Before there was a Working Royals sound, there was a stack of records that built it. Cover Up, the band’s new twelve-song covers album out July 10th, is the receipt.
Fresh off Cross Country, their 2025 sophomore effort that gave the world “Jenny” (now past 595,000 streams on Spotify), Working Royals could have gone straight back into writing mode. Instead, Zach Kellum, Ben Finkleman, and Paul Meehan decided to look backward first.
The Twelve
Narrowing a lifetime of influences down to twelve songs took weeks of arguing, rediscovering, and reminiscing. What came out the other side is a track list any classic rock fan will recognize: Joe Jackson, Duran Duran, Heart, April Wine, Level 42, Payolas, Supertramp, Steve Miller Band, The Alan Parsons Project, Philip Bailey & Phil Collins, John Waite, and Genesis.
This is a map of how three musicians became Working Royals in the first place!
Refresh, Not Reinvent
The band’s approach was simple. Keep the melodies and the songwriting intact. Let their own vocal harmonies and chemistry do the rest. There was room to play too. “Easy Lover,” originally a duet between Philip Bailey and Phil Collins, gets pulled into a half-time dub-reggae groove on Cover Up, a left turn that still keeps the original’s energy intact.
The Heart of the Record
If one track sums up why this album exists, it’s Supertramp‘s “Take the Long Way Home.” Working Royals stripped it down before rebuilding it through their own musical instincts, landing on the reminder that drove the whole project: the best studio moments aren’t planned. They just happen.
Listen Now
Cover Up is out July 10th. Listen here
Check out the video for “Jenny” below, and find more from the band at workingroyals.ca and on Instagram @working_royals.
Writer: Randal Wark is a Tech entrepreneur, Managing Partner of MTech Cyber with a focus on cybersecurity along with a passion for live music. You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. His Podcast RockStar Today helps musicians quit their day jobs with out-of-the-box advice from Ted Talk Speakers, Best Selling Authors and other interesting Entrepreneurs and Creatives. He created the Rock Star Today Music Business Jam Session for musicians. Randal is a collector of signed vinyl, cassettes and CDs.
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