Hold On

Album: Typhoons (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • This supportive track finds Royal Blood frontman Mike Kerr giving a message of solidarity to a friend going through a really hard time. He told NME in a track by track video interview it was the first time he'd written a song for a struggling pal. "Like most of our songs, it started with the main riff, and I think it was the first time I've stumbled across a riff that felt really positive and really euphoric," he said.

    "I don't think we have anything else like that," Kerr added. "The message is about being there for someone and letting them know that they're not alone."
  • Actor Colin Hanks (Dexter, Fargo), son of Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks, directed the song's music video. Hanks also stars as Roy Boulders, a motivational speaker who uses the lyrics of "Hold On" for a seminar. All the audience is captivated, apart from two skeptics: Arctic Monkeys' drummer Matt Helders and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.
  • Hanks has dipped his toes into the waters of rock music before. He also directed the music documentaries Eagles Of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends) and All Things Must Pass: The Rise And Fall Of Tower Records.
  • The collaboration with Hanks came about after Kerr met the actor at a party and bonded with him. "He basically loves Brass Eye and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, which for an American is really rare," he told NME. "He really appreciates my English sense of humor. I put the idea for the video his way and he really developed it and took it to what you see now."

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