We Speak To The King Blues At Download Festival About Latest Album 'Punk & Poetry' (Interview)
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
Look at The King Blues and you’ll find a young, passionate group who are looking to evoke hope, change and acceptance through their music. Prior to their stellar debut at Download Festival, vocalist Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox took some time to chat about the core values of The King Blues alongside their latest album ‘Punk and Poetry’, which was released earlier this year.
“I’m excited to be here, man. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to Download or Donington and I’m buzzing, man. I’m really excited,” Itch begins. This isn’t their first UK trek of 2011. Earlier in the year the band travelled around on their biggest headlining tour for a while. “It was just before we put our record and we’d just finished it in the studio and you never really know how the stuff is going to go down,” he continues. “Then we went out and we found that some of the new stuff was going down better than some of our older stuff. It was incredible for us. It was the biggest tour we’ve ever done headlining and it was amazing. We hadn’t been out on the road for a very long time, actually, to do a proper full on tour so we didn’t know what to expect.”
“We got out there on the first night in Brighton and I just remember seeing like thousands of kids who were just up for it. They were so enthusiastic and it just reminded us all why we do this. We’d had a really tough year, it had been a struggle and going out on the road to find that level of enthusiasm from the kids was just awesome.”
“I think what I’m most proud of, live, with us is the amount of different kids we have coming to our shows,” he says when discussing The King Blues live experience. “We have hip-hop kids, punk-rock kids, rockers, old people, young people, students, black, white, brown kids, everyone. It’s like no one is cooler than anyone else. Band, fans, it’s like there’s a genuine feeling of unity and love in the room when we play. I guess that’s what I’m most proud of and that’s how I would describe our show.”
The King Blues are advocates of messages in music, so we turn to what their latest offering ‘Punk and Poetry’ has to offer. “ I think with every album that we do, we have a different message,” Itch begins. “With our first record, I think there was a feeling amongst us and the movement in general that if we could get enough kids out to the street, then we could stop a war. With our second album, when we got a million kids out on the street and we weren’t listened to, I think we went back to the plate a lot more cynical and ‘Save The World, Get The Girl’ is really a reflection of that.”
“Now, with ‘Punk and Poetry’, with this new government that we’ve got in, we’re trying to save people from it. Those people at the top aren’t looking out for you, so we feel it’s up to us to really start building our own communities and building our own futures in order for us to survive. I think that was the message we pushed forward in this record.”
“I think that once you finish an album and put it out into the world, it doesn’t belong to you anymore – it belongs to whoever listens to it,” he continues, discussing the fans’ reaction to the record. “The reaction we’ve had to it so far has been absolutely humbling and it’s been better than we could have ever imagined.”
Moving onto the core values the band’s music possesses, Itch begins, “I think there’s more to us than just writing protest music. It’s just a huge part of who we are as people: we consider ourselves to be activists first and musicians second. It’s natural and not really a conscious decision. It’s an integral part of who we are.”
“There’s a lot of bad things going on in the world and there’s good things going on in the world. I think – as a band – the reason that we exist is to give people a bit of hope,” continues Itch after a moment. “Sometimes it’s easy to feel like if you believe in peace and love and a better world; that the human race can achieve more than it is by working in different ways - sometimes it’s easy to feel like a bit of a weirdo if you think like that. Hopefully when people come to our gigs they’ll see that there’s thousands of other kids who think just like them and they’ll realise they’re not so weird after all. Hopefully there’s some 14 year old boy in some little town who’s told constantly that they’re shit and they’re not going to amount to anything and I hope that one day that they can hear our band and feel themselves that they can change the world. That’s kind of why we’re existing.”
“Ideally, I would love for people to be comfortable with themselves in general but I think but I think if they come to our shows there’s definitely an overwhelming feeling of love and unity.” As for his proudest achievements, the power to open people’s eyes to other views seems the key source of pride. “There’s a lot of cool things that we’ve done and it’s always nice to get the chance to play things like Download and Reading main stage. It’s lovely. I think we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to play some really weird gigs like outside the Houses of Parliament and having kids like ‘Man, my parents voted BNP and I’ve only ever had that one point of view and you guys have opened my eyes.’ There’s so many rewarding things like that when you’re in a band.”
As for a song that he’d recommend to someone who had never heard of his band? “I’d probably tell them to listen to ‘Set The World On Fire’ because I think that song kind of sums up what we’re about,” he explains. “It’s a little bit punky, a little bit hip-hop and it has that political bite. I guess it just defines what we’re about.”
Turning our attention from his band momentarily, we turn to the bands he personally enjoys. “I think the bands we look up to are the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy; rebel music bands. It’s not necessarily about the genre but more about what the band are saying. Those are the kind of bands that we look up to and respect.”
“It’s vital,” he states simply upon being asked if he feels music will always need those with a real message. “As musicians we get to travel and see the effects that things are having on the world and if the artists aren’t saying anything, then shit man, what the fuck does it mean? What is your art? At the end of the day, it’s vital that there are people out there saying things. I only know about what I know about through bands like The Clash, defining punk-rock, and that’s a vital tradition that we need to keep up because they aren’t going to do it for us, you know?”
“Music has a way of uniting people in a way that other art forms just don’t,” adds Itch. “Music can bring people together. I think that sometimes when you’re at a gig and you’re singing along with other people, you just realise there’s a genuine oneness and that’s a beautiful and empowering thing in itself.”
To those looking to create music and have a voice, here is his simple advice: “Do it for the right reasons. If you’re doing it for any reason other than wanting to play music and loving to play music then you’ll probably end up being disappointed. It’s a lot of hard work but I think you should just enjoy yourself and not worry about what other people are doing. Don’t compare yourself to other people. Don’t worry about what’s cool. Just do what you love and if you love something enough, hopefully it will happen.”
Finally, as for the band’s future he simply says, “I think for us, really, we just try to keep our heads down, work hard and keep going, and going, and going. As long as we’re doing that, I’m happy. I think we’ve always been of the mindset that music can bring people together and it’s beautiful to see that happening.”
The King Blues’ latest record ‘Punk and Poetry’ is available now.
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“I’m excited to be here, man. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to Download or Donington and I’m buzzing, man. I’m really excited,” Itch begins. This isn’t their first UK trek of 2011. Earlier in the year the band travelled around on their biggest headlining tour for a while. “It was just before we put our record and we’d just finished it in the studio and you never really know how the stuff is going to go down,” he continues. “Then we went out and we found that some of the new stuff was going down better than some of our older stuff. It was incredible for us. It was the biggest tour we’ve ever done headlining and it was amazing. We hadn’t been out on the road for a very long time, actually, to do a proper full on tour so we didn’t know what to expect.”
