The Royal Mountain Band

********************PLEASE SEE OUR TOP FRIENDS FOR LINKS TO THE TWO NEW BANDS FORMED BY EX-MEMBERS OF THE RMB - Jeff & Tavis are now in Spoon River - Warren & Frederic are now in Amanita Bloom****************SAD NEWS, THE ROYAL MOUNTAIN BAND DIED TODAY. 17 Oct 2007 IT WAS A FUN AND EVENTFUL JOURNEY. WE'D LIKE TO THANK ALL OUR SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS. KEEP AN EYE OPEN FOR FUTURE PROJECTS!Like so many of their predecessors, The Royal Mountain Band were born out of a discontentment with the music of their time. Their desire to retrace the steps of rock n' roll and to recover a heartfelt soul in their music has been the unifying sentiment behind this Montreal five piece’s rugged and beautiful songwriting. Strutting soulful rock songs shot through with intuitive three part harmonies, the Royal Mountain Band have set out to find what they feel should have been the true trajectory of rock n' roll music. The Royal Mountain Band were formed out of a notably liquid songwriting partnership between Simon Nixon (Roctopus, Paper Route, Perm) and Tavis Triance (The World Famous Riflemen) which began sometime after the latter approached Nixon, then resident DJ at local tavern the Bifteck, thanking him for some particularly moving tunes. Drinks were shared and the two began collaborating in Nixon's tiny apartment (the Shoebox), accompanied only by his beloved companion Jub Jub the dog and innumerable wooden boxes of records. In order to round out what was then a rapidly growing list of sparsely instrumented ballads, bar songs, and sea shanties, the two enlisted the services of bassist Frederic Charest (The Kamikazes, The Chains, Le Nombre). This expansion added a third songwriter, a third vocal, harmonica and considerable musicianship. They were now beginning to feel like a band. With Charest initially playing both bass and drums the trio began to transpose their songs from softer, largely acoustic endeavour to the stirring woodsy soul that would become their standard fare. As days went by and the number of songs became more numerous, the band began to realize that Charest's days as a one man rhythm section would have to be numbered. The solution for this dilemma came in the form of Warren Auld. Auld's laid back style of drumming suited the driving mid-tempo two step and the band began to crystallize. Fall 2005 marked the induction of Jeff Louch ..s, and since then, the boys have been on top of their game. The band have played packed venues inside and outside of Montreal, paired up with their friends The Stills for a trio of performances, and were even cast as The Band in a feature film on the life of Bob Dylan (directed by Todd Haynes and starring Cate Blanchett). Most recently they have been sweating out the long summer hours at Break Glass studios Montreal where they have been laying down an ambitious recording with the help of engineer/producer Jace Lasek (Unicorns, Wolf Parade, Besnard Lakes).