Royal Sitars

The two tracks on the page lived up to the label on the tin, with Royal Headache’s ‘Eloise’ and ‘Distant And Vague’ performed instrumentally, their vocal melodies translated to sitar.

Mystery surrounds the Royal Sitars outfit still – though it’s safe to assume the project comes from within Sydney’s network of garage outfits – ahead of their appearance for Carriageworks’ At First Sight festival. For their first-ever interview, Royal Sitars spoke with us, anonymity intact, in a guarded email exchange. “We’ve found sitar to be one of the more expressive instruments in the traditional Indian canon,” they say. The idea to translate these songs to the instrument, they explain, came from “where all the best ideas come from: a gracious gift from above”.

ArguablyRoyalHeadache’s greatest strength lies in Shogun’s vocals, but Royal Sitars, on the two tracks released so far, manage to navigate that challenge instrumentally. “The sitar itself doesn’t quite have the range of the Royal Headache singer, but we do our best to compensate with additional melodic motifs,” they say.

Though none were present on the recently released High, Royal Headache’s self-titled album featured a few instrumental arrangements. As of now, Royal Sitars won’t be tackling cuts like ‘Two Kinds Of Love’, but they add: “One cannot always accurately predict the future.”

While thesitartakes care of the vocal melodies, a more nuanced approach is needed for the other song elements, employing garage sensibility. “We strive for the perfect balance between respect and representation of the more exciting elements for a dancefloor-ready combination that suits our instrumentation,” they explain.

As anyone who has ever attended a Royal Headache show can attest, their songs are loaded with genuine emotion, expressed in performance and arrangement. “We feel these songs are a great gift to all,” say Royal Sitars. “We strive to – rather than change the mood – enhance melodic elements, and create a blissful mixture of joy and longing.”

When pressed on what makes Royal Headache so ripe for interpretation, Royal Sitars offer: “It is the combination of simplicity, and the ease of translation onto our chosen instruments – in particular, the sitar.”

With High having been out in the world for a number of months now, enjoying a similar affection to Royal Headache’s debut full-length, we can perhaps enjoy sitar renditions of ‘Carolina’ and ‘Garbage’ sometime in the near future. “We have only just received this album but we indeed have begun our arrangement process,” say Royal Sitars. “We’ve been approached by a number of professional recording companies and are considering the most enlightened path.”

Apart from the initial tweet, Royal Sitars are unsure of Royal Headache’s response to their interpretations. Or so they say. “We hope to meet and possibly perform with them in the future. We hope they have enjoyed our respectful representation of their music.”

But the final question for Royal Sitars remains: who are you? Where are you from? “Foremost, we prefer to let the sitar speak for itself.” OK.