Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr Explains Why He’d Never Call Himself A Guitarist

Royal Blood vocalist and bassist Mike Kerr recently appeared on Guitar and explained why he does not call himself a guitarist. During the interview, the frontman shared that rather than the legend bassists, he looks more up to guitarists such as Jimmy Page and Jack White. Explaining why he looks up to guitarists, he said:

“I think it’s made me reach for those frequencies and much more syncopated rhythmically. I found that if I took the role of a bass player, I found myself a lot more on the beat and locked into the drums, whereas when I repelled every rhythm and stepped away from what the drums were doing, it gave it more size.”

Although Kerr is a bassist and is happy to play with his signature Fender Jaguar bass, he relates to the playing of the guitarists more than the bassists. The rocker explained:

“Being in a two-piece is fun. Being able to step between being really syncopated and really on the beat. Having those gears is interesting and fun, but again, although I would relate my playing to a guitarist, I still would never call myself a guitarist.”

The bassist evidently sees being inspired by guitarists as a strength to his style of playing and writing songs. In the same interview, the bassist shared that it’s possible to hear who his bass playing resembles to easily in the band’s earlier records.

Playing bass was something Kerr never set out to do, apparently. The rocker made that clear in an earlier interview with Guitar World and referred finding himself from playing bass to his current point to it as ‘remarkable.’

Below, you can hear band’s one of earlier songs, and you can decide who the bass sound resembles to.