As Crooked Royals are about to enter a new phase, they’ve never been a band keen on doing the same thing twice. Back in 2025, their EP Create Me // Erase Me was described as being both the culmination of years of experimentation, and the beginning of a new era for the band. But rather than sticking to a winning formula, the band are always looking for what they can do differently. Matt Townshend (Bass, Guitar) says “I think we’re changing even harder at the moment. I mean, at this point, we’ve never, even to this day, been satisfied on the way or approach to how we write songs. We’ve never gone through a songwriting process and then thought ‘you know what, everything we did there was perfect, let’s keep it going like that.’ Nah, we’re always trying to chase something different. You get different results that way too, keeps it nice and fresh. At the moment, compared to Create Me // Erase Me, we actually wrote a lot of that in 2023, so we’re looking at about 3 years of growth and personal changes with everyone. We’ve all gone a very different way right now, compared to how we did it back then.”
The songwriting process itself has changed over the years as well. Previously, much of the writing was more individually driven, with the songs being passed between band members and developed in stages, however the band now takes a more collaborative approach, dedicating time to come together and work on new material as a group. Create Me // Erase Me has since become to be considered more of a prototype. Christian Carstensen (Vocals) explains “That EP was definitely a prototype to how we handle things from now on, because you know, even that final song, Effigy, that was the first time we ever finished the song in its entirety, and we thought to ourselves, nah, we can do wetter. And then we start from zero again, and we kind of rewrite it to suit how it should be, really. So it was the first time we went through the process of writing something that is fully a song, and then realising that it doesn’t fit and going back and fixing it up, so it could be the best song that it could possibly be.” In a way, the creative process became a reflection of the EP title – if something doesn’t feel quite right, erase it, and start again.
Crooked Royals have always utilised contrast within their music , with technical metalcore heaviness alongside melodic vocals providing layers to their music, reinforced by the dual vocals of Lee Mackley and Christian. Matt says “We like to have variety and I think that’s where things really shine, where we have Christian involved in the process, you know? We can go really heavy in some moments, and we can go really nice, sombre and light in the next moment, that works well, but I think we’ve evolved our perspective in that over the past years. We used to break everything up into blocks, where it was heavy section, softer section, another soft section here, oh shit, we haven’t done heavy in a bit, let’s go heavy here again. Now, it’s very much more feeling the whole song, we’re not thinking about heavy or soft, we’re seeing how it flows. It used to be on our mind a lot, that contrast, balancing everything out, trying to make it, what’s the word, cohesive. But I think now it’s starting to become second nature, we can feel when something isn’t cohesive, when it’s not gelling right. We’re not focusing on this is a soft song, this is a heavy song, we’re just writing music, and if it fits the vibe, it fits the vibe.”
Writing for flow and cohesion, as opposed to a more formulaic “heavy part, soft part, heavy part” approach, has also been something which writing the songs together has helped to reinforce. Christian mentions “it makes things so much better, because there used to be a time when everybody would come down to vocals being the final thing, and that was a lot of pressure if something didn’t fit, or didn’t work. But now that we have everything all there, it kind of works, but regarding the different styles, that definitely comes down to all of us having different things that we’re into. Like I only listen to metalcore music when I’m jogging, or if I want to be angry. Most of the time, I’m listening to Bombay Motorcycle Club, I’m listening to indie music, and I think having that distance and all of us having our own little niche styles king of brings it all together, and helps us out in our own ways.”
The European tour with Polaris back in 2024 was a massive turning point for the band, catapaulting them on to international stages and having the opportunity to learn the ropes of the international touring circuit – including a valuable lesson – “don’t put too much trust in public transport,” recalls Matt. “I was just about to say, make sure you talk to the other band about how they’re doing their logistics, and try to do the same thing. We tried to go through the train system in Germany, and that shit was f*cked, it was awful!” Christian adds. But it’s not all logistical nightmares and delays – with the grind of being constantly on the road, each band finds their own way to handle being away from family and friends, becoming like a family themselves and creating their own pre-show rituals and coping mechanisms. “Seeing how everyone behaves on the road, how to handle everything, how they prepare for a show, some of the bands have some strange rituals where they will just make sure they’ve done something, like on the afternoon beforehand. Playing at the show, then I have to do it, and we start to pick up our own little things as well, like I remember I need to have a banana on the morning of a show. Hours and hours beforehand, it just becomes a strange ritual. I don’t know why,” says Matt, “have a banana, and then have a tea later in the day – we can thank Lee for that, and all his Britishness!”
With international tours supporting artists like Polaris now part of the band’s resumé, it was only a few years ago that the band was playing at smaller local venues, such as Auckland’s Ding Dong Lounge, University shows, and other small local gigs. Back then, the motivation was simply playing music with people who liked the same things, sharing a few drinks before the show, and fairly relaxed preparation. “There’s a few things I miss about being in a small band playing in places like Ding Dong Lounge,” Christian says. “I could have a drink before playing. Now, being international, and everything is just like ‘right, did I go for a jog today? Did I make sure I showered today? Because I’m going to sweat a lot when I’m on stage, did I eat properly? Did I eat that banana? I eat bananas in the morning too now, because I saw Matt eating bananas in the morning, you know? The motive is just genuinely going out, meeting people who like the same music as you, and trying to play that music together.”
While New Zealand’s scene is far smaller than overseas, with fewer venues, geographic isolation, and a smaller population, there is a strong sense of camraderie and supporting each other that isn’t found in other countries, where bands compete against one another for limited opportunities. “The good thing about New Zealand is that you talk to people, and instead of everybody having some echo chamber opinion on how things are supposed to be, the people are so few and far between that everyone has their own genuine opinions, and that’s why we have such good genuine music down here. No one’s trying to market themselves, well I mean, there are a few bands that are trying to market themselves in a certain type of archetype that I won’t name, but definitely, there’s more back and forth between the people who listen to the music, and the people who create the music, and it’s interchangeable in between. It’s a real benefit to have, I think, this genuineness in New Zealand,” says Christian.
Matt adds “One thing I really like about the music scene within New Zealand specifically, overseas, because there’s so many bands, there’s a larger population, a much larger population. People listen to heavy music. They’re very cutthroat over there, it’s very competitive, just to even get a slot on a Saturday night. There’s a whole ‘pay to play’, because so many people are trying to get on now, they’re willing to pay money to play a show. There hasn’t really been many instances of that in New Zealand. We don’t have a lot of venues, unfortunately, compared to the rest of the world. But what I appreciate about it is because we’re not all cutthroat competitive, we’re all like, yeah, let’s support each other. Let’s go to a mate’s show. Oh, you’re playing at Big Fan? I’ll come along. I’m not doing it for any ulterior motive or anything, I just want to come support the homies. That’s really all it is, you know. It’s just about supporting people, and that’s something I’ll appreciate so much about New Zealand. When we go overseas, we’ll go to play the shows in front of the fans, you chat with the fans, but because we don’t get to travel all that often, that’s where it remains. But here in New Zealand, it’s special, but it’s a lot more nerve wracking as well, because you play a show, you look in the crowd, okay there’s 300 people here, and I know like 100 of them. That’s way more scary than playing in front of 5000 people that are absolute strangers.
I love it when we go to local shows and half the audience is other bands, like just supporting each other. It’s always so cool to say. People can clown on that if they want to say, oh, it’s only other bands going, you don’t actually have real fans. I don’t care mate, we’re all here to support each other, we’re all here to live a happy life. Make sure you’re enjoying it, support your homies. I mean, I’m going to plug the homie – DougFest. Like that is what New Zealand music should strive to be, you know, that is nothing but support. Doug has nothing but love, admiration, passion and support for New Zealand music, and it shows. And it’s infectious to everyone around them who’s playing these shows, going to these shows. That’s the sort of thing I really love about New Zealand music. So yeah, love you Doug!” And it’s not just Doug – other local band members have turned their hand to promoting and putting on their own shows, giving new and upcoming bands a chance to perform to new crowds – “just people doing it for the love of the game.”
This year brings another shift in the evolution of Crooked Royals, with the departure of vocalist Lee Mackley, his departure representing a significant change as the band have been known for their dual vocalists. While the decision was something which came about a while ago, and the band have been writing as a four-piece behind the scenes, the announcement was only made recently. Lee has been an integral part of the lineup since the band’s beginnings, described as “he’s the guy who makes it all happen” by Christian. “It’s definitely going to be quite the change,” Matt adds. “Lee has been very involved in everything that Crooked is. Over the years, there’s a lot of roles that have been delegated towards other people, and yeah, I think we’ll be okay. He’s given us a lot over the time, you now. He’s leaving and it’s very sad, we all feel it, but he’s also given us a lot to carry on with the band.”
One of the biggest challenges which this poses is how the existing tracks may possibly be adapted to work with only Christian. “It looks like, for me, sitting in a room for so much longer writing melodies, and lyrics, and not having, not just me, going back into thinking ‘how do I do this as a dual vocalist’, because that’s how I’ve been writing for years – with him in mind, and me in mind. I didn’t write all this stuff, but I’m just talking about the balance between the two. It’s so different now, knowing how much breath I’m supposed to keep throughout the entire song, and how does one vocalist now serve what this song needs? There’s a lot more breath that needs to be in the song, where more instrumentals can be around, and I’m sure Matt is finding a lot of interesting moments now where he can sort of put in a little, you know, a little more synth, a little more bass, and then Jake (guitar) can have his little ‘tweedly-dees’ and all that stuff not interrupted by a chorus, or soemthing like that. You know it’s interesting, and it’s something we’re still ever changing to try and figure out, and hopefully we hit the right spot when we come out with some new music, which is just as a four piece.”
“We’ve been writing as a four piece for a while,” adds Matt. “We’ve got a few songs we’re doing, hopefully releasing sooner than later, who knows? Everything’s always ever changing. I think we’ve approached it very openly at the moment. We’re not trying to recreate something that we previously did. You know, it’s so easy for us to compare. Okay, how does this compare to when we had dual vocals? You know, Christian has insanely stepped up. He’s got a heck of a scream on him now as well. I’m confident in everything at the moment. Lee, we love him so, so, so much. It’s just, some things have to happen in life, and we’re all going to move forward the best way that we can, so banging tunes. And then, yeah.”
The upcoming August Burns Red shows in Auckland and Wellington will be Lee’s last with the band, and there is a mixture of genuine excitement at sharing a stage with a band which has been influential to members of the band, in particular guitarist Jake. Christian says “in terms of trying to make our music fit with them and all that stuff, we talked about finding the right set list for our own songs to fit into their songs. To be honest with you, I think as long as we’re genuinely putting on the best show that we can and having fun while we’re doing it, I think a lot of local people will appreciate that anyway. They’ll appreciate the effort that we go to, even if the genre is just a little bit different to the main band.” Matt describes their appoach as “one of the main things I think we like to try, when we support some of these amazing international bands, that we go into the show assuming no-one’s ever heard of us, they don’t know anything about us. A lot of people going to August Burns Red, they may not keep up with the local scene. They may not be keeping up with a lot of metalcore these days at all… we like to try going into these shows with a whole open mind, knowing that people will receive us however they do, but we go into it just trying to be the best version of ourselves.”
It won’t be long after the final performances with Lee that Crooked Royals will reintroduce themselves as a four-piece, also opening for Northlane later this year. When asked about some of the key changes which we can anticipate without Lee on stage, Matt jokes “he’s not gonna run into my guitar any more!”. The band are still working out how things will be working, as Christian tries to figure out which songs can be adapted. “There’s a lot of songs that I wasn’t expecting to actually work, that work really well. And there are definitely songs we have which, unfortunately we might not be able to play again, because they just fit that dual vocal dynamic really well. So yeah, it’s a reinvention of a lot of things, and because we’ve been working on it behind the scenes for a little while now, we’re really excited to showcase what we’ve been able to come up with.”
Matt continues Christian’s train of thought, adding “everything we’re doing now, it’s a very different focus. I’d say Crooked used to be very much about some insane technical riffs, with some dual vocals. Now it’s very much, okay, let’s take the songwriter approach… I think the whole mindset has changed a lot now, so we’re going with this very, very different approach. I am very curious to see how people perceive the new songs, like how previous Crooked fans perceive the new songs, because I do think they’re quite different now, instrumentally and vocally. There’s a lot changing, but we’re stoked on all of it. We’re really happy about it, and we think it showcases our current state in our lives really well.”
While losing a vocalist may lead some listeners to think that the band would get softer, the opposite is the case for Crooked. “Don’t expect us to do that whole, ‘we only have a clean singer now, so it’s basically going to be lighter.’ It’s not, I think we’ve gotten heavier now,” says Matt. Christian adds “I can’t rap as well as Lee can, so instead of rapping, I’m just going to be doing the hardest f*cking screams that I can do. I think that’s about as much as I’ll give away! Expect us to just be the same guys, you know, we’re just doing what we do and hopefully everyone else will enjoy just vibing, the way that we always have.”
Crooked Royals have always been a band of constant evolution and reinvention, and with Lee’s upcoming departure, the next evolution of Crooked is already underway. The band are already working on new material which they aim to have out prior to the Northlane show in November.
“Same Crooked Royals, just with a different haircut,” adds Matt.
“More of a mullet,” Christian confirms.
