Hickeys are, thankfully, temporary. Royel Otis’ hickey should stick around long after we’re gone.
Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, the Sydney indie-pop duo better known as Royel Otis, will lay a smacker on us in the form of their second album, due out August 22nd via OURNESS / Capitol Records.
Following a “rollercoaster” year, Pavlovic recounts, the lads hit the studio at the start of 2025 to shape this new project.
Once there, “we just kind of work together, bounce ideas off each other or whatever,” Maddell explains. “It’s just us showing each other ideas, like demos that we’ve recorded at home. Then we just work from there. I don’t know how anyone has actual schedules or a routine of how they write songs, personally.”
The first sample of things to come was the single “moody”, which was initially teased at a sold-out show in Los Angeles in May, and was co-written with Grammy-winning songwriter Amy Allen and produced by Blake Slatkin (Gracie Abrams, Omar Apollo, Charli XCX). “Car” parked in late June.
Away from the stage, the musos aren’t loud. But they’re not lacking in confidence, either. They have the benefit of growing up together “towards like the end of growing up,” Pavlovic explains, and they share a “similar taste in music,” which helps with the creative process. “We also both show each other songs that we’ve heard and that we know each other would like sort of thing.”
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Only three people in Maddell’s orbit have the right ears, and one of them is Maddell. “I’m always finding new stuff that matters which is sick because no one ever really shows me anything that I’m that into, to be completely honest,” he tells Tone Deaf. “Other than Otis or Timmy [Ayres] in the band.”
Whether they approve of it or not, Royel Otis are branded with the next big thing tag. It’s not just the awards (they scooped four ARIA Awards in November 2024), or the summer-baked hits which include the glorious “Oysters in My Pocket,” their cover of The Cranberries’ “Linger” for SiriusXM which entered the US Billboard Hot 100 last August at No. 94, or their “Live a Version” cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” came in at No. 2 triple j’s Hottest 100, or Maddell’s curious habit of hiding his face, which he did for this Zoom.
It’s a combination of those factors that has seen Royel Otis collect more than 8.3 million followers on Spotify, and land spots at many of the world’s biggest festivals this year, including Glastonbury Festival, Lollapalooza Berlin and Chicago, Fuji Rock Festival, Pukkelpop, and Reading & Leeds.
Their long journey around the globe this year includes a home visit, produced by Frontier Touring, which will see the band play their biggest-ever headline shows.
It’s a type of chaos that Royel Otis have come to expect and embrace. “We’re creating tunes from the bottom of our hearts up to our mouths,” says Maddell with a laugh.
OURNESS, the label home of Genesis Owusu, is steered by Andrew Klippel, a renowned music producer and reigning manager of the year at the AAM Awards.
“We haven’t been in the studio with him in a creative sense, which is interesting because I haven’t even thought about that,” Maddell remarks. “He’s incredible but I think he just likes to just watch what we do. He’s happy to let us do our thing and not even come into it. Even though I know he would love to. It’s like we’ve all got like a mutual sense of trust in each other that we’ll come out with the best we possibly could.”
Hickey is the follow-up to their debut full length album, PRATTS & PAIN, which arrived in February 2024 and immediately blasted into the ARIA top 10.
Pre-order hickey here.
Royel Otis 2025 Australian Tour
General sale begins Monday, July 14th (10am local time)
Friday 17 October
Margaret Court Arena | Melbourne, VIC
Lic. All Ages
ticketek.com.au
Monday 20 October
The Fortitude Music Hall | Brisbane, QLD
Lic. All Ages
ticketmaster.com.au
Friday 24 October
Hordern Pavilion | Sydney, NSW
Lic. All Ages
ticketek.com.au
Wednesday 29 October
Ice Cream Factory | Perth, WA
Lic. All Ages
eventbrite.com.au
