KBPS Interview - James King and the Regals

James King and the Regals are a four-piece band based in Camden and they’ve just released their new single ‘Kemosabe Shore’ which comes out on 25^th November. We spoke to lead singer James King about his new single, hopes for the future and taxidermy ducklings. Yes, really.

So how would you describe the single?

It’s melodic and rocky. It’s one of those things that’s more meaningful than just a beat and some music. The whole reason it’s called ‘Kemosabe Shore’ is because the word comes from the Lone Ranger. In the Lone Ranger ‘Kemosabe’ means anything that Tonto wants. The whole point is that it describes this thing that has so many different meanings as your emotions change to it.

Are you a Lone Ranger fan or just liked the word?

I am actually quite a fan. I first watched it when I was quite drunk, when I’d come over and wasn’t sure what to watch. I just put it on after thinking it was a good idea.

Do you have any video plans for the song, Lone Ranger or otherwise?

I think the song deserves quite a high quality video so I don’t want to create a video until I have the funds to make it something epic. At the moment we’re holding off until that does happen, but if it was to be anything, it would be World War 2 themed, like Normandy beaches.

The whole song compares current everyday growing up and the struggles [everyone has] and most of them do seem uphill and never ending. And also the fact that you look back at it and you see pride in it, whereas during it you’d wish it would just end.

Your biography online said you are from Yorkshire but now live in London. As a fellow Yorkshireman, what made you leave England’s best county?

For musicians in general, I think London has a lot more to offer, and Yorkshire has more of a slower pace. I always get labelled as undiagnosed ADHD as I constantly want to do things all the time, so I couldn’t hack the slower pace. I had to move somewhere that doesn’t sleep. But I do like Yorkshire as you can retreat back to it after a hard year of working, and just relax for a few days!

Further to your release of the single, what are your release plans after that?

We’re going to work on a second single and once we kind of gain a bit more notoriety – so to speak – we’re going to work on the album. At the moment it’s not really on the books. We want to concentrate on live as it’s what we love doing.

How does your live sound compare to your studio recordings?

The studio recordings were done really well by Pete Dowsett. He layered so much. If you listen to the track with headphones, which I recommend everyone does, you can get a real feel for all the layers in there, but when we’re live there’s only four of us so you can’t really do as much. You can if you use a backing track but we don’t want to do that; we want to give the live feel to it; something that’s not too polished and focussed on the stage presence.

Have you got any live dates planned?

We don’t at the moment; we’re focussing on the single release. Once that’s all on its merry way we’re going to think about booking a few dates. It’s mostly going to be London but I really want to book a tour in for next year, so I will be coming back to my lovely county of Yorkshire for a couple of dates, but that will be later.

With your band name, are you bringing back the classic style of naming as used by artists like Bill Haley and the Comets?

The whole reason it came about was because I made music as a solo acoustic artist and I fell out of love with it, as it’s a very hard industry, especially when you’re just one man and a guitar. There are lots of stereotypes at the moment. If a guy is stood up on the stage with a guitar he’s normally called Ed Sheeran or Ben Howard, so there’s no room for any individuality, so I feel like a lot of people get lumbered with that name and so start writing in exactly the same way. My whole idea was how to beat that, and it was to bring a little of what I loved when I was fifteen and in an indie band. I absolutely loved it; there’s nothing better than sharing stage time with other people. I’m not a massive fan of the limelight – I like to share it. It’s just a little bit more fun, and the writing process is much more creative. You can sit in a room at any time of day and work off each other’s ideas.

The name came about as my acoustic act was called James King and we thought about adding something to it [like] you have names like ‘Catfish and the Bottlemen’ coming about.

How can we buy your music?

You can be it on iTunes or Amazon so if you’re drunk at three o’clock in the morning and you’re making a silly purchase of maybe like a taxidermy duckling, you can also add our song ‘Kemosabe Shore’ to it to make it a little bit more worth it! You can also find us on Spotify, and the great thing about the song name is no one else is going to have a song called it!

Finally, what are your big ambitions for 2017?

I want to create a good music video [and] something that’s not been done before, not just where I’m mouthing words to a camera, something with a real interesting top-line and imagery. I also want to keep writing good songs and slowly improve. I feel like we’ve not yet truly defined our sound, which is a good thing; we want to sell a story to the fans and public! I want to get better and better and not sit on my laurels!

For more information on James King and the Regals, find them on Facebook.