Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Felix Byler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Felix, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was 14 years old, I took a gap year from high school and joined my first rock band. It fell apart by the time I was 15 due to creative differences and petty dislike of each other (teenagers, amirite), and I was left with two shows booked and no bandmates. This took place at a recording studio that hosted a music program for teens (in Roanoke, VA, called the Music Lab at the Jefferson Center), so thankfully fellow young musicians were abundant in my life and I was able to find new bandmates fairly quickly.

Among those new bandmates was current bassist and occasional drummer of Her Majesty, Sam Slate. He was teaching himself how to play bass in a practice room at the lab when I walked in and asked him if he wanted to jam with me. He was actually a drummer at this point (a very good one, in fact) but I’d already found a drummer, so he played bass. He learned so quickly it was actually crazy, and his passion for being a musician gave me the go ahead I needed to get really serious about it.

It became clear pretty quickly that the drummer we were with had other priorities and she eventually left the band. Sam and I weren’t deterred from continuing our rock band – that’s ultimately how we knew we wanted to do music for real. We held auditions and asked around and eventually we found current drummer and occasional bassist of Her Majesty, Zora Dulaney. We meshed as a band immediately, Zora and I taking the helm as songwriters and Sam diving into management and production, and we haven’t lost momentum since. Through a global pandemic, living hours apart for college, and the general turbulence of life, we’ve continued to make progress and move forward toward our goal of touring the country spreading the love for heavy music.

Felix, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Her Majesty is a hard rock band from southwest Virginia, and we have a singular goal: to rock your socks the f*** off.

We consist of three members, drummer Zora Dulaney, bassist Sam Slate, and singer and guitarist Felix Byler. Our sound is heavy and full of texture, swirling with notes of grunge, metal, emo, and punk rock.

Five years ago, we were just three kids who wanted to rock, and now through perseverance and passion for our craft we’ve become an established name in our local SWVA scene with our reach extending to NC and NOVA as well. In August 2023 we released our third studio album, State of the Union, which is available to listen to on all streaming platforms. We’re especially proud of our song Bile, which we released as a single ahead of the album along with a music video.

What to expect at a Her Majesty show? Let me tell you. I’m Felix, and you’ll see and hear me playing guitar and singing. Most of the time you’ll have Zora playing the drums and Sam playing the bass, but we have been known to switch it up. Our sets are high energy and almost entirely original tunes, with plenty of variety for those that would like to take a break from the mosh pit. We are passionate about mosh pit safety, and as a queer fronted band we strive to create a safe space for all at our shows. We don’t shy away from topics of social justice in our songs, and if we spot anything fishy or uncool happening in the crowd we will not hesitate to call it out.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

At the very tail end of 2019, we had just come together as a group and were ready to dive in to the local music scene in our city of Roanoke, VA. We had a bunch of shows booked and our trajectory was looking great. Everyone was really excited about us, and we were excited about what we were doing. The first two months of 2020 were incredible. We played show after show and had so many opportunities lined up, even playing on local TV (video of this is available on our YouTube). At the end of February we finished recording our first studio album, Operator Error, with plans to release it sometime in spring or early summer. And then it all came to a grinding halt in March – I think we all know what I’m talking about.

We cancelled all of our shows and dutifully stayed home, practicing individually and grieving the forward momentum we’d lost. That didn’t mean we were just going to give up, though. Eventually we decided to start practicing outside on the back patio of Zora’s house. Every single week we would meet in the backyard and rock out for a couple hours. It didn’t feel as good as playing shows, but it filled the void. We finished post production on our first album during this time and released it in August of 2020, by which point we’d already written a whole second album’s worth of material. This was a huge period of artistic growth for us, and we wanted to get back in the studio to record the new album, We Love It Here, as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the studio at the music lab that we had used to record Operator Error was closed due to lockdown, so we had to find another way. By the end of 2020 we had decided to mask up and DIY the whole thing in Sam’s basement, this time outsourcing post production to producer Dominik Honold of Protonaut Studios in Germany.

At this point we were nearly a year into the pandemic, and it was time for Sam (2 years older than Zora and I, who were juniors in high school) to go in person to his university in NOVA. I remember thinking this was the end – how could we make a long distance band work? But Sam is one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met, and I had no reason to be worried. He would drive back home as regularly as he could to practice with us, and Zora and I would hang out weekly and write new material, sending it to him to learn for our next in person practice. This was our pattern for the rest of Zora and I’s time in high school, and when she eventually went off to college in fall 2022 and I stayed home in SWVA we once again adjusted to the change. Currently we consider the school year “off season”, with only a couple shows a month, and we go all out in the summer. We’ve all gotten real used to driving all over Virginia and North Carolina in the name of rock n’ roll, and we can’t wait to go on the road for real when the college educated among us graduate.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For Zora , it’s about getting to make something that people find meaning in, and hanging out with her best friends. Sam adds that playing live music is a really nice emotional release for him. I agree with them both wholeheartedly, and I’ll add that I love traveling and seeing new places, and playing shows while doing that is my ultimate dream in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hermajestyband.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hermajestyoffical?igsh=MTJ4dDV3ODd4eGZ1ZQ==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@hermajestyoffical?si=geBlNNVHLZ3XHIIg

Image Credits
James Lesage, Poetry Boucher, Kiara Scott, Asher Thomas