Eight months after their striking debut single "Blue Asphalt," mysterious Parisian duo Royaume released a new track last week through Opening Light Musique and we couldn't help but ask them a few questions about the band and what's to come.

Hi Yumi, hi Moon Boy! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, little is known about Royaume yet and I guess there are quite a few people wondering about you. How did you guys meet, and how was project Royaume born?

Yumi: Hi there! We met at an after party. When we talked about music we noticed we were pretty much listening to the same artists. A few days later, I went to Moon Boy's home studio, we listened to some of the stuff he had in store, which i liked a lot.

Moon Boy: Then we jammed and when I heard her singing, I thought "dear, THAT is a voice !". Later on, the first song we wrote and produced was "Blue Asphalt".

Your debut single "Blue Asphalt" has received well-deserved attention. What's the secrets behind making a successful debut?

Yumi & Moon Boy: Actually, we’ve been very surprised by what happened with "Blue Asphalt" so we don't have a recipe for that.... but from our experience with this track, we would say be sincere in the creation and production process of your song, and then look for music blogs that talk about the kind of music you do and send your track to them. Bloggers are great, they're real music lovers and a great support for newcomer artists.

You just released your second single "Endless Grace". Tell us a little bit more about this track! What was your creative process like?

Moon Boy: I had this melody and the beginning of a text. I told Yumi what I wanted to say with the song and she wrote lyrics to express it. We then did some ping pong to complete the text. Meanwhile, I was doing the production, during which, as usual, Yumi gave me her thoughts and good advices.

Yumi: Yeah it was a real song in-the-making. For example Moon Boy adds some sexy guitars riffs that inspire me mermaid-like harmony vocals, and so on.

What's your opinion about today's French music scene? Could you pick out for us your current top 3 favourites? Thanks!

Yumi: I think that there are so many young talents in this country but they’re not always those who receive the most media attention. But I’ve noticed things are slowly changing thanks to the internet. Currently, my 3 frenchie fav are Jeanne Added, Bambounou and Alexandre Chatelard because I listened to a lot of their tracks in the last few weeks.

Moon Boy: Except in electronic music, electro-pop and some indie stuff, I don't relate much to most of today's French music scene. 3 of the few current French acts I really like are Christine and the Queens, Worakls and Jeanne Added.

What do you both do when you're not being Royaume? What's typical downtime for you both?

Yumi: I love singing on epic Lana Del Rey’s karaoke videos with my best friend. I also like drawing nudes, reading poetry and Japanese novels and testing any type of beer. And take the time to call my family because they always worry about me.

Moon Boy: I work a lot on my music so I don't do much stuff outside of it. I spend most of my leisure time getting knowledge about astronomy and astrophysics, reading poetry and books, going to art exhibitions, and watching movies and a few series.

What's next for Royaume? Is it an EP? Playing live? I heard that you have made a video for "Blue Asphalt"... Hint, hint!

Yumi & Moon Boy: Live shows! Shows are really what we're looking forward to do; we can't wait to go on tour. We don't know yet when we will release a new single but it sure will be sooner than 8 months which was the time between "Blue Asphalt" and "Endless Grace". Then an EP or an album, we have no plans about that yet.
Yeah we did a live video for "Blue Asphalt", you're right! It was visually inspired by Bowie's "Heroes" video, which we like a lot. But because of a lack of money, the quality of the result was not very good, so we have decided not to release it. Instead, we'll try to make a beautiful video for "Endless Grace" or the next single.

Nice! Thanks for your answers, guys.

Image: Unknown Project