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‘Sometimes it can get tiring’: how Royel Otis became indie’s next big thing
The Australian duo went viral twice – for a Sophie Ellis-Bextor cover, then a Cranberries cover. Now they have eight Aria nods and a US and Europe tour
The band’s origin story feels fated: Maddell and Pavlovic ran in similar circles in the Byron Bay music scene for years but it wasn’t until 2019 that they started collaborating – and found a perfect collision of tastes and interests. Photograph: Josefine Stenersen/The GuardianThe combination of Pavlovic’s choirboy vocals and Maddell’s jangly guitar feels timeless – their breakout single, 2022’s dreamy Oysters in My Pocket, sounds as though it could have come out at any point in the last 30 years. First, in January, Royel Otis reimagined Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s disco-pop classic Murder on the Dancefloor into an effusive sunburst for Triple J’s beloved cover series Like a Version, racking up 50m Spotify streams.
Or read this on The Guardian
