Broke Royals Move Up With “Higher” (premiere)

Broke Royals is based in Washington, D.C. and culls influences from gospel, folk, EDM, and more. The musical marriage of Colin Cross and Philip Basnight was initiated when the two met at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. What was supposed to be a handful of demos grew into a band. Starting in 2014 the collective began releasing EPs, singles, and remixes, culminating in a 2017 full-length.

The latest track, “Higher”, for which the group shot a Scott Hansen-directed video, carries Broke Royals to the highest mountain in Georgia (Brasstown Bald) and its base, where scenes from Marvel’s Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War were filmed. The visual impact and musical components are, in a word, dizzying.

“My aim with ‘Higher’ was to write from the perspective of my younger self, but I felt like being in a relationship would fix everything. It’s about big emotion, with nods to ’80s Bruce Springsteen. It was really fun to get literal with the idea of taking ourselves higher,” says vocalist Basnight.

Drummer Cross adds, “This was our second video with Scott and, again, we had a really great experience. Right from the start, he had a clear vision of how he wanted to shoot the video, with sweeping aerial shots highlighting Brasstown Bald.”