Interview: Broke Royals sort through life’s toughest questions

Images of fallen angels have a long history in Abrahamic religions. Referenced as angels cast down from heaven, often having sinned, the figures are emblematic of mankind’s perpetual temptations and war against sin. Out of Washington, DC, pop rock band Broke Royals rework the fallen angel template as a runway angel named Saint Luxury, the eponymous character of their most recent album, which provokes questions about faith, personal accountability, and healing.

Saint Luxury, represented on cover art as a modern day rebel in a leather jacket, a glittering crown askew on her head, casts a long shadow not only in the work itself but the band’s six-year history. “The character actually existed in band lore for years before she took her final form as a runaway angel,” writes frontman Philip Basnight to B-Sides & Badlands over email. “Saint Luxury was a kind of ‘catch-all’ joke used when something unexplainable happened – like, ‘I can’t find my chips. Where are my chips?’ ‘Saint Luxury must have eaten them.’ Just silly band stuff that evolves after hours and hours on the road together.”

The record – rippling from blissful herald “Ave” to raucous earth-crusher “Born to Break” to cathartic closer “This is Really Happening” – distills “a complex central idea through one central character. Saint Luxury was the perfect vessel to embody that concept,” he adds. Basnight sifts through his upbringing in the evangelic church for much of the thematic content, planting the record as intensely personal and enlightening.

Saint Luxury imposes her presence throughout much of the record, a dark force sliding amidst shiny, arena-bound production, except on “Love & Tatters,” which refocuses attention on a relationship’s magnetic aura. “Not to be all woo woo but sometimes the songs write themselves,” Basnight explains of the song’s emotional background. “We once listened to Steven Pressfield’s ‘The War of Art’ on audiobook in the car, and he talks at length about listening and being open to the Muse. With this song, it was a story that told itself; we just had to craft it. It’s not autobiographical but certainly has pieces of all of us contained within it.”

Broke Royals’ Saint Luxury is largely adorned with gold-gilded instruments, accentuating the lyrics’ 10-ton weight. 14 tracks tower over the listener, inviting them along a concept record that confronts existence in its every form – and Basnight’s vocal is unwavering and invigorating, even when life puts him to the ultimate test. Alongside bandmates Colin Cross, Ben Wilson, and Taimir Gore, the four-piece arrive on understanding who they were and who they need to be.

Below, Basnight and Cross walk us through a religious past, institutional constraints, and current state of mind.

Basnight, you’ve said you couldn’t believe there was ever a time you were “afraid to ask questions.” Was breaking away initially pretty difficult?

Basnight: On a broad level, it’s part of growing up that everyone goes through. During childhood, you are given the “answers” by parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders, and more. The challenge of young adulthood is deciding which of those answers you will hold with you and which ones need to be challenged. For me, the questions that loomed the largest in my mind were religious: “do I really believe this?,” followed up quickly by second-level questions like “what would my parents and friends think?” They cascade pretty quickly, and I think that’s where a lot of the fear comes from.

A vast population of us have undergone similar transitions and evolutions – whether it’s out of our own religious upbringing or another kind of belief system/institution. Do you find institutional thinking can be restrictive, or even damaging, in many ways?

Basnight: I’ve thought a lot about that question, and I don’t think it has a simple answer. Institutions are, by definition, complicated and multifaceted, so it would be impossible to separate all the good from all the bad. Many great thinkers have written and debated this issue, and right now, I just enjoy listening. I suppose that’s why we wrote an album about the questions and not about finding new answers. As I look into these things, I just try to be brave, kind, and keep myself open to heartbreak from parts of institutions that I love or once loved. It can be helpful to look at

Has your new-found “intellectual bravery” been healing, or at least cathartic, for you?

Basnight: Healing is a great word. When I’ve braved the hard questions, be it about religion or relationships or anything, I’ve been left without regret. That’s a great feeling. It can be a little hard to recognize at first, because absence is often left potent than presence but, after a while, you realize that nagging feeling of regret has gone away, or at least calmed down significantly.

Cross: I love what Philip said. I think there is a huge amount of subconscious unrest that affects us when we aren’t questioning areas of our life where we may be experiencing cognitive dissonance. The only way to get past that is through relentless introspection. Once we start asking the questions, it might feel worse, but it always feels better on the other side of them.

How did you come to reconcile faith as a youth to adulthood?

Basnight: I still love learning about faith traditions. I believe that faith reveals so much about people on an individual-level and societies, at large. I love to look up religious demographics when I’m in a new country or even a new part of the U.S. I feel a bit like a tourist, out to appreciate and collect new ideas. Not to say that I’m without principles or convictions, but I’m also not the arbiter of truth, which has been a liberating position for me to take.

Seeing as your big on asking questions, what questions are on your mind right now?

Basnight: This is a pivotal year. What can I do to be on the right side of history in 2020? Should that look like me as an individual or the band together where we maybe have a larger voice.

Cross: What Philip said. But also, at a much more micro level: how do we simultaneously care for others while caring for ourselves? Where is the line between self-care and selfish? How do we say both yes and say no more? I love this new age of self-care, but it comes with distinct questions that I had never considered before now.

Much of the record pairs heavy lyrics with bright, shiny production, big drums, and a driving rhythm. Were you wanting to make sure you had the hooks to pull listeners in?

Basnight: Shiny pop hooks and big drums have basically been the heart of this band since day one. Colin and I started the band together when we were in college, and I think those were the two things we really felt confident that we could bring to the table. Every song requires different treatment, but those two elements remain central to our sonic identity.

Later, “Born to Break” emerges as another important emotional pillar – “we were born to break ’cause there was no where else to run.” A powerful lyric represented in a video which focuses on the band heading out onto the road. What role does this song/video play in the story?

Cross: We love Bruce Springsteen and that song, and that line in particular, were meant to juxtapose his idea of being Born to Run. The phrase “born to break” is the personal side of Saint Luxury. It’s our responsibility to ask tough questions, even if it feels like it’s going to break your heart. Avoidance is not only irresponsible but also, dangerous.

Saint Luxury is a character you created, but what has she taught you?

Basnight: Saint Luxury has taught me that asking questions and staving off complacency is a full-time job. It’s not a road you reach the end of; it’s something you learn to do over and over again.

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