The King Blues - Interview
With our country in the worst financial state it’s been in since the great depression; protests, riots and occupations happening left, right and centre, it’s often a bit mind boggling to turn on the radio and hear Cher Lloyd inform us about her swagger, or JLS trying to make us wanna ‘oh oh oh oh oh oh’ (I didn’t even have to google that, sigh). Where’s the grit? Where’s the music that reflects what’s going on now? Enter The King Blues.
A band whose social conscience refreshingly shines through their music, their clear, uncensored views underpinning everything they do. Fusing punk, ska, reggae and even doo-wop, The King Blues have a distinct sound that seems modern and fresh, their live shows adding extra impact of attitude that can’t be captured on record. It is this passion and clear focus on getting their views heard that drives the band and is ultimately their appeal.
Before playing Glasgow’s Arches this bonfire night, Student Punch had the pleasure of chatting with Jamie Jazz and Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox from the band about the difficulties they faced in getting to where they are now, the state of the UK and what music means to them.
SP: Can you tell me the story behind the band’s formation?
Jamie Jazz: We started maybe 7 years ago I think it is, I’m not too good with dates but I think 7 years is probably about right. Itch knocked on my door and said “I have an idea for a band, I wanna start an acoustic-ska-hip-hop band” - and I thought he was crazy. But, you know, he started doing a few shows by himself and I saw it and I thought well, actually he’s not crazy, it’s great. So we started doing that and we came from the kind of hardcore punk rock scene and the squat scene and they’re the sort of bands we wanted to play with but of course, we didn’t have enough money to make a demo and back then there wasn’t really an acoustic scene, there wasn’t singer song writers playing acoustic rock music like there is now so nobody would give us a show. So through contacts we’d made through the squatting scene, we thought we’d find an abandoned building and open it up, hook up the electrics, move in a PA system, and just throw parties. People would come to them and we’d play and it kind of got that it wasn’t a sort of sit down, boring acoustic thing, and we kind of took it from there and took it forward.
SP: The politics of the band come through strongly in the songs, do you think that’s helped or hindered you in terms of success?
Itch: I dunno, I’d imagine that was perhaps an attraction for the vast majority of people who listen to us, but in terms of success, massive hindrance! You know, when you get Radio 1 saying they can’t play you unless you change your lyrics or whatever and it’s like of course we’re not gonna change it! Being black listed from an incredible amount of media, of course it’s a hindrance, but you know, we’re not here for 15 minutes of fame. We’re not here to be little pop stars or little puppets to anybody; I don’t think we could look ourselves in the mirror if we were doing that. We’re here to leave a legacy and do something of worth, something we can be proud of. You get hard times I think when you’re in a band like us, and you’re on the road for you now, 90 years or something without stopping! You get those hard times and you start to question it, but I think if we were just another band singing songs for the sake of singing songs, I don’t think we could really carry on. I think we’re all the type of people who need a reason to do something, you know?
SP: If you could boil down your message into one ultimate sentence, what would it be?
Itch: (whistles) I dunno man. I suppose it’s pretty simple really, I just think you should live with love in your heart and the rest will follow.
SP: What were your thoughts on the UK riots this summer and how the government handled it?
Itch: I thought the way the government handled it was absolutely horrific. The fact that the police killed someone and then covered it up and lied about his character, and certainly not for the first time, it’s horrendous, you know? There was a peaceful protest upon the police station which happened by the family of this person and the community. The police refused any dialogue with them, continued to lie about the man’s character, and then you can go on YouTube and you can see footage of the police beating up a 16 year old girl there. And that’s what initially kicked it off. Now, had that initial riot not kicked off in the first place in Tottenham, I very much doubt we’d be talking about it, it wouldn’t even be covered in the press because before it kicked off there were no photographers there at that initial peaceful protest. No one was covering it. No one was letting these people’s voices be heard, and that’s a serious problem. So what happened on the following nights, ok, we can’t condone everything that happened, because some terrible things happened and terrible things happen in cities every day, man. But I think in answer to your question of how the government handled it, we’re talking about David Cameron, this is a guy who has a £30 million fortune coming to him, he’s not from these areas. He’s not from where the poor people are from, he doesn’t understand what the poor people are going through. All they’ve done is ostracise people further and further, this idea of collective punishment, kicking people out of their house, taking away their benefits, man if you make people homeless and you make people more desperate, it’s gonna happen again. I think the fact remains that, like I say, people have been ostracised further rather than having their voices listened to, which was kind of the problem in the first place. We’re getting to a point where I honestly believe that if the people’s voices aren’t heard then it will happen again.
SP: Can you tell us a bit about your latest album ‘Punk and Poetry’? How does it differ from the others?
Itch: With ‘Punk and Poetry’ we went in initially and we’d kind of done 2 protest records and we wanted to write an album that was a bit more personal and a bit more about life and death, the kind of deeper issues, I guess. But when this government came in we were like, 90% done in the studio (and 90% done for us is like, a lot of work man!) And we decided to scrap what we had. Not because we didn’t love the songs, we loved the songs, but we thought, we need to put out something vital, something now, and we need to kind of do what we do and realise why the band exists. I think it reunited us with that passion in us to stand up and have our voices heard. So at that point we rewrote the record and we did it pretty quickly. I think there was a nice, raw energy feel about it.
SP: What does ‘poetry’ mean to you?
Itch: I dunno man, it’s a word I hate! I hate the word even though I use it, I hate it because I think it conjures up images of like, boring English lessons and people who died 500 years ago or whatever. For me, I’m talking about poetry on a much more street level, talking about it being just people talking to each other, the great art and tradition of people being able to talk to each other. That’s a nice thing for us and I think that’s kind of as far as it goes. We don’t consider ourselves poets, we don’t consider ourselves to be the most learned people of English Language. Learned? I’ve never even used that…
Jamie Jazz: That’s why you’re a poet! Poet’s can make up words.
Itch: Yeah! I mean what we do is just have our own voices and opinions and say it in a way that kind of gets through to people, and I guess that’s what we mean by poetry.
SP: What bands influence you? Do you find you’re more influenced by music or society?
Itch: Erm, I mean music obviously influences us but there’s 6 of us in the band and we all like very different things and we all listen to very different things. We’ve got a very eclectic taste! I think the bands that we agree on are bands like Public Enemy, Asian Dub Foundation, The Clash, The Specials, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, where it was much more about how the bands presented themselves and what the bands meant rather than necessarily the genre of music. It was about what the bands stood for and the fact that the bands weren’t just all about selling T-Shirts and putting money into some record company’s pocket, or making some song that’s gonna go on X Factor and numb the minds off a nation, these are bands that actually meant something. We wanted to be that. We had that passion and drive to kind of want to be a little bit different, despite what was going on around us and despite the music scene in general, we always wanted to do our own thing and have our own voice. We never wanted to follow anyone else and I think those bands, those kind of rebel music bands, are the ones that we associate ourselves with.
SP: As a collective, what do you reckon the band’s top 5 records of all time would be?
Itch: Oh my God. That’s the hardest question ever!
Jamie Jazz: Barbara Streisand – Greatest Hits.
Itch: I dunno, man. It’s tough, you know. To listen to an album start to finish, I’m not sure I’ve ever done that! I can’t think. I can’t think of a time, because there’s a time and a place for music and sometimes if you’ve got a hangover, you might not wanna listen to Public Enemy! You might want something else. And other times if you’re piping up, well, you might want something different. There’s always a fight.
Jamie Jazz: I dunno, like, I think it’s definitely impossible.
Itch: Ah no, we’ve let you down, man! We’ve ruined the interview!
SP: How’s the reception been so far with the new material?
Itch: It’s been cool, man! We’ll be doing a couple of new tracks tonight and we’ve been doing them throughout the tour, ones that we’ve never done before and, it’s been cool. I think we’re doing one tonight that we’ve never done at all actually. It’s been really good. The kids have been going off, it’s been going crazy! It’s a really nice feeling when they’re singing the last chorus back to you, you know. The reaction’s been great.
The King Blues’ next single ‘The Future’s Not What it Used to Be (Silicox & Eyes Remix)’ will be released on 20th November and is available to listen at www.kingblues.com/
Sophie McGraw
