KBPS Interview: The Saw Doctors

Leo Moran is a member of Irish folk-rock band The Saw Doctors who are returning to England this autumn as part of their tour including Leeds at the 02 Academy on 2^nd December. Famous for hits such as ‘I Useta Lover’ and ‘Hay Wrap’ we spoke to Moran ahead of their live date to talk about their live shows, upcoming music and more!

What can people expect from your live show?

We have a couple of new band members and a couple of new musical elements. We have a new bass player – Will Merrigan – and he’s a very good singer as well, and a new keyboard player – Kieran Duddy. This means that our bass player we had Anthony Thistlethwaite is able to go over and play all the things he’s able to play, like saxophone and the mandolin and the harmonica. So we have more singing and more instruments, so we’re very much enjoying our new toys, and being able to re-arrange old songs and come up with some new ideas!

That must help to bring the songs alive on stage?

It gives us a lot of options and it’s a lot of fun re-arranging things. It’s something we’re going to work more on. And we’re hoping to have a section of the show that is more acoustic as well. Will also plays the double bass. We haven’t got round to including that yet but we hope to during the tour.

How has touring been going?

We did a lovely little run up in Scotland with the Highlands and islands – that was gorgeous! The band is sounding great and we’re very much enjoying it. It’s work in progress, but it should always be work in progress really, as you always want to have something to improve on or work on.

You’ve had a bit of a hiatus over the last few years. Is it good to be back on the road?

Absolutely! It’s wonderful being back, making a racket! We have done a few smaller gigs. I did a few tours with Anthony Thistlethwaite, and also did one in America. We learned a lot from breaking down the songs and doing them in different ways. It really is nice to be back and making the big noise with all the elements we have to play with!

Do you have any plans for new studio material?

We’re hoping to record a few days next week. We’d hoped to have an album together before we started playing again but we just didn’t put enough work into it, so we’ve taken off the spring time to work on an album, so hopefully we’ll have an album by summer or autumn next year and everything that goes with that.

For people that are not as familiar with your music, how would you describe the Saw Doctors?

They are simple rock songs with an Irish accent!

Lyrically you like to keep them locally themed; is that important to you?

It’s important that our songs are distinctive. What we’ve learnt over the years is that the songs that people like, by us, are the songs that they don’t get from anybody else. There’s a certain recognisable thing about that. It’s hard to define what it is but when we hit on what it is it seems to connect with people and have a resonance, so we always hope to write a song that’s distinctively us. If people want to hear great songs about other things there are millions of bands out there that are better at it than we are, but we’re good at what we do!

You’re also hoping to go over to the states next year?

Yes, we’d love to go over and do some festivals. We’re just interested in getting in front of anyone we can. We’re very fortunate with the wonderful job and lifestyle that we have that we get to travel to lots of different places that would never have been on our map if we didn’t have the music to take us there. We’re very fortunate and we’ll go anywhere where they’ll have us!

What was it like performing in Scotland?

We’ve been going up to Scotland for a long time and feel comfortable up there. The hospitality we get, especially the further you go up to the more remote places, where there’s a serious appreciation of your journey and your efforts to get up there. You can sense that from the people. It’s also a very beautiful place and it was amazing to do our first gig back in Tobermoray, which is a complete picture-postcard place.

You have the accolade for the bestselling single ever in Ireland; it must be great to hold that?

It happened of its own accord. The song came out and it had a life of its own and it was what gave us the impetus and the trampoline to jump high. It made us known in places we never could have been known otherwise, and it gave us a platform to work from, and it’s what we’ve been doing ever since. It was number one for nine weeks in 1990 and in the end we had to delete it as we wanted to sell some albums, and we were afraid people would just buy the single and not the album!

You also had success covering a Sugababes track too, which is unusual. What attracted you to the song ‘About You Now’?

It’s a really good song and we have a slot in the last song we play where we insert some song for a bit of fun – usually just a verse and a chorus. One of the ones we did as an insert was out version of ‘About You Now’, and you could see in the audience that it caught on like wildfire, kind of a novelty idea, an unexpected thing. It’s a great song, written by Cathy Dennis, who’s a bit of a genius pop writer. When we went to learn it and play it you realise how well it is written; it’s a fantastic pop song. But we weren’t really surprised. The place where we insert the song is a great litmus test into how the reaction of a song is. Sometimes a song can surprise you one way or another; it could be more popular than you think or vice-versa. We’ve actually had two hits from that, as we also had a hit with ‘Downtown’. That came about the same way, but then we had to stop doing cover releases as it was becoming a bit of a pattern, and we didn’t want to be known as a band having cover hits all of the time. The next one that would have been a hit, I believe, would have been ‘Daydream Believer’. We inserted that when Davey Jones died, and again you could see the audience just loved it. We had to kind of pull out at that stage!

You’ve shared a lot of your set-lists on social media; it must be a great to have such a large back catalogue of songs to pick from?

We’re up to about fifteen now but we’ve got to learn a good few year, but we’ve got plenty to keep us going and we’re looking forward to learning the rest of them!

Are there any contemporary songs you’ll be slotting into your live set or will you be leaving that as a surprise?

We tried ‘All About The Bass’ but that didn’t seem to work quite in the same way but we’ll keep searching and trying and amusing ourselves. It’s always good to have one thing to learn in the set. Sometimes it might get down to two or three, but as long as you have the one thing to think about it keeps you on your toes, and keeps everything fresh!

Finally have you got any big ambitions for 2017?

We don’t really want big ambitions. It’s just whatever happens, happens. I’ll be happy if we can keep playing, and playing in places we’ve never been before. I just like making sure the show is as good as possible and I hope when people come to see us they say it’s the best they’ve ever seen. That’s our job!

Find out more about the Saw Doctors on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sawdoctors. Unfortunately the gig with the Saw Doctors has been delayed. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for updates.

Kathryn Williams and Anthony Kerr - Resonator

Coming in at ten tracks 'Resonator' is a samey, but relaxing release from Williams and Kerr that is the perfect gentle album to wile away the time with a drink of choice. Including a couple of interesting covers with 'Every Time We Say Goodbye' and 'The Very Thought Of You', the album never really lifts off gentle and sauntering, but if you want to chill out then you could do worse than this. (6/10)

Click here to find out more on Facebook.

The Computers - Live EP

Exeter band 'The Computers' have released a new 4-track EP which includes one studio single and three live tracks. The main number 'This Ain't Right', which comes in both flavours, is an incredibly catchy song with the right mix of punk and pop, with even more energy injected into it in the loud and brash live version. With vibes of 'Panic At the Disco' and the production of Mark Ronson, the call-and-response of the chorus is brilliant.

Returning to the live sound their original track 'Weighed Down' is bouncing live whilst their mash-up of the Clash's 'Train In Vain' and Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me' has to be heard to be believed.

A great little EP that both delivers a catchy, funky single and three well recorded and energetic live tracks! I look forward to their upcoming album 'Birth / Death'.

Find out more about the Computers on Facebook.

Cody ChesnuTT - I Stay Ready / Bullets in the Street and Blood

Soulful, Florida-based troubador Cody ChesnuTT (yes, those Ts are intentionally like that) releases a new single of two-sides. The second track is soulful, well produced and has a handful of cooks, but it's the first track that you'll want to spend your time with thanks to its simple, yet catchy, chorus, smooth vibe and Gregory Porter-vibe. Hear it below and find out more about him on Twitter.

Daniel Land - In Love With A Ghost

Daniel Land's latest EP after a three hiatus is released on November 25th on Bandcamp and elsewhere. Entitled 'In Love With A Ghost' the five track EP is a smooth, multi-layered delight with a strong production vibe and some well placed saxophone.

The highlight for me is the Bronski Beat sampling 'Holes on the Dancefloor' that gives their famous 'Smalltown Boy' riff an even more sombre vibe, complimenting the atmospheric, ambient and memorable chorus. Opener 'You & Me Against The Sky' is similar but a tad more upbeat, whilst the brilliantly titled 'Everyone's Got A Guy Garvey Story' rocks up the pace with a toe-tapping drum beat and a style that falls somewhere between Embrace and the Editors.

The EP wraps up with 'The Sweetest Lover' - a slower number but with a great, smooth vibe - and closer 'New York Boogie Woogie' which is the most overtly upbeat number on the piece, though still with Land's downplayed vocals.

If you want to chill-out to some well produced, atmospheric and haunting songs this autumn you can't go far wrong with this collection of gentle, aural adventures. (6.5/10)

Find out more about Daniel Land on his website.

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.

KBPS Interview - Luke Carey

Luke Carey is an acoustic singer-songwriter from North London who mixes up the sound of Ed Sheeran with elements cherry-picked from rap and RnB, all delivered with a firm tongue-in-cheek and witty style. We caught up with Luke ahead of a live set at the inaugural Sofar Sounds event in Bradford to chat to him about his music, touring and why he has to like Star Wars.

You have a new EP out on the 25^th November called ‘Stencils’. How would you describe it?

It’s a mish-mash of all the different things I’m listening to at the moment, which is very varied, from hip-hop to singer-songwriter stuff. It’s very lyrics driven and I love messing about with words and having lyrics with a meaning.

Was it fun to record?

Absolutely! It took ages. I wrote 40-odd songs for it and each time I went back into the studio I was like ‘I want that one in’ and then ‘No, I want that one in’. In the end it was a load of fun.

Do you think any of those other songs with surface on another release?

Yeah. I think the reason that two of them didn’t get on was just my mood on the day!

Would you say your sound has changed since your first EP release?

I think it’s changed. It has developed and grown. I think that’s the idea for me. With each EP I release will show some development, and improvement, and change and this one does differ in that way.

You’ve released EPs called ‘Sketches’ and ‘Stencils’. Is there an art theme going on?

I think it’s more the theme about when you do EPs; it’s not necessarily like the finished album sort of stage, so the idea of sketches are the rough sketches at the start of something and the stencils are more defined and a bit more towards the completed project. The theme is less arty and more of the stages of development.

You have a big presence on social media. At the end of September you posted how you were recording a video. How is that shaping up?

It’s not yet [been released]. We’re saving it for when the EP comes out. It’s still under wraps. It’s a very upbeat tune, so it’ll be one of those type of videos.

How is your tour going?

It’s absolutely amazing. I just did Manchester last night and am now in Bradford. I’m loving it!

It’s revealed on your website that you were named after Luke Skywalker…

Yeah, my brother named me. I was born on May 4^th. To be fair to him, he couldn’t miss up on that opportunity, with the whole ‘May the 4^th be with you’ stuff!

Are you a big Star Wars fan?

I kind of have to be by default. I do like them and I have watched them all but I’m not massively into it.

Finally, what are your ambitions for the next year?

I’d love to play at Glastonbury next year, even if it was just a small stage in the early morning, just to go. I’ve said to myself that I don’t really want to go unless I’m playing it. That would be amazing if I could get onto that!

For more information on Luke visit http://www.lukecareymusic.com/