Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:44
"Even the English think we're English. It's funny, we played the Jonathan Ross show and he met us and he was like, I thought you guys were English... No, we're Floridians."
COUP DE MAIN: Obviously with your name there are connotations of race. If you could assign your own connotations what would they be?
BLACK KIDS - REGGIE YOUNGBLOOD: Probably just brilliance. I personally don't like to give any specific meaning to our monarch. It's just a name to us. But if asked to say what it means to me, a lot of it had to do with Owen, Kevin and I having discussions on pop music about how far back it goes. Thinking about innovators. Talking about young black people who were on the outside of what was mainstream and innovating stuff. Creating the underground. I realise that we're not necessarily underground but it's that spirit interest in the name. But, it's just a name.
CDM: Kate Nash covered your first single, 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You'. How did you come to strike up that friendship?
BLACK KIDS: It's quite easy actually. She needed a support band for a tour and her people contacted ours! We didn't meet her until the first show, I think it was in Ireland. She's really easy to be friends with. She's a very lovely, outgoing, spirited person. I was thrilled when I heard the cover. It was a really insane feeling because I'd just keep thinking of the logistics of how it got to Kate. Me sitting in a miserable call-centre, distracting myself from my work writing the lyrics. Taking a cigarette break and coming up with the melodies. Going into the rehearsal space and working it out with Black Kids and then recording it with our friend in his apartment studio. Then it being on the internet and going to her friend and guitar player. Then him showing it to her. Then them, covering it. Kate and him, covering it on French radio. Then it coming back to me. It's just like putting a message into a bottle and throwing it out to sea. Then the response from it, is amazing.
CDM: Likewise, Lily Allen top friend-ed Kate on Myspace. So it's like a full circle of spreading the love...
BLACK KIDS: She's good at that. She's good at spreading the love.
CDM: I noticed Ladyhawke in the Black Kids top friends on Myspace. Are you familiar with any other New Zealand bands?
BLACK KIDS: Cut Off Your Hands? We've toured with both those groups. It's funny that, because it didn't look like from the beginning that we were going to be friends with Cut Off Your Hands. Nick saw one of our first shows at New York CMJ in 2007, which was really one of the worst performances we've ever done. The sound in the venue, was pretty wretched too. So he left, with a pretty fair assumption that we were shit. His friend had been bigging us up and he saw us and was like, 'this is godawful, why would anyone be into this?' He quite honestly told someone in the press that and they tried to make it into this big thing like, Cut Off Your Hands hates Black Kids... But we both know Bernard (Butler) and became friends through Bernard and they ended up supporting us on a tour. So now, we're fast friends.
CDM: I'm still half-expecting you to break out into an English accent...
BLACK KIDS: Oh! Even the English think we're English. It's funny, we played the Jonathan Ross show and he met us and he was like, I thought you guys were English... No, we're Floridians.
CDM: How does it feel to be in New Zealand, for the first time?
BLACK KIDS: It's wonderful. I've really been looking forward to it. I've heard for a couple years now that New Zealand is just beautiful and it's been living up to it's reputation.
CDM: What bands will you be watching while on the Big Day Out tour?
BLACK KIDS: Most definitely Neil Young. Owen and I in particular have spent a good amount of time with his albums. Cut Copy as well who are our friends.
CDM: Is a Black Kids live show a replication of your album Partie Traumatic, or more about the upping the live entertainment aspects of a show?
BLACK KIDS: We don't stray too far from the album but there is a definite change of vibe. I'd say it's more of a cacophony. It's more shambolic when we play live. It's more about the moment, which live performances are supposed to be. It's a lot more about spontaneity. For the most part, we know what's going to happen... it seems like each performance, one of us takes turns being the wildcard like 'oh man I didn't know he was going to do that'. And so we've got a change-ism slightly.
CDM: So it's about surprising each other, as well as the crowd?
BLACK KIDS: Yeah. If one of us is grinning like a fool it's probably because of something that someone else in the band has done.
CDM: Do you like to add covers to your setlist?
BLACK KIDS: Actually, we do. We are fond of covers. Probably for about six months now we've been playing a Magnetic Fields cover called 'Strange Powers'. So that'll probably pop it's head every now and then. I think we may be playing a Johnathan Richman cover as well.
CDM: Was there any fighting over who got to wear which set of ears or horn(s) on your album cover?
BLACK KIDS: Actually, that didn't cause as much in-fighting as you would think. I think everyone was pretty happy. Dawn was going to initially get the Unicorn but she didn't care for it. But Ali was willing to trade. I definitely, from the outset wanted the bunny.
CDM: What does that say about you?
BLACK KIDS: I want to breed? *laughs*
BLACK KIDS: I have seen them with keytars. *laughs* But they didn't get past the rehearsal space.
CDM: Your all young, what have you learnt about the music industry as your band has progressed?
BLACK KIDS: 2008, was really like we were in school. We didn't know what to expect being in the industry. It was all new to us. So we've learnt what we can expect others to do and what's expected of us, which is really important. Even if you have this company of people working for you, there's really still a lot of room to do it yourself. It's probably most advised that you do it yourself. Even if you are on Columbia, or whatever.
CDM: Do you think that once bands are signed complacency sets in?
BLACK KIDS: Some bands. But I think some bands still care a great deal about how things look. Even though our fingerprints are all over everything that was released last year, I think we would have loved to have been even more involved but our schedule is just so gruelling...
CDM: ... it's hard to find the time?
BLACK KIDS: Yeah, it was nearly impossible to get what input we did. But to be fair, the labels that we were working with were all about our input. So can't really complain too much.
CDM: What was it like working with Bernard Butler (former guitarist of Suede) on the album?
BLACK KIDS: It was a dream. It was heavenly. He's just a really lovely person. Recording our album as quick as we had to do it with all the constraints, that's probably my favourite part of last year.
CDM: Were you under a lot of pressure during the recording process?
BLACK KIDS: Somewhat. It wasn't necessarily negative pressure. It was a bit annoying in that we had seventeen days to record it but we'd be in the studio for four days straight and then we'd have to do some sort of television that we really couldn't say no to. It seems like 2008 was mostly about being tossed into the deep end...
CDM: ... meeting the UK press...
BLACK KIDS: It was like, you really can't say no to this. You could, but it's really in your best interests to do it!
CDM: It obviously paid off with Partie Traumatic debuting at number five on the UK album charts!
BLACK KIDS: Yeah, it did pay off. So we can't really be angry at anyone who made us work. *laughs*
CDM: Personally, does it feel really good to be a black American with Barack Obama's inauguration only days away?
BLACK KIDS: Absolutely. I've had some negative experiences growing up in the South but it was never nearly as bad as my father's generation. We're experiencing something we never thought we'd see. Which is quite nice.
CDM: Do you have any amusing tour anecdotes?
BLACK KIDS: Yeah, but it's not appropriate in mixed company. Most of the amusing anecdotes, have to do with our road crew. They're the actual rock and roll band. I'm a bit of an old man. I get fussy after a certain amount of time and want to go to sleep and read my book.
CDM: What books have you been reading lately?
BLACK KIDS: I just finished this great Michael Chabon novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. That was really good. Before that, I read Philip K. Dick's Humpty Dumpty in Oakland. Now I'm reading that graphic novel, Watchmen.
CDM: Watchmen, is amazing.
BLACK KIDS: I'm halfway through it. It's really amazing. I haven't read a graphic novel since I was in Middle School, so since I was thirteen.
CDM: It can be hard to get into but definitely worth it.
BLACK KIDS: There's quite a bit of actual text, which I wasn't expecting.
CDM: It's intense how Tales of the Black Freighter is fitted in alongside the main storyline.
BLACK KIDS: It's quite a deep thing, for a graphic novel.
CDM: Excited for the movie?
BLACK KIDS: Yeah, the previews look amazing.
CDM: Future plans for Black Kids?
BLACK KIDS: Keep our head above water. Really, just survive. We really want our second album to surpass our first and our third to surpass our second and so forth and so forth. Just to keep learning.
CDM: Can we ever hope to see you return to New Zealand?
BLACK KIDS: If you guys would have us, we would love that.
BLACK KIDS 'Partie Traumatic' is in-stores now!