Rich and Royal

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Rich & Royal is the brainchild of Henry Rich and Eric Royal Lybeck, two friends since fourth grade. After their high school band, The Crazy Diamonds, disbanded at graduation, the two followed separate paths: Rich to Harvard; Lybeck to a few mental hospitals.
2003 Henry started Oral Fixation Mints so he can make his own schedule and play music whenever he wants hired Eric who is no longer crazy. Putting their heads together, they took the material they had individually developed while estranged at Harvard and various clinics and pulled together a medieval concept album titled Hair Like Fire an album whos title track had been written and recorded when both were aged 16 years.
The medieval theme had them focusing their musical palette to grand piano, acoustic guitar, and hand percussion while maintaining the comfort zone they developed listening to Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, and Nine Inch Nails together in high school. The album was completed working 60 hours a week, straddling the alternating lifestyle of hard mechanical labor over vintage pharmaceutical equipment and glitzy, glamorous trips to the MTV music awards in Miami. Both gentlemen lost their girlfriends at this time.
2004 More exhausted than ready to make hoopla, one day the two unceremoniously decided they were finished. At 60 minutes, Hair Like Fire travels from dirge to Brit-pop to cyber punk to Gregorian chant to German cabaret to arpeggiated chorale to Grand Funk Railroad-esque instrumental and back and back again. Rich & Lybeck had completed an album they would listen to themselves: one with authentic guitar playing and passionate classical-style vocals; an album that required multiple spin; a modern record with depth.
2005 Enter old music compatriot Owen Susman on bass and Andy Sapko, a legendarily energetic session drummer and Rich & Royal, ten years later, was fully formed. In just a year, the group has performed over 25 gigs at The Knitting Factory, CBGBs, The Stone Pony, and the other best and worst venues in New York City and New Jersey.
But as Henry realized when he showed up for one of R&Rs first NJ dive bar performances dressed in a full Tuxedo, its not always easy to change peoples mind about what rock should sound like. But fighting expectation and stereotype has made the bond between the four musicians stronger. As theyre recording their new EP and planning for their West coast and Midwestern tours this summer, theyre ready to look audiences in the eye and say: This isnt just Rock & Roll. Its Rich & Royal.
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Hair Like Fire was recorded over the course of 2003 and 2004 by Henry Rich and Eric Royal Lybeck in their home studio at the Chocolate Factory.
Having written songs together for ten years Henry and Eric had nearly 30 songs to choose from for initial recording to be appended by one their first recordings with the Crazy Diamonds (C.J.Swenson on bass, Munish Bakshi on drums)
Eric put a few songs together, June, Officer Barry, The Great Awakening, etc. and thought of a story to frame the album. H&E decided to only include those songs that would fit into the story of Alistair and June (see synopsis below).
Listening to such varied artists as Love, Donovan, Spirit, Radiohead, and Fairport Convention, the pallette of instruments was decidedly focused. Acoustic instruments (guitar, grand piano, vocals, sleigh bells, etc.) would be primarily used in the recording sessions and the two recorded night after night, take over take, until the full work was completed.
When all was said and done, Henry had sung as a full choir, solo vox, backup vox, grand piano, analog synthesizer, keyboards, and grand piano. Eric filled in the acoustic, electric, and classical guitars, drums, percussion (tamborine, sleigh bells, huge drum, claps, congas, etc) analog synthesizer, bass, and backup vocals.
The song order is more than just choice. Each translates into the Legend of June. Some say it is based on a 16th century text found in Henry's library that was heavily damaged by fire. The inspiration comes from the first few chapters.
THE LEGEND OF JUNE: Synopsis
12th Century England
A young peasant, Alistair, is called to war by his master. His wife, June, begs him not go. Required by provincial law, he travels toward the Battle of Stafford Bridge where he is conscripted by the villainous Officer Barry. In the midst of a bloody march of Death, Alistair awakens to a chance to escape with another deserter, Alexander. The two run from soldiers' arrows. Officer B. sends after them Father Furious and the Holy Terror Monks, a gang of clergy who prey upon the weakness of the English country folk. Little do the culprits know that Alexander has a gang of brothers who have come to rescue the two, enabling them to escape the bounty hunters' grips. Alistair and Alexander encounter one of F.F. & H.T.M's victims along the way, a woman, who has been raped and left for dead. Though they offer to help she assures them, she can find her way home. Refusing to let her continue alone in her condition, they bring her to the nearest refuge, a bordello offering the finest cabaret entertainment. Hosted by the volumptuous Madame Mary, the two deserters find themselves involved in a love triangle. Alexander falls desperately in love with the Madame declaring that no one will ever love her more than he. Meanwhile, Mary, who becomes infatuated with the handsome Alistair, is determined that She is The Love. Frustrated by the romantic complexities of the whorehouse, which serve only to remind him of his fair bride, June, Alistair departs in the dead of night traveling along the River to his home. At sunset he discovers his homestead, which is under the siege of evil Holy Terror Monks. Desperate and Enraged, Alistair takes on the monks one at a time until ultimately defeating the leader, Furious, after a taught battle. Having finally reunited with his wife, Alistair brings her to the top of her heath and sings his ode to her scarlet locks - Hair Like Fire.