to take on a totally new lease of life, it’s very exciting.”
The band’s rise has been steady but significant. From sweaty pub gigs around Wrexham to festival slots at Leeds, Reading and Glastonbury (where I have it on good authority in 2023 they blew the roof off Bread & Roses at 11 am). They’ve developed a reputation for raucous, whole-hearted live sets and so it’s no surprise that Tom lights up when talking about what’s to come, especially their upcoming slot on Reading & Leeds’ main stage, “this feels like a bit of a step for us, it’ll be the biggest stage we’ve played … that’s one we’ve kind of had in the back of our minds for a while now.”
For all the hype around the bigger stages, there’s still magic in the chaos of more intimate spots. “Two days ago, we played Tramlines on one of the smaller tents and it was amazing, actually. Sometimes with those smaller ones, you get the kind of sweaty, boxed-in feel that you miss on the vast stages. So that was a lot of fun.”
Now based in Liverpool, Wrexham remains more than just a hometown footnote; it’s the place they were given a chance, and they owe a lot to the town in North Wales. “It’s a place we look on incredibly fondly,” Tom says. He spoke poignantly about the opportunities they were given and how that impacted the band’s development, getting chances from pub landlords who knew they weren’t looking at the bottom line, but putting on live music for their love of it.
Tom is clearly passionate about small venues and is worried about the regular closings that provide a springboard for so many UK bands. Tom summed it up perfectly, saying, “venues that have only 40 people on a Saturday are the ones that might have your next favourite band on”. Fittingly, their album release show is set for The Rockin’ Chair in Wrexham on the 8th August, a full-circle moment that promises to be one for the ages.
It’s an exciting time for the band, who are all set for a packed run of festivals, record store shows, the album tour, a new record they believe in, and a growing fanbase who show up, shout the words, and leave drenched. It’s further proof that indie rock and roll isn’t going anywhere. Songs for the Spine could be the springboard they’ve been working towards and a clear path toward becoming the band they’ve always believed they could be.
