Rival Sons interview: How the blues-rockers have forged their own path to fame

Californian blues-rockers Rival Sons include a devout Christian and a Hare Krishna priest. From left: Michael Miley, Scott Holiday, Jay Buchanan and Dave Beste

On paper, Rival Sons seem unlikely rock’n’rollers. They certainly don’t fulfil the usual criteria. The Californian four-piece includes a devout Christian, a Hindu priest and a follower of the Native American Red Road religion, but not one member who maxes out on drugs, hurls TVs through hotel windows or litters the air with the F-word. They find such behaviour “corny”.

“I went 12 years without even eating chocolate or drinking coffee,” says guitarist Scott Holiday, from his home-studio in Huntingdon Beach, near LA, via FaceTime. He certainly looks like a rock star, with his vintage threads and hipster ’tache. But less obviously, he is also a Hare Krishna priest: he converted “long before I was out on the road” after being introduced to it by friends. He does confess that recent years have taken “a small toll” on his wholesome lifestyle, as the band’s success has grown. “Everybody’s imbibing to the point of keeping it together,” he admits.

“But we all go very clean, very often as well.” There’s nothing clean about Rival Sons’ blues-rock sound, however, which is raw, funky and thunderous. It evokes the spirit of Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page is a fan), the Animals, or the Stones circa Sticky Fingers – white boys in thrall to the groove of black America. “Rock’n’roll forgot about blues and soul music, and I thought, how can this be?” says Holiday. “Those are its origins, and they’re going away at such a rapid rate. We want to be something that people don’t have to go through their old records to get.”

The 1970s may be fashionable again, but Rival Sons are more than just a timely retro act. They cite Prince, D’Angelo and the Roots as influences alongside Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Lyrically, they veer from classic rock hedonism-cum-nihilism to more of-the-moment vignettes about terrorism and economic decline. “It’s a modern sound,” insists Holiday, “because it’s being made right now”.

Rival Sons are unlikely rock’n’rollers

And right now they are also starting to enjoy mainstream acclaim after years of grafting on the margins; Rival Sons are a rare breed in today’s music landscape – a sleeper success story. Despite having operated till now in a near-total publicity vacuum, their last album reached the top 20, prompting appearances with Jools Holland and David Letterman; a tour with Maroon Five is on the cards; and they return for another UK tour this month, having sold out their previous three. They are in such demand as a live act that the next – fifth – album must now wait until autumn at the earliest. “We’re trying to spread out as far as we can,” says frontman Jay Buchanan, picking up the story when I speak to him on FaceTime a few days later. “We don’t want to box ourselves in – or bust our heads on the perimeter fence.”

Veterans of the live-music scene in Long Beach, California, Rival Sons formed in 2009 from the ashes of Holiday’s previous band, Black Summer Crush, which also featured the Sons’ heavy-hitting drummer, Michael Miley (bassist Dave Beste completes the current line-up). They signed to EMI with a different singer and recorded their debut album, Before the Fire, which the label never released. During that unhappy spell, Holiday chanced upon local singersongwriter Buchanan’s online profile, “and realised I could not continue without this guy on board”.

Buchanan was initially reticent: he may have the pipes of a young Robert Plant, but he considered himself more of a folk troubadour than a thrusting rock god. “But we got together and jammed, and we’ve been about this close ever since. “But the only way I can approach this music is as myself. I’m not going to try to fit into any lifestyle or join the club.” An intense, enigmatic counterfoil to the upbeat Holiday, Buchanan is a one-off. Ask him which singers he rates and the first name off the top of his head is the otherworldly Antony Hegarty, “because he’s just himself”. When I saw the Sons at a sold-out Kentish Town Forum recently, Buchanan uttered nothing at all between songs, then after about an hour or so launched into a heartfelt tale about a former drug addict who inspired their anthem “Where I’ve Been”.

It was practically the only thing he said all night. Buchanan grew up “in the mountains” near LA: both his parents have Native American blood, and he also has Scottish heritage on his steelworker father’s side (his despair at seeing his dad made redundant crops up in current single, “Good Things”). The Red Road takes him away on spiritual quests, which may explain his failure to appear for our first allotted interview, though he doesn’t “want to get too far into it, because it’s very sacred to me”.

With Buchanan on board, Rival Sons ended their relationship with EMI and re-recorded Before the Fire. Other major labels were keen, but the Sons grew wary of “360” deals, which meant signing away touring and merchandise revenue. “They’re crooks,” scoffs Holiday. Which is partly why they ended up releasing four albums, including last year’s Great Western Valkyrie, on the British independent label Earache, home to extreme metal bands Napalm Death and Carcass – odd bedfellows, to say the least.

“We took a chance on each other,” says Holiday. The other reason they signed is because Earache gives the band complete creative freedom. So that’s how Rival Sons found themselves sharing stages with Judas Priest, AC/DC and Alice Cooper, and appearing at festivals such as Download and – with some trepidation – Hellfest. “We thought they were going to throw p**s bottles at us,” says Buchanan. But the metal crowd loved them. “It turns out they are a loyal, easy-going, sweet bunch of people – we can’t say enough good things about them.”

Do they envy the higher profile of blues-rock rivals the Black Keys or Alabama Shakes? No, they say. “Sometimes you need to live in a vacuum to reach your potential,” adds Buchanan. Plus, the Earache deal gives them ownership of their back catalogue, and 100 per cent of touring and merchandise. In an era when the marketing man is king, Rival Sons prove it’s still possible not to play by corporate rules.

Rival Sons’ UK tour begins Thurs (ticketmaster.co.uk). ‘Great Western Valkyrie’ is out now