Royel Otis

Royel Otis

Royel Otis is a Sydney-based duo formed in 2019. The group consists of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, and their music is classified as indie rock and pop, with indie pop, lo-fi and dream pop also associated with them.

Formation

Royel Maddell returns to Australia after living in New York for a few years and begins working in a bar. There he meets Otis Pavlovic, who has just left school. After a night out with friends, Pavlovic plays Maddell some demos he has been working on. Maddell takes the material home and starts building it out with guitars and samples from Fatboy Slim records he has kept from his time in New York.

Early writing and recording

The pair begin meeting weekly and writing songs together in Maddell’s Bondi Beach sunroom. They work by layering guitars over beats and taking long drives along the east coast to write melodies over the tracks. Their early material draws on old Japanese city pop records and 1990s nostalgia. Julian Sudek produces the recordings, and the duo then send their first song to mixer Dave Fridmann, who agrees to mix it.

Debut single

Their debut single is Without You.