- 2025-08-27
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MUSIC
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Royel Otis Releases New Album “hickey”
Sydney-based guitar-pop duo Royel Otis, consisting of Royel Maddell (guitar/vocals) and Otis Pavlovic (guitar/vocals), released their sophomore alum “hickey” along with a new music video for “who's your boyfriend” on August 22, 2025 via Ourness and Capitol Records.
The album comprises 13 tracks, on which the duo worked with producer Blake Slatkin and Omer Fedi in Los Angeles. They also collaborated with producers Julian Bunetta, Chris Collins, J Lloyd, and Lydia Kitto.
Sonically, the album blends together slack indie rock, jangly new wave and swooning dream-pop.
The accompanying music video was directed by Lauren Dunn, featuring American actress Lola Tung, star of hit Prime series “The Summer I Turned Pretty”.
The duo said of the album title, “Because love bites harder than any other emotion in the world.” They said of the album, “'hickey' is like, got a bunch of different songs in it. But I think they're kind of around the same world as 'car' (the 7th track). Most of they're on the same thing. Love, I guess, love buzz.”- The duo said of working with produces Blake Slatkin and Omer Fedi, “We had to pull it away from where they were pushing, which kind of made it perfect. Love, perseverance and they bring out, I think the side of us with the pop side. Between us, between them. It's a human pyramid in the studio with us. Because there was four of us, and Mike, who was engineering, so that would be pretty good pyramid.”
They told Apple Music about the record, “We were definitely more aware of how songs would come across when we played them live. We spent so much more time in front of crowds. There's a few songs about saying goodbyes and missing people. I guess we were losing relationships.” -
The duo explained track-by-track via Apple Music.
“i hate this tune”
Royel Maddell: “We wrote those lyrics for a different song, sitting in a pub drinking Guinness when we were recording PRATTS & PAIN. We made this instrumental track in Palm Springs with Blake and Omer and were trying to think of vocals, and then Otis started singing the lyrics we did in the UK.”
Otis Pavlovic: “For some reason there's a few songs, probably for both of us, that come on and remind us of a specific time or person. Can't listen to it.”
Royel Maddell: “You love the song but you can't not think of that time or person.”
“moody”
Royel Maddell: “It's kind of about a toxic relationship, not a girl in particular. The guy, the person singing, is the moody one as well 'cause they're constantly saying something negative. We wrote that with Amy Allen.”
“good times”
Otis Pavlovic: “That was the first song we did with Josh from Jungle. It just came out of an old demo we had. When you first meet someone and do a session, you've got to just break the ice and do something, and it's the first idea we worked on. It is uplifting but then in the chorus it says, 'In good times I doubt myself in front of you.'”
Royel Maddell: “It sounds fun but it's negative.”
“torn jeans”
Royel Maddell: “We did that with Chris Collins, and it was three guitar lines that I had and we just ended up weaving some vocals and stuff over it.”
Otis Pavlovic: “Just admiring someone's torn jeans.”
Royel Maddell: “Just admiring the imperfections.”
“come on home”
Royel Maddell: “It's kind of about being far away from someone. Not really having control of where you are or where you could be. That was with Josh and Lydia from Jungle as well. Those harmonies are very Lydia-ish.”
“who's your boyfriend”
Royel Maddell: “The chords are really standard but we wanted to make them as least standard as possible, so added a capo to the guitar and tried to play them as weird as possible so it's hard for people to figure out. Sonically, we were going for a mix between modern Cure and Joy Division. I don't think we got anywhere close to either but that's what we were going for.”
“car”
Otis Pavlovic: “We did that one with Omer and Blake. We were talking about being with someone and trying to end [the relationship], but also not.”
Royel Maddell: “Not wanting the good parts to end.”
Otis Pavlovic: “[And] doing it in cars, which is something we've both experienced before, trying to break up in a car.”
Royel Maddell: “It's weird wanting to break up with someone in a car because it's claustrophobic and you're in this small room. Why didn't you just do it outdoors?”
“shut up”
Otis Pavlovic: “We did this one with Blake Slatkin. It was the last song we did on the album. It came as a Hail Mary. That one is saying you don't want someone to go away. Just shut up, don't go away.”
Royel Maddell: “It's also super dreamy, so it's funny calling it 'shut up.'”
“dancing with myself”
Royel Maddell: “We went in wanting a disco Fleetwood Mac.”
Otis Pavlovic: “We wrote it in sections and you can kind of tell.”
Royel Maddell: “It's [about] letting yourself be free and not worrying about what other people are thinking.”
“say something”
Royel Maddell: “When we were planning on working with Blake and Omer, they asked what kind of song we want to make and as a joke, I said, 'Take on Me' by a-ha. That drumbeat is kind of a reference to 'Take on Me.'”
“she's got a gun”
Otis Pavlovic: “We were doing it with Josh after working on 'good times,' just seeing what happens with it, throwing ideas down over the bassline. And I remember for the chorus we slowed the song down and sung stuff really slow to see what would happen, and the chorus melody came out of it. I don't think we would have had that without doing that.”
“more to lose”
Otis Pavlovic: “We've attempted to put melodies over that piano line since the start of the band.”
Royel Maddell: “Five years! We did it with Julian Bunetta and Omer. We were in Julian's place in Calabasas, having fun making cocktails, and I just started playing it on the piano. Every time I sit at a piano I play it and just pray someone comes up with something. And that's what happened.”
“jazz burger”
Royel Maddell: “Jazz burger is a real thing. It's from Jitlada in LA, this Thai restaurant, and you can get different levels of spiciness. We only went with four out of 10. It was so spicy my chest became mutated. I had this lump on my chest that was like a rhinoceros horn. And then we got ice cream and went back into the studio and made that.”
Otis Pavlovic: “Royel and I had just come from Sydney and said goodbye to some friends and some relationships.”
Royel Maddell: “It's probably the realest song [on the album] with the fakest name; the most unrelated name.” - source : Apple Music
