Roya

A Brooklyn-based band whose music blends a punk's sense of casual insouciance with an indie rocker's passion for quality guitar jangle, Roya were formed in the summer of 2014 by vocalist Rahill Jamalifard, formerly of the band Habibi. After winding up a tour with Habibi, Jamalifard was eager to work on a new project, and she contacted guitarist Jay Heiselmann, who had played with the band the Grooms. As Jamalifard and Heiselmann began working up songs, Rahill was contacted by Hamish Kilgour, once a member of the legendary New Zealand band the Clean, who offered to play drums. The new group adopted the name Roya, which is a female name in the Farsi language that refers to a remarkable vision or dream. For a while, Christian Sawyer contributed second guitar to the band before leaving Brooklyn for the West Coast. After his departure, Roya recruited Alix Brown, who filled out their sound on bass. This edition of the band rolled into Brooklyn's Death by Audio recording studio and recorded an album's worth of material. Roya's self-titled debut album was released in June 2017 by the hip California indie label Burger Records. By the time the album was released, Roya had gone through more personnel changes; Kilgour left the group, Lyla Vander became the new drummer, and Tyler Love signed on to play rhythm guitar and keyboards. ~ Mark Deming