BANFF – With debut album Monsters in Disguise ready to drop, Banff punk rock band Regal Foul reflects on its painstaking evolution from battle of the bands duds to fearless beasts of the local music scene.
The three-piece band consisting of Gerry Roy (vocals, guitar), Brian MacEachern (vocals, bass), and Mitch McCallum (drums) has circled Monday (Nov. 30) on the calendar with red marker for the release of the full-length, eight-track album.
"This is the part I really love," said Roy, "creating the music and putting on the shows and just building an experience.
"I always say to people the reason why I play in this band now is because if I didn't do it, I would stand in the shower every morning and pretend to play guitar and sing in front of people."
The band remembers their very first gig in 2018 – even if they don't want to – during the Canmore Battle of the Bands at Drake. With conflicting styles and rhythms, Regal Foul ate its pride in the weekly elimination battle.
"I think if they would have ranked us, we would have been in last," said Roy with a laugh. "But go ahead two years later and that's the part that gets me the most excited. Not that our songs are evolving, but that we evolved as a group and we keep hopefully getting better."
During that shaky beginning, the band struggled to find its sound. But in Monsters in Disguise, the album sends an adrenalin rush of a '90s to early 2000s influence, but harbours a modern grittiness and quality that pushes the genre forward, including lyrical themes of social justice.
"You don't want to limit yourself," said Roy. "You want to make sure you're expanding and growing and all the influences are being respected."
Putting together Monsters in Disguise during a pandemic was a longer process due to circumstances, going in one at a time to lay down their parts. The punk rockers booked studio time and worked out of Omen Studios, a private home studio in Banff, with local producer Matt Homeniuk.
"I'm 41 now [and] this is the first music I've ever put out, so it's definitely an accomplishment," said MacEachern. "It's been a longtime coming it feels like."
The idea was to replicate a live, hard-hitting experience that concert-goers and the band are craving right now.
A lyric video for the album's first single "Monsters" is now available on Regal Foul's YouTube channel.
Regal Foul has been building its reputation around the Bow Valley's music scene including at Canmore's inaugural alternative, metal and punk festival in 2019.
But without live shows to promote, it's a "frustrating" time to debut an album, notes McCallum.
"As a musician, you got to do it for yourself to truly enjoy it before you do it for the people," said McCallum with a laugh. "Don't get us wrong, if we had fans, it would be about them. The next album will be about them."
Instead, like most other bands, Regal Foul looks to social media, friends and family, and word of mouth to spread to help unearth Monsters in Disguise.
