Local Royalty

 
Last week West Of had the opportunity to pin down the always entertaining and tireless Lily Slay, one-fifth of the popular local band The Royal Tinfoil. Well, you don’t really pin down Lily Slay, who’s a part time comedian as well as a full time rock star, even when she’s not on stage. But we happen to catch her days after tearing ligaments in her ankle, forcing her to be couch-bound for a spell.
She hopes to be back on her feet by the time The Royal Tinfoil takes the familiar stage of Tin Roof on Wednesday, May 14 along with the mysterious and outlandish Alabama surf rock band Daikaiju.
WEST OF: What the hell did you do to your leg?
Lily Slay: Ironically, I was leaping off of a wheelchair ramp and landed in a supremely awkward way on my ankle. That’s a whole lot of woman to come down on one rolled ankle! It’s just a lot of torn ligaments and strains, with bruising all the way up to my knee, yikes!
WO: Are you hopped on painkillers right now?
LS: I’m pretty lucid right now, but I don’t plan to stay that way.
WO: How long are you laid up? And will you still rock out on crutches if you have too?
LS: I’ll be out at least another week or more. I think I may be sitting at our next show with Green Sky Bluegrass at the Windjammer this Thursday. I’m so rock ‘n’ roll! Sitting down!
WO: Other than the bum leg, what’s new in the Royal Tinfoil world?
LS: We’re still in the process of mixing our second album “Feed These Demons.” Production got put on hold for several months while our engineer was out of town, but now he’s back and we’re champing at the bit to get this thing done! As of right now, we’re just weekend warriors; trying to hit the region on long weekends and keep the name alive while we get this album finished. We hope to do some longer runs and more festivals once it drops … Also, we just bought a beautiful old van off of a Mexican soccer team. It was too perfect to pass up. When this album drops, we’ll be ready to hit the road!
WO: The Royal Tinfoil has really become one of Charleston’s most popular bands over the last couple years. Where do you see this band in the next couple years?
LS: We want to expand our sound to encompass more genres so that we grow and continue to challenge ourselves, and our fans. Anyone who’s seen us recently knows our current sound is a far cry from our first album, “Well Water Communion.” I know we’d love to do a simple country album, but also one that gets weird as all hell! Basically, we’re focused on making albums that really tell a complete story. Our albums don’t need to correlate with one another as long as they make sense within themselves- we’ll be the unifying thread. I also hope to see us hitting the festival circuit harder, too. It’s great exposure and so much fun, it could be criminal.
WO: Seems like the band members all have side projects or other bands (or comedy) from time to time. Do you think this is helpful in ultimately keeping y’all together as a happy family?
LS: Oh, absolutely! Being in a band like ours is like herding cats sometimes because everyone has so much going on, but every time I play with the boys, they bring something new to the table. They’re constantly getting better and expanding the scope of genres they play, simply from playing with other amazing musicians in town- it’s really amazing to see what they come up with.
Comedy is such a different art form from music it’s mind-blowing. You can be a great musician and play in your living room. You can’t be a great standup comedian without performing live because the show IS the practice. I’m still very new to it, and will consider myself to be so for years, but I’m excited to get better and figure out ways to apply it to all areas of stage performance.
WO: Anything special up y’all’s sleeves for the Tin Roof show?
LS: The Tin Roof show is going to melt faces … possibly, literally. Last time I saw Daikaiju, they lit their drums on fire. No exaggeration: I’ve seen them twice and those are the best two shows I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen some damn good shows in my day.
We’ve also got a huge Block Party coming up for D’allesandro’s Pizza that we’re super excited about. We don’t often get to play all ages shows, and this one is gonna be killer, and all free! Some of the acts include Johnny Delaware, Susto, Jordan Igoe, Fiasco, and more!