Much has been made about the musical shift in Royal Blood's music on their upcoming Typhoons album, but there's another shift that happened within the band that made it more possible - Mike Kerr's sobriety.

The singer-bassist tells Guitar World that he feels the new record wouldn't have been possible if he hadn't gotten sober prior to recording.

He explains, “I went six or seven years being drunk every day – I’ve drunk more alcohol than most people will in their entire lives. Once I stopped, I realized that I had been missing out on a much better way of living. I don’t think it would have been possible to make the record I’ve made with the lifestyle that I was living."

Kerr adds, “I knew that every song on this record had to be a knockout, and I wanted to have full access to my playing – I had to be as sharp as possible in order to write the songs and deliver them correctly. And part of that was laying off the booze.”

So far, Royal Blood have seen positive early returns from their forthcoming release. The groove-laden lead single "Trouble's Coming" got things off on the right foot as one of 2020's top singles. That was followed in early 2021 by the Typhoons title track, their recent Bloxy Awards debut of "Limbo" while playing as avatars and the fuzzed out awesomeness of the live favorite "Boilermaker."

Look for Royal Blood's Typhoons album arriving April 30.

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