Rock Iconoclasts Royal Trux Discuss Their First Album in 17 Years

On August 16, 2015 Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty took the stage of Santa Ana's Observatory to lead Royal Trux as the headline act of the Berserktown II festival. It was the first Royal Trux performance since they disbanded in 2001 and apparently the first time Herrera and Hagerty had been in the same room in 13 years.

Opening with "The Spectre" from their 1993 album Cats and Dogs, they smashed through a swaggering set of back catalogue that included a few selections from their monumental 1990 album Twin Infinitives. Picking right up where they left off, the set had a feral and frenzied feel with Herrema commandeering the stage and Hagerty standing by the side as he focused on his guitar-driven solos.

This turbulent live energy is captured on Platinum Tips + Ice Cream, a career-spanning live album that was recorded at Beserktown and a show at New York's Webster Hall a few months later.

When asked why after multiple offers over the years it was Beserktown that persuaded them to get back together the answer is very Royal Trux in its honestness. "Because it centered around Royal Trux, the money was the best, the time was right, and Beserktown did not have the onus of an "institution" set and settled in its ways", explains Herrema.

While they may baulk at 'institutions', in New York City during the late 80s through to the late 90s, the duo's volatile and unpredictable stage presence became an institution in itself and their mix of debauched rock n roll, classic cool and polarizing, at times perplexing, attitude became legend. The former lovers embodied everything that raw rock n roll represented.

Noisey: Are you still the world's greatest rock band? If not, who has taken the crown, or comes second?

Jennifer: Yes we are one of them… but not in the way that we are the most popular (obviously) but in the way that we still adhere to the tenets of rock n roll that we designed and designated for ourselves at the outset. We do not capitulate to genre fragmentation and dilution. We do not define rock n roll as a tempo, beat, or set of instrumentation. It is strength of conviction and vision and the degree of resistance to the dominant culture. These strengths have ironically placed us in a position in which our actions, aesthetic choices, and example have moved and informed the dominant culture as opposed to the other way around and we are very rare in that affectiveness. Plus we have some of the best guitar playing on the planet so there's that too.

Do you understand the impact and legacy that Twin Infinitives has? What do you think about the album after so many years?

Jennifer: I think it's a great record and a detailed meditation that provided a blueprint by which musicians might be able to untangle and disengage while evoking decidedly all or nothing responses.

Do you still listen to much music from the 90s?

Jennifer: I mostly only listen to rap and hip hop from the 90s as the "rock n roll" (as defined by the dominant culture…not by me) of the 90s was mostly antithetical to the spirit of resistance and rebellion. In reality those ideas were usurped as marketing analougs and used to entice and elicit aspirationaly based responses via the visual replication of known iconographic visuals and fictitiously based back stories and "bios".

The album was recorded live at Beserktown and New York City. Did the shows feel very different, venue, audience vibe etc

Neil Hagerty: We always seem to adapt to the city we are in, but I definitely wanted to make sure that the first two east/west coast shows were unique, kinda like they put us back together with our main influences & will be the template for our sets.

What is the oldest song on the album?

Jennifer: Maybe "Esso Dame". Why does one only see the ESSO brand in Canada these days?

At one point you said, "Royal Trux was something that existed in time-- a relationship, a partnership, a chemistry-- and that doesn't exist right now." Does it exist now?

Jennifer: Yes it does…… everything has been put on the table and we now enjoy a deeper understanding of the cause and affect and are able to utilize and build upon all the elements we came to understand in the past

You are heading out on tour. You toured pretty hard back in the day. Are there luxuries now that you can't go without?

Neil: Everything has to be exactly right or I cannot function. It is terrible

Are there any common characteristics of a Royal Trux fan?

Neil: No, I don't know what our fans are about yet! My own wish that I put into the music is that it will get into the hands of someone at some time and make their day a little bit.

The album opens with "Junkie Nurse" which has the kind of title that nobody who has ever listened to Royal Trux assumes Royal Trux to be about. From your catalogue how did you decided what to play?

Neil: Ha see we put that first and tried to play it really nice in a rock and roll arrangement, that was the first song I said we should do haha!-- but overall we both made lists and any songs that matched went on and then we each got two slots for anything we absolutely wanted individually.

You had to go back and fix some of the live recording which you describe as tedious. Studio or stage? Where has Royal Trux felt most comfortable?

Neil: I swear it is about equal! I was afraid at first as I thought the LP would turn into Eagles Live and it did and I am pretty happy about it-- it sounds good; the shows sounded great but this was like the best of both worlds for a permanent document like this. It was a good idea and I'm thinking of it as the one Trux record that you need.

'Platinum Tips + Ice Cream' is available now on Drag City.