Biography
Named after a road running through the Chicago suburbs, Rue Royale’s musical journey has taken in a lot of sights in just two years.
In March 2008 Ruth and Brookln Dekker made the full-time touring band plunge, moving out of their house, in with some friends and selling all their belongings… save for a kick drum, shakers, guitar and a GPS sat nav named Shelley. Straight in at the deep end, a 20-date European tour led to coverage on XFM (topping their weekly “Music Response†ballot) and BBC Six Music (“Introducing with Tom Robinsonâ€) and boasted sold out concerts in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
Rue Royale developed from Ruth and Brookln’s over-the-pond relationship. Influenced by Fleetwood Mac, Sufjan Stevens, Zero 7 and the northern UK soul of Elbow and The Doves, they began writing together and gradually developed the candle-lit Rue Royale sound, honed through acoustic gigs and home-recorded demos.
Brookln grew up in St Louis, to church-music leading parents. He played the coffee-house circuit with God's Green Earth before moving to Chicago in 1998. Ruth was raised in Midlands county Staffordshire in the UK, a stone's throw from the historic city of Lichfield with it's 1,300-year-old cathedral. Teenage years sound-tracked by 90's Brit-pop and folk-rock, she met Brookln when touring Stateside. They wed in England five years ago and settled in Chicago soon after.
Brookln and Ruth started writing together in March 2006, and have since gigged extensively, clocked up hours of radio play across the US, had one of their tunes on MTV and amassed over 100,000 plays on myspace.
A lovingly illustrated EP, The Search For Where To Go (May 2006), was the first fruit with copies dispatched to intrigued music fans throughout the US, Canada, England, Germany and France.
Rue Royale unveiled their debut long-player at the start of 2008 – following a year that saw them firmly establish themselves on the musical map. The eponymous Rue Royale was recorded in December 2007 and independently released in February.
Not content with playing in all corners of Europe – ranging from the historic Sturmglocke squat site in Hannover to an intimate house show in rural Yorkshire - Rue Royale have their sights set on numerous US dates this spring/summer. Their plans for EU domination continue with an intensive tour of the European mainland in September.
Now’s the time to join the journey...
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