Interview: The King Blues
- Feb 09, 2009
Punk/reggae band The King Blues have embarked on their Big Issue tour of England. Abandoning traditional tickets, fans can only gain entrance if they have a current copy of the bi-weekly magazine - The Big Issue. I caught up with Itch, Jamie and Fruitbag before their first gig on the tour at Fire in Vauxhall, London.
Andy: Do you want to introduce yourselves then?
Itch: I'm Itch, I sing and play Ukulele.
Jamie: I'm Jamie, I play Guitar.
Fruitbag: I'm Fruitbag and I play guitar and do a bit of singing.
A: So the Big Issue tour, is this sort of your repayment to the Big Issue for helping you out when you were on the streets?
I: Yeah, well I wouldn't call it a repayment as such, but yeah - I used to sell the Big Issue and it kinda helped me out a lot but at the same time it's more just a case of wanting to do something positive and we thought if we do it this way and have people use the Big Issue as a ticket, rather than having to buy a ticket, then it's money going directly into the vendor's pockets rather than on admin and stuff like that which is obviously important... and a lot of kids have kinda said that they'd pay the full ticket price and stuff and let them keep the change so it's cool and it's nice that it's worked.
A: So the big issue, obviously you're a political band that's at the forefront of music at the moment, what would you say the biggest issue we face at the moment is?
I:Â I think you can't really single issues out because they're very much interlinked and so it's hard to say. I would say as a country we really need to start pulling our finger out and take a lead from what's going on elsewhere. If Obama's promising to shut down Guantanamo within a year we need to make these same kind of commitments. We need to say there were laws that were brought in when we were apparently under a terrorist threat that now need to be repealed and at the same time America and England need to realise they're funding and sending weapons to Israel that are being used in Gaza against Palestinian people and we need to understand that that's our war, that isn't an Israel or Gaza war that's our war that we're a part of. I personally think those are the biggest issues we're facing at the moment.
A: At the moment you've had a lot of airplay on Radio 1, you're on the front cover of Kerrang, and I also heard you guys playing in Topshop the other day, how do you feel about this?
I: Well I don't think any band ever makes music and doesn't want people to hear it but you know since day one we've always said we wanted to be the biggest band in the world and it's brilliant that we can have a medium to say what we wanna say and, just beyond the kinda politics and everything, every band wants to be as successful as possible and to have as many people come to their gigs as possible.
A: You've got a new single coming out â“ Save the World, Get the Girl â“ I heard somewhere that it might be a reference to the TV show Heroes, is that true?
I: No, no not at all, I've never even seen that show. It's more about the kind of common man becoming more than is expected of him and also there's a lot of social commentary in there and stuff as well. That's kinda what it's about.
A: Who would you say your biggest influences are on the latest single and album? Who were you listening to at the time?
J: The whole influence question is quite hard because musically speaking we draw influences from so many different things and there's not really one particular artist or band that we all agree on. Musically we have very diverse tastes but in terms of spirit and consciousness, people like Immortal Technique, Asian Dub Foundation, Rage Against The Machine, The Clash and we take more in their spirit and their line of what they were saying and what they were doing and that's where we draw our influences from more importantly.
A: You say Rage Against The Machine and I've heard quite a few people drawing comparisons between you two and obviously there are a lot of videos on YouTube of you guys like 'Punch A Politician'. Would you say there should be more bands around today standing up for what they believe in?
I: Absolutely, we're a war generation and we're going into the middle of a recession and there are things that are going on everywhere and it's not that the kids don't wanna hear about it. That's a common misconception that kids are apathetic cos' it was this generation that staged the largest anti-war demonstrations that we've ever seen. There's an audience there for it, people wanna hear it, people need it cos' its real and it's a part of peoples lives now, politics has switched over to personal lives in England, it's affecting people now, rather than just affecting people overseas or whatever. The working class is growing, people are getting poorer and people are getting more angry and there's definitely a place for it. I'm not saying that every band needs to be political - I think there's room for pop music that's just about nothing and just makes people feel good - I think that's perfectly acceptable and perfectly fine, but I think there's definitely room for people who've got something to say.
A: So do you have anything else planned for this year? You had the Camden Boat gig and the demonstrations that you were a part of, have you got any more of that in line for this year?
I: We're gonna go down on May the 4th to the next Smash EDO... there's a few things going, a few festivals happening in the summer and stuff...
J: Musically, we'll be on Give It A Name this year, which will be quite a new crowd for us... I think it will be really good for us cos' it's a completely different audience to play to and there are a few other bits and pieces coming up. At the moment we're focussing in on the single campaign for Save the World, Get the Girl which is coming out February 16th and we're focussing on this Big Issue tour and getting back out on the road again.
A review of the gig at Fire in Vauxhall will follow shortly...
myspace.com/thekingblues
