Chartbreaker: Why Royel Otis Says Creating New Album ‘Hickey’ Felt ‘Like Speed Dating’

A few hours before Royel Otis plays at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival in early August, frontmen Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic are in search of a healthy meal and a full night’s rest. It’s been early-morning flights and on-the-go food for the alt-rock duo as of late: just three nights earlier, the group made its Lollapalooza debut in Chicago, and two days after Osheaga, they’ll begin a few West Coast dates across the continent.

“I wanted to play music so I didn’t have to work much,” Maddell says with a joking laugh. “I thought it was, like, a lazy lifestyle. But my God.”

Following a year in which a pair of cover songs propelled Maddell, 35, and Pavlovic, 24, to a new level of commercial success, the Australian musicians have spent much of 2025 fortifying their widening fan base. They spent the front half of the year preparing new music and, more recently, performed it for oversized festival crowds, including at Governors Ball, Bonnaroo and Glastonbury.

Fortunately, all those hours in the studio, doing press and on the road are paying dividends: As Royel Otis prepare to release its second studio album, Hickey, out Aug. 22, the project’s garage rock lead single “Moody” is the band’s best showcase to date of its mainstream appeal, both on increasingly large stages and radio stations across the globe.

The two say they properly met in a bar six or seven years ago, despite a number of connections growing up, including Pavlovic’s uncle and Maddell’s dad being close friends. Prior to linking up, Maddell had played guitar in high school and in a few local Sydney bands; Pavlovic had busked a bit and written songs with friends. They began to show each other demos, and by the onset of the pandemic, they were creating new ones together in Maddell’s miniature home studio.

By mid-2020, those demos made their way to Australian independent record label and artist management company OURNESS director/CEO Andrew Klippel, thanks to his colleague Julian Sudek, who had a hand in working on them. “I remember on my second listen going, ‘Hang on, these guys are amazing songwriters,’ ” Klippel recalls. “And Otis’ voice was distinctive and memorable. To me, that was a no-brainer.” Three months later, he started managing the group, and the band signed a label deal with OURNESS.

Rather than first securing a local fan base, Klippel immediately strategized how to take Royel Otis to the world’s biggest markets: prior to the band’s debut EP, Campus, in 2021, he hired in2une Music for radio promotion, Grandstand Media for stateside PR and a number of independent marketing firms across the U.S. and U.K.

“Our first proper tour was in the U.K.,” says Pavlovic. “When we first started they were small numbers, but the U.K. and Americans would always match Australia.”

Royel Otis spent the next few years growing its catalog, with each new release broadening the duo’s buzz. 2022 EP Bar & Grill boasted the ebullient single “Oysters In My Pocket,” which scored a placement on Spotify’s Dopamine playlist that March. Sofa Kings followed in 2023, and its title track — which also appeared on 2024 debut album Pratts & Pain — picked up airplay at SiriusXM’s Alt Nation, and later was added to the rotation at alternative Los Angeles radio station KROQ.

In early 2024, as “Sofa King” continued to lounge at radio, Royel Otis stopped by Australian radio station triple j and performed an alternative-tinged rendition of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s resurgent Saltburn song “Murder on the Dancefloor” for its Like a Version series. It went viral, and the instant acclaim caused the group to shift its push in real time, pivoting to promoting the cover at all formats.

History repeated itself a few months later during a live session on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation, as Royel Otis’ strumming take on The Cranberries’ 1993 smash “Linger” struck a chord with listeners. By that August, the latter cover became the band’s first hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Still, one year later, the cover lingers, scoring a key synch on the current season of Amazon Prime’s hit series The Summer I Turned Pretty.

“When ‘Linger’ happened, Roy and I were both like, ‘We kooked it, we should not have done another cover,’ ” Pavlovic remembers. “It was just surprising as hell. We never really had a thing like that.”

The strength of such hits also gave the duo some additional muscle in conversations with labels as they sought a U.S. record deal. “We felt like we hit a ceiling in some ways, especially in the U.S.,” Klippel says. “We felt like we really needed a major-label partner [and] had the right leverage to be a priority within that system.” Plus, he wanted to ensure that with the success of “Murder on the Dancefloor” and “Linger” that Royel Otis didn’t “become a cover band,” he says. In November, Royel Otis inked a deal with Capitol Records in partnership with OURNESS.

Pavlovic and Maddell swiftly got to work on its next album at the start of 2025 — this time, with a host of established hitmakers to help, including Amy Allen, Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi and Jungle’s Josh Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto. “When you’re working with that many people, at first, it’s a bit like speed dating,” says Maddell. “You have to get to know each other really quickly, but that’s what makes them professional.”

Around March, during a session with Allen and Slatkin, Maddell started messing around with chords to pair with an acoustic that Slatkin had at the ready. Pavlovic then began doing melodies over the top, and once Allen helped the duo with a writing concept, Royel Otis had the makings of what would become Hickey lead single “Moody.” Outside of the song’s intro and bridge, the hit was largely finished in one day.

They teased the chorus throughout April on social media, with several grainy-filtered TikTok clips compiling millions of views and helping the song receive a warm welcome at alternative radio upon its May 9 release. “Moody” debuted on Billboard’s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart dated May 24; the following week, it surfaced on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart.

But as the crunchy hit quickly spread, a stream of comments and headlines began to surface regarding the song’s lyrics — specifically taking umbrage at a line from its chorus (“My girl’s a b–ch when she’s moody”). “It was definitely stressful,” Maddell admits. “I think it’s important for everyone to have their opinion — we didn’t mean for it to be offensive. We didn’t expect it. But that stuff is going to happen the more popular you get, so you just try not to fuel it. A lot of people assume that the person singing is the hero, but that wasn’t our intention. It’s supposed to be contradictory.” Plus, he notes, Allen has assured them, saying, “I’ve got your back.”

Still, “Moody” has remained a growing force in the months since its release, particularly on the airwaves. The single became Royel Otis’ first No. 1 on any Billboard chart when it topped the Adult Alternative Airplay ranking dated July 12 — and has remained in the pole position since. (It also cracked the top 10 on Rock & Alternative Airplay in late July.)

The duo has followed “Moody” with a pair of tracks detailing relationships on the rocks in “Car” and “Say Something,” as it gears to release Hickey later this month. And there will be no rest for the weary after the album is out: Royel Otis launches a 12-date North American headlining tour in September, followed by a return to Australia in October before traversing Europe to close the year. Klippel suggests that Pavlovic and Maddell will then have a good amount of time to enjoy some well-deserved rest. After all, despite the fast pace right now, he says the ultimate goal is more of a marathon mentality.

“I just want to see growth — I don’t mind if it’s not meteoric,” says Klippel. “That’s how the team feels about the project, and I think that’s a good place to be.”

A version of this story appears in the Aug. 16, 2025, issue of Billboard.