Royal Blood think achieving headliner status is ”surreal”.
The rock duo topped the bill on the Where It Begins stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hull last weekend and are high up on the Glastonbury line-up later this month, and the pair – singer Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher – can’t believe how far they’ve come since they started in 2013.
Mike told Newsbeat: ”When we began, we spent £500 on making half a record.
”We had dinner one night and we thought, ‘Do we get the £500 back?’.
”So to be up there now, headlining a stage, surreal doesn’t really cut it.
”It’s always ridiculous. Every time I look over at Ben [Thatcher] on the drums, doing a solo in a Tilikum t-shirt while I’m drinking out of a bottle of Jack Daniels, you have to ask yourself, ‘Who am I?’ ”
Ben added: ”And ‘Who are we?’ and ‘How did we get so dark?’ ”
But the band won’t be getting carried away by their success and their only priority is to put on a good show and ensure their audience has a good time.
Ben said: ”Our live thing for us is something we thrive on, we make our records because we love to play the songs live.”
Mike added: ”We just want to walk on and we just want to make sure people have a good time, no matter what stage we’re thrown onto.
”But it’s definitely a privilege to be put in that position and given that responsibility.”
And the ‘Figure It Out’ hitmakers are looking forward to the release of their upcoming second album, ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’.
Mike said: ”It’s always a strange feeling releasing it [new music] into the world.
”I think we’re ready to throw it out there and think about what we’re going to do next.”