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65. King Prawn (w/ Sonic Boom Six)
78 Plays3 hours ago
Checkered Past is crossing the pond once again to get in touch with our Wildstyle! Rob, Celine and Joey welcome Barney Boom of the one and only Sonic Boom Six to dissect King Prawn! First, Barney discusses his checkered past, the origin of the band and the uniqueness of the London Ska scene. Then, the foursome dig in on King Prawn from their anarcho-punk origins to their ska'd-up breakthrough to their only kind of accessible pre-hiatus record all the while discussing what makes their genre-bending approach so distinctly British.
Hosts: Celine, Rob and Joey
Engineer: Joey
Editor: Cutman
Skassociate Producer: Chris Reeves of Ska Punk International
Merch: www.checkeredpast.ca/merch
Patreon: www.patreon.com/checkeredpast
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Checkered Past' and King Prawn
00:00:00
Speaker
On this episode, we're fried in Canada. For our next off defense, we surrender to the blender of genres that defines London's thirstiest band, King Prawn, on checkered past, the Skycast.
00:00:32
Speaker
What up checkerheads welcome to checkered past the scot cast of slim and rob the show we're a cherry shrimp and daddy and a yeah and a Rudy can't whole tail scampi explore the history and impact of a different band each episode. Hope to bring a new fans along the way. I'm Rob and this is my sister. I do like a cherry shrimp and daddy. I felt really good about that one. What's the second one? Like you're doing a shrimp scampi thing. Yeah. Rudy can't whole tail scampi. That's kind of funny. It was good.
00:01:02
Speaker
I was getting too broad before where it was just like getting too in the weeds and I feel like I'm tightening it again. It's making more sense. It's making more sense. And this is my co-host with the most toast engineer, Joey. Hi. How did you feel about it? The pun was very good, but I may not have the most toast.
00:01:20
Speaker
after listening to this band. Oh yeah. That's a whole lot of toasting. That's true. that they there Against UK. Yeah, and they have possibly more toast than I do. Possibly more toast. And the beans on them. That's true.
00:01:35
Speaker
but We're absolutely thrilled to
Meet Barney Boom from Sonic Boom Six
00:01:38
Speaker
introduce our guest. He's a vocalist and songwriter for Manchester Scott fusion band sonic boom six whose new single institutionalized suicidal cover is available everywhere now. Barney boom is here. Hey, Barney. Hello, shout out shout out to the Patreon subscribers the VIPs the VIP. check like give them a big up Right now, because I admire your uh dedication to the scar checker past lifestyle hell yeah it is a lifestyle i have said that before uh do you fuck with shrimp me yeah yeah i eat any anything except for peanuts i'm allergic to peanuts oh shrimps shrimps is bugs yeah no i even eat peanuts but i'm allergic to them so i get ill when i eat them but
00:02:20
Speaker
I don't like the bean food out there that I've never eaten or don't like. So I'm very, very open minded when it comes to food and life in general, really. I like it. I like it. It's a good rule to live by. I had a late, late in life allergy to clams that snuck up on me last year. So I'm trying to navigate that in my life. Violently snuck up on you. Not just clams. Yeah. I'm nowhere near where clams would be. We're very landlocked.
00:02:48
Speaker
Um, but, uh, yeah, that's my life. What's the family that like muscles and buy valve allergy. Yeah, that's fun. It's fun. for Shrimps is bugs. I don't, I don't really fuck with shrimp. and It's due to bug, like sea bugs, sea bugs, sea bugs, man. they way buggs When we run out of me which is probably gonna happen specially the way america's going within maybe like twenty five years when project twenty twenty five kicks off five five years time only billionaires who are gonna be out with me to get used to insects.
00:03:24
Speaker
be in him She might as well start with the prawns and then the cockroaches. Work your way from the sea bugs to the land bugs. yeah I'll just die. I choose death. That's also fair. and Death before bugs. Don't try to Timon and Pumba me right now. Trying to get Speedy to bug.
Barney's Ska Music Journey
00:03:49
Speaker
All right, we're going to start with our first question we always ask our guests. What is your history with Ska music, your checkered past, if you will, Barney Boom? You know what my history with Ska is, right? Well, and ah i I'm not very good at cutting long story shorts, but I'm going to attempt to here. and When I got into music, it was like 1993, 1994.
00:04:13
Speaker
as just, it was just like when Nirvana released in utero, but it was Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana. I got very into Red Hot Chili Peppers over those next couple of years, and via Red Hot Chili Peppers, I got into bands like Fallonius Monster, and them just LA bands like Fear, but one of the bands I got very into was Fishbone. So when I first hi it started hearing Fishbone,
00:04:37
Speaker
I knew what two-tone was from when I was a kid. Madness. I knew what specials was. I knew you'd see things on telly like adverts when you'd be skanking and that. I knew what Scar was but I didn't really I understand why it fit in with the sort of punk music. So then got into Fishbone and that's when I started seeing the word Ska and Ska punk band and that. And then i seen a I got into like then just from Fishbone, just got into that
00:05:07
Speaker
seeing, like, and No Doubt, Sublime. So I got more into the American band and I'd seen how much No Doubt would go on about Madness, so then I got into Madness and Two Tone 2. It was through that, Fishbone was fish bones the first band where I didn't know Martin Parr was Scar, but as soon as I kind of, within six months of seeing No Doubt, seeing Sublime, I put that together and then I've seen it. So it was through Fishbone.
00:05:34
Speaker
Fish bone. Yeah, that's awesome. I love the red hot chili peppers fish bone pipeline. Yeah. That's, yeah. That's also how I got into fish bone. Yeah. That's interesting. Isn't it? Yeah. Cause that's not something cause people think are like red chili peppers, like these goofy stuff.
00:05:54
Speaker
I mean, that not not that like Blood Sugar Sex Magic isn't a great record in and of itself, but what the way they're around in the 80s, Beastie Boys, Suicide of Tenancies, they were playing in that LA punk scene and and and those bands and that's, you know, they're knee deep in that history and I was really into them and their early albums, you know what I mean? that They but really meant a lot to me and and even now, kind of,
00:06:19
Speaker
freaky style. Yeah, that's on it. That's like real soulful. So to me, listening to freaky style, listening to American goes, but it's got all on brass on it. To me, that was the same as fishbone. I didn't know that they didn't like do reggae and scar. It just always was the same thing. But then once I started going, Okay, the one that goes, who it Oh, that's And then I was like, okay, madness. Oh, that was scarred. You know what I mean? Because you always, when you're a little kid, you always heard, our house. Sorry, not our house, because that isn't really scarred. House of fun, baggy trousers, and one step beyond. Do you know what I mean? They were, when you're a kid in the UK in the 80s, naughty boys in nasty schools. You know what I mean? You just knew that tune. It wasn't like, that was kind of there. You didn't have to dig to find that. It was on telly.
00:07:10
Speaker
Yeah. i love I love that. We absolutely did not have that. No, we just had coffee commercials with our hosts. Specific to the UK for sure. Yeah. It's funny when we talk to English bands because like they always talk about that. like it's It was just in the culture in the 80s and 90s. Whereas you talk to like Canadian and Americans, it was either, I saw real big fish on the television or I played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Those are like the two through lines. right Yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, but Tony Hawk's Pro Skater turned me on to some bands though, yeah. Like Skatepunk stuff, yeah. Yeah. So, ah so then where do you go from Fishbone to like, when did you start getting into the UK bands?
Formation of Sonic Boom Six
00:07:50
Speaker
Wow, okay, so I probably would have been about 15, 16 getting into fishbone. But then like I said, it was like no doubt sublime mighty mighty boss tones. So and before I got, at the same time, I was very into hip hop, very into dance music, but at the same time I was getting into like hardcore punk, like minor threat and bad brains. that was right That was what I would listen to, that and hip hop like Nas and you know gang star and stuff like that once it was like 17 18 Wu Tang Clan and then that was when we started playing in a band and in the UK and we were in a band called Grimace and me and Layla and the funny thing about that that was almost red hot chili pepperish we would play scar tunes but then we would play like funky rock tunes it was very much a sort of fish bony type thing and then
00:08:44
Speaker
all these bands started to emerge in the UK and most noticeably was King Pawn, Sponge and Cat Down towards and then there was all these other little bands and and little other scenes bubbling under so we got did this band called Grimace and then we just started and as when we started this, Grimace like I said it was funky by the end of it we were in the Scarfunk scene so that was when we went ah this is decent working let's start a new band And we we split up Grimace for a bit, and then we started a new band, and that was Sonic Boom 6. And that was that was kind of like, you can see the influence of the scene coagulating and becoming something. is the Because Grimace, there was very, very few other bands. At the beginning of Grimace, we had to like seek out Sponge. And we got on gigs with him, and it was like, there was very, very, very few Ska Punk bands. And and and then a few years later, there was
The Late '90s UK Ska Punk Scene
00:09:39
Speaker
hundreds.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah. you know In order to get on a sponge bill, did you have to kick a pigeon? ah in the park and well you know what you know what we probably did them to them we barely had email do you know what i mean you'd write them you know what you mean you'd go see them somewhere weird and i just thought i i don't know i always had that like like when we met when i met josh from the skints he did what i did right i didn't even do you know what i mean i'm not the most like socially confident person but it was the same with king prawn
00:10:13
Speaker
I just went up and I went, hey, I'm Barney, i'm i I like you guys and I'm in a band and we're wicked and we'll put you on blah, blah, blah. I just went up and just, you know what I mean? It's the same sponge, we just did it, swapped phone numbers, got gigs with them and put them on. It was just what I remember saying to Josh from Skits one first time they ever played with us. I was outside on the phone and he'd come outside and he sat with me and he did what I used to do at the bands and it's like,
00:10:36
Speaker
yeah there we go that's that's just kind of just just kind of you've got to have that you've got to have that confidence you you've got to be like okay well i listen to you guys but we're good too you know what i mean so that's kind of how you started playing with other bands and then we put bands on like when we started in sonic beam six we were putting bands on and sometimes we didn't even play the gig Do you know what I mean? And then, because because as soon as we started something six, I had loads of gigs, what I was owed from, and that was Bani's new band. did it And because I'd let bands stay at my house, I'd help put on gigs, blah, blah, blah. I'd been part of it all. As soon as we started, it was dead easy because because of all the work at the time. Yeah, you'd already done the leg work. And you were supporting the scene. 100%. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So it's like, oh God, stick them on. They're a bit weird, but Bani's in it. But they're good people.
00:11:23
Speaker
and And because you're dealing with different cities, does that get played in a little bit? Because, like, King Prawn was in London and you're in Manchester, like, how does that play out? Yeah, I mean... the The Manchester scene was was a tricky one for us at the beginning because kind even this is to a certain extent, it's still the same now, but we always went down. Our best cities were always like Leeds, Bristol and London. Just was what it was. done I was just a group of kids that got more into it than everyone else. Don't get me wrong, we've had some great gigs in Manchester over the years. but yeah and we We were trying to create a little scene that that wasn't really there for that kind of scar punk band because in the north we had these bands like ah Proper Gumby's and Lubby Nugget and there's bands that were scar punk punk bands but there were more sort of from what we would call a DIY punk scene that Sponge didn't really fit into and neither did King Prawn. So we we didn't really either. So it was kind of a different a little bit of a different fan base. So we sort of had to start from scratch with that. But then in Manchester, um a girl called Em started uni and she started a club night called Bomber Beefer, which was named after a light year song. So then she made Inroads with other promoters and we had a really good scene in Manchester for a long time, yeah.
00:12:37
Speaker
that's I remember reading an interview with Cap Down and they were talking about the reason why for them that everyone started getting into Scott in the late 90s like after it it eclipsed in the US was just because all those bands were touring in the UK at the time. Was that like a big ah reason why Scott started at not as much in the mid 90s but then blew up in
Diverse Influences on Sonic Boom Six
00:12:59
Speaker
the late 90s? It certainly was for them, yeah. They're from Milton Keynes so they're Yeah, I mean, at that point, you would have had, like, save Ferris RX Bandits. and I can't think, like, who you cut down with a tour with, but the they did cut a tour with some big bands and it kind of spiraled and for for them up because they were so good. But yeah, I can see why ah can see like that would have been their perspective on it because, yeah, there was a lot of bands that kind of came up supporting those American bands that came over and were doing those tours. and
00:13:33
Speaker
A lot of them were with a booking agent called Hidden Talent Booking, so a lot of those bands and that label that kept down were on their household name. So yeah, that scene. I never really thought of it like that. at finner m I think that we've with with the UK, it took those few bands and Uh, like cut down sponge and King prawn to kind of, to kind of wake it up. There was enough there with them. I mean, I was time i saw cut down and we were against all authority. So I was like, but they were supporting them. So that would have been like 1999. Yeah. Yeah. It was, yeah, it was awesome. yeah was mind-b blowing Yeah. For sure. And so how has, so you would have seen all of it. So how's the scene changed in the last like 20 years or so in, in, in your neck of the woods?
00:14:21
Speaker
Well, it was it was a lot bigger and um yeah between like 1998 and it kept getting bigger until about 2003 and then it kind of hit this plateau and a lot of the band split up. but then you know, it's like, if the interruptors come over and play now, selling out Brixton Academy, it's like, there's still people that like that kind of music. As far as the scene in the UK, I mean, 10 years ago, we kind of, ah we didn't consciously distancing ourselves from it. But and it got to a bit of a water level where we were like, okay, we've got to try something different. And then over the last, that was probably when it was at it's an idea, to be honest. And then over the last 10 years, you've had, you know, like, and random hand have been really and instrumental in
00:15:15
Speaker
and incubating the UK scene around around them, and then there's all these bands like Risky and Iridium Cool, Popes of Chilly Town, Rose Shambo, there's a lot of new good UK scarf bands that are doing good, Millie Manders and The Shut-Up, and then you've got like, you know, Us and them in the early noughties, kind of after all those, and all the first wave of bands kind of came and went, Us and the King Blues got quite, you know, we we were doing all right, and for a while, and then, and then it does, it's kind of got really healthy now because it's found some consistency. You've got place not like too big where it's going to buzz. Yeah, it's kind of like it's found this nice level because you've got places like a
00:16:00
Speaker
Is it Kings? i not Not Cross, New Cross, New Crossing. So you've got the guys dead that done there, there's bands like Call Me Malcolm that have come out of that scene and they're doing stuff in America and they're top guys. and So it's really cool and healthy at the moment. You know, in some places... we found that we're the OG's and we're really well respected and then there's other places where the you know the just the the they don't they don't really consider us part of the punk scene as it were and I think that's because we did take a little foray out of our out of just being in the punk scene. and so you know its it's ah We find that when we go to America we get
00:16:41
Speaker
e There's as much kind of passion and love for us there as there is in the UK.
Unique Sound of Sonic Boom Six
00:16:46
Speaker
It's interesting. We'd love to come to Canada, but we never have. ah You have a place to stay. yeah ah So on we are told our Discord like that you were coming on the show and there's a lot of people asking about sort of the other influences that go into the band. So especially around like hip-hop and stuff. So like what what is what part of the crock pot? Like when you think about the whole of Sonic Boom 6, what are you drawing from? Well, I mean at the beginning,
00:17:18
Speaker
ah I mean, this part of being in a band, I think, part of actually being successful in a band is going... Everybody listens to all sorts of stuff, right? but Most people do. I mean, I do. I listen to all kinds of stuff and I know what I like and it's like... and But the specific hip-hop influences, I think about our our first album was probably, that was kind of cut from whole coffin. It was quite an original. yeah ah The stuff before it is kind of, you can hear us trying to put it together. And then in that first album, when we kind of put it together.
00:17:54
Speaker
so There's definitely influences just from Wu Tang Clan, just from that being just the mythology of it, the branding of it. And and there's stuff where you can hear it in in rhymes that I'm doing and samples from Shogun Assassin, taking samples from Kung Fu films and stuff like that. But the one that we really and was really a big influence on the band was the Fuji's.
00:18:18
Speaker
but particularly if you listen to like nappy had remixed or any anything like this a bit dobby on on the score or you know like who like fujila and so i mean where is on a day today i just listen to big l and naz and you can hear when you can hear if i'm rapping a lot of the time i'll use a big l rhyme scheme where i'll do a double rhyme at the end. So that is influential, but I don't really comment on music going, okay, this is going to sound like big L. So it's just that there is a hip hop's massive, but thing is, it's not just, I've never been one of those studently white guys that like that's like, oh, well, you know, it's all Jay Diller or Tribe Called Quest or Most Def. It needs to be like this cool kind of underground hip hop or, you know, or Def Jucks or anything like that. I love all that stuff. I mean, I'm encyclopedic about hip hop.
00:19:10
Speaker
or but But for me, hip-hop is Eve, Lil Kim, 50 Cent. You know, big stuff that works, that sounds great in clubs. Good. Like, you can't knock that. It's not it's not easy to to to drop her, let me blow your mind. That's perfect music. That works in clubs, and it works like me in the shopping center.
00:19:30
Speaker
but At that level of master that that masterful level of creating something that's at once poppy but also has kind of an underground cred and he's also a great song like that to me let me blow your mind is something that sonic beam six would listen to and just be like yeah i think that's why i like resonate with sonic boom 6 is like you're not afraid of the poppy and like where you're saying we're like maybe some of the punk scene is like disenfranchised by you but that's always like what i even personally struggle with the punk scene is like it's okay if it's poppy and listenable and melodic like there's also an art form to it it doesn't just have to be gritty and sometimes like unwelcoming to the general public like if it's more accessible that's not
00:20:14
Speaker
a negative thing but that that's my biggest criticism with the punk scene is in general is them snubbing especially here like in canada it's very much so like i think it's everywhere yeah yeah it seems like uk is a little more uh melting potty yeah music wise a little bit though Yeah it is and that kind of goes back to King Prawn which we'll discuss which is there's certain things that I bring to Sonic Room 6 from like UK hip-hop or whatever or even grime or he's in grime because it sounds so corny because there's a band to describe themselves as grime
00:20:51
Speaker
I'd never describe myself as an MC. What I would say is those things I bring to rock music, but they are uniquely British. So stuff like Massive Attack, but stuff like MC, like early sort of like Garage Dubplates, where the MC is doing a certain rhyme scheme. That is uniquely British. And if you, from a series, you go to different clubs,
00:21:14
Speaker
you you would hear, you know, if you go and see a drum and bass set, they will have MCs that have, you know, room time. They'll do stuff that they'll always do, but there'll be certain rhyme schemes and pans that are uniquely British. So we will try to grab what's uniquely British and bring it into punk and not lean too heavy on the Americanisms. But you you' know what we were saying about the music there? I think music fits a different place in different people's lives and what I find that if somebody's like I've been I went to university and did popular music on recording so I've listened to every hundred greatest album ever i did and then I've got this real open mind so if and I know it sounds like a bigger myself up but it's like some that in different people's
00:21:58
Speaker
lives music fits in different places so to some people music is their identity and their aesthetic is that something that's hard and great is good music and something that's polished and they can't hear I listened to Sabrina Carpenter espresso and I was just like wow like that what a banger and what fascinating production um in the in the oak like okay that's just ushered in this new sound that must have been bubbling under from somewhere but pop music production for like duolepa or you know obviously elation whatever the production is incredible and it's so creative and you listen to that and i can understand somebody just hearing that in the shop and just being like oh it's just pop
00:22:46
Speaker
But if you know the nuts and bolts, but what I always say is try and understand them. it' If does come from it and go, I just don't like it. You go, well, why is it resonating with its audience? Never. do do what The most foolish thing, and people say about it on in the UK all the time, they go on about industry plants. They go on about Indian plants. And it's like, no, there is no industry plants because if there was industry plants, then every or every artist would be an industry plant.
00:23:15
Speaker
that music, that style, that aesthetic, that message, that person, that personality, that brand, whatever's coming through those speakers is connecting with its audience. If you don't like it, that's fine. I don't like Wes Anderson films. I find his aesthetic and just I find it very um substance style over substance but if I was a film student and I was going to make films I'd try and understand why his use of color and what he does rat works for its audience because it clearly works for its audience and I think some people and you can't be mad at them but some people their place in their life is oh we don't like rapping therefore something sits no they're bringing you exactly punnk no we don't like him and it's like whatever you know not what you do it can get annoying when it's
00:24:01
Speaker
Tastemakers and gatekeepers making that decision but we choose to do to do music like that We choose to be a square packing around the whole and for some people it works Brilliantly and that we're their favorite by never and some people are just gonna you know someone come up to me the other day and she was like I was a festival the other day and then two of them came to see us and the others stayed in the tent and they'd been there all day for the rest of the bands and they'd be like, oh, they just, you know, they just won't support you guys. And it's like, all right, yeah, yeah. Because somehow they take, they take that personally. But I was listening to some, little not Lil Nas X, Lil Uzi Vert was talking to the other day and he was saying, when he drops a tune, if people would just say, oh, yeah, I quite like that.
00:24:43
Speaker
he's pissed off he wants him to hate it or love it and that's that's kind of like that's the that's the way we've you know that's the way we've we've lived our music you feel something stronger yeah it's like an elephant a real reaction so much music is so you know he's so bland and so cookie cutter um and Not just music, but just entertainment. is now everything Now in the age of the internet, for the last 20 years, things have got very homogenized. It's like with films, you can love or hate the Marvel films. There's some great elements of it and some bad elements of it. But a lot of the time, if something's successful, there there' there's this attempt to emulate it that we see that wasn't there so much in like you know in the 80s and everything. But it is what it is. You've just got to go with it.
Impact of King Prawn
00:25:30
Speaker
and So let's ah let's pivot over to King Prawn. So what is your history with this band? First time I really became or already aware of them would have been when um when we were in Grimace and we'd been and sort of speaking, ah and that we'd been putting gigs on and doing, and and just by then we just heard the name. But the first time I saw them, I was at the Roadhouse ah in Manchester and that would have been about probably about 1999. So they would have had, they would have had, maybe it would have been about 2000, they would have, it would have been Friday in London just before Surrender at a Blender. And then Surrender at a Blender came out at the same time as Civil Disability, it's by a cap down. So for me, in my life, there's that.
00:26:16
Speaker
That's the delineation. and yeah It was just after it, it was them two bands. Because them two bands, we literally just smushed together and then added some pop, added the Fuji's, added even Gwen Stefani on top of them two bands smushed together. And that just, they showed us the way. and So first time seeing them was like, wow. I mean, the,
00:26:40
Speaker
they ah you know They had their own sound man who were a good few years older than us. Because at that time, 1999, I would have been like 19 or 20. It's not like I was a little kid. It was like that was when I was maybe starting uni or whatever. So by that time, I was kind of like, yeah i could I knew it wasn't like these gods amongst men getting on stage and like, you know, Led Zeppelin to a 14 year old. And you're like, oh my gosh. This was like, oh yeah, this is a load of dudes in the mid to late 20s or whatever. and He's got his bass up, dubby loud. They've got this dude that knows what he's doing with the dub effects there. Got the echo on the mic. We've got this big guitarist playing down. and and and and now Kind of these hip hop riffs. And you've got this big Viking on the drums. And it was just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I can see exactly what's going on here. I can see exactly the influences that they've got.
00:27:36
Speaker
what's brilliant about King Prawn and i I knew this from the second I heard him and you can't say this really about anybody else you certainly can't say this about like Sponge, Capdown and Lightyear who were also badass bands and but at that time that were influential to me but cap down I mean, sorry, King Prawn sounded like they'd never heard mighty, mighty bus turns. They never heard operating. Yeah. Oh, what they've done is listen, sir, you can hear dead Kennedy's. Yeah, what that's what I picked up on the free. local But their idea of porn is just it's Rage Against the Machine. It's dead Kennedy's. And then you've got, yeah, it's almost like this. and You can you you can hear like crass in there and sort of anarcho porn, those British fans. yeah
00:28:23
Speaker
the du It's like, it's not like, care you know, the captain's always did da did it's like, no effect. did did Never, never be king prawn. It's like, or it's. dooooo do butoooooo but um And it's like, okay, there's a whole lot of reggae in there. But when they were first, before Surrender the Blender, there wasn't as much scar ah as you can hear on that album. What you listen to, right? You listen to survive. That's the moment that band becomes that band. You listen to survive. And I remember them, I think they came on with it and they had, we all get knocked down okay and kicked in a straight. And you say, Oh, Oh yeah. All right. Okay. This is happening now. I know.
00:29:06
Speaker
And that guitar tone and the way he's playing Ska there with Roger, that's not that is not apropos of any other band, right? it's it's It's overdriven. It's like, okay, we've listened to the specials. Now we've listened to the Crass and we've listened to... and like register dead kennedy's and we've gone how would they play scar because it's distorted and it's just the the whole feature of the tune you've got the bit against but the feature of the tune is the chorus and there's nobody else
00:29:38
Speaker
that you listen to survive by king prawn there's bands then after it like mouthwash you hear um i mean mouthwash are but ah around the same time but that's slightly after it but there's that you listen to that survive and that there's no influence by operation ivy there's no influence by no effect there's no info or very little that's been picked up from components of those guys in the early 90s from what they've listened to and that's why i and i listened to it as like this is uniquely british because The vocal inflections, he got he's got the kind of reggae thing, but the reference in East London a lot, and and that's what I liked about it. It was like, okay. and Whereas for me, it said those two bands, King Point were uniquely British and Cat Down were just utterly badass and just took something that Americans have done and just made it better, the best in the world for me.
00:30:31
Speaker
And that was those two bands together. But yeah, first time I saw King Rowan, it was like, oh, wow, got it all. There was no, you know, oh, maybe I could get them. It was like, shit. And you know, I heard bits of barbs. I heard Poison in the area. That one had a little mirror on the front on the CD single. And that, again, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Yeah, it's not... Common Rider, do you remember the band that Jesse did after that? Common Rider reminds me of King Korn. It's like they've gone, let's not copy any Skarpunk bands. Let's not listen to Lester Jake. We've never heard real big fish. Let's put these components together ourselves in a rock way. And I think that was exciting for me. That was like, oh my God, we can do this.
00:31:16
Speaker
It that sounds like it's Sex Pistols moment. you know were All those bands as you know that saw the Sex Pistols, but it was kind of like that for me. And then then after that, I just saw them whenever we could. Oh, man. that's ah If there's ever a good segue into this ah into the show, that's the one. Let's get into the time. Joey, you don't even have the time. I'm sorry.
00:31:36
Speaker
la la la
00:31:53
Speaker
All right, the time scotching takes us back to the year 1993 to the rain-soaked sidewalks of London, England. Here are the places that I got some information from, their official website, Not Your Punk, Echo News, something called Der Dude, Yaz, All Music Discogs, and then some things from Wikipedia. I will say this, I pulled out as many interviews with the band as I could. They are hostile to getting interviewed. It is quite something. Hostel to getting spoken to, you've got to work your way around them, do you know what I mean? You've got to have a sick skin when you're dealing with Al and the guys, but they are lovely. I mean, I absolutely love them, but it's just, you know, they're not going to...
00:32:34
Speaker
They have healthy boundaries. They're the chaperone of their time. Exactly, yeah. They have boundaries. for boundaries with Yeah, they're not going to schmooze. No doubt you can tell. We could all take a lesson from them, yeah honestly. ah So the band started when two friends, singer Al Ramjin and guitarist Devil Hands, which is an awesome nickname,
00:32:55
Speaker
moved into because the devil hands are idle playthings yeah moved into town and wanted to start a band. So they put an ad in the paper. This is where they hired in Babar Luck on bass and Nikolai Jones on the drums. ah Do we know what King Prawn is a reference to? Who here knows? I don't know. Well, they have a lot of like Elvis being shrimp.
00:33:16
Speaker
it uh it's a it's a sex term oh yeah yeah it's when you this is from an interview and i don't know if he's having a laugh but he absolutely said that it's reference to spitting on someone's asshole before anal sex okay so whether that's true or not it came from al's mouth so i'm just going to assume it's true i don't know it's a queen prawn thank you The lyrics were meant, it depends on who you're with, I guess, right? The lyrics were meant to paint a picture of London while mixing as many styles as they could, influencing from two-tone Scott, Dub, Bob Marley, Rage Against the Machine, Dead Kennedy's, Crass. They called this mix wild style. Here's what the band said about this. We never felt that we were a band that would be commercially successful. That was never our objective, but somehow, after playing loads, we managed to achieve some kind of cult recognition.
00:34:07
Speaker
The first big break came two years later in 1995 when they were signed by anarcho-punk label Words of Warning, known for bands like Oi Poloy and Cowboy Killers and Dub War. well yeah um There's a, Ariane's a big Oi Poloy fan, are are our editor, and she she has this live record where the lead singer of Oi Poloy goes on for, I swear, five minutes about how delicious his strawberries are. It is something else. i be It is a wild listen.
00:34:39
Speaker
ah the product The production was handled by the one and only Ace of Skunkanancy creating the hardcore punk focused long form EP First Defense. I didn't put a whole bunch from this one because it's um it's a little samey and I want to kind of focus on the next three, but I did queue up one song which was the Immigrant Song 2 TOO.
00:35:02
Speaker
which is a hilarious song title. yeah When I saw it come up, because i like every now and then a song will start to like look at my phone as I'm doing my listening and I was like, that title fucks. Yeah, there's that anarcho punk drum beat you were talking about. Yeah.
00:35:34
Speaker
That's hard jello vocals. Just hard jello. Early on, very jello-y. Yeah, so jello-y on this record.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, one of the things that I found just like, because this is the first time I listen to this band, was like, three songs in I was like, this would have been a fucking bananas show. Like, like, i like, immediately I kind of got the, the like, wow, this would have been a live show to see kind of energy, like, ah off of the recording, which is always a good thing. Yeah.
00:36:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's so interesting because if you actually listen to those first three records, you see where, and like I say, the after the release of the second album, the Skarpunk thing starts happening underground in the UK. So that pulls them into that direction. But all the components, it does go more in that direction on that second album. But there's still a lot of things that are just rock riffs.
00:36:48
Speaker
you know yes the donor do it and then you've got like barba going i guess i done my that and then you've got um i'll do any sort of yeah yeah yeah yeah and it's like all the components are there but you don't know how to write songs yet at all so they're just fair its after bit after bit after bit whereas what they got brilliant at so later is you've got that dominant view stop nah nah nah nah well it's so catchy and everyone's just like that um now the riffs are there but the songs aren't there but what i find so funny about this because i barely ever listened to this because it's not even this i knew i'd seen this cover the first time up finger got into was poison in the air which i think was a bonus track on a cd for this but this record i listened to it and after already hearing surrender to the blender and
00:37:35
Speaker
Friday in London, nobody's going to listen to this much except for like a Curio, unless you're like obsessed. But there's a couple of tunes on it, like boxed and packaged, I reckon is day in, day out. And then there's another one, nobody like you, that is like your worst enemy. What they basically did is take the melodies and go, actually, we're were were five years older now we know how to write songs now so we can just literally take a it's boxed and packaged nobody like you would definitely make a reappearance later in the albums right oh yeah but in a different way that melody that song i reckon and that's on nobody like you and unboxed and packaged it's dominant view it goes da ba da it's barba and he goes yes And you're like, that's dominant view. So I like that. They just went, okay, this was our first attempt. This was our first defense. And we were like, okay, we're not setting the world on fire, but we're putting together this unique sound that we know is yours. Even the bass tone is totally different on this. The bass tones are more punky. It's not got that the frobbyness and then on the next record they put it all together and do a couple of, actually there's like three or four banging tunes on the next album but ah it's so funny they got all them components and they just went well let's just use them again remember that tune nobody cares on first offense let's do it as a proper tune day in day out but yeah
00:39:02
Speaker
It's Alien Spawn Spawn. I remember that. They do still used to play Alien Spawn. late right and That alien spawn in your new barn.
00:39:14
Speaker
yeah yeah so It's crazy that Ace was their producer and I think it's like putting a pin on that for this EP because like when the the Ace comes back, the production style is so wildly different. um Yeah, it's putting a different spin.
00:39:31
Speaker
Ace produced our first EP, the Turbo EP, and Sounds to Consume, cos he worked with them. You know, we did our demo, the guy that produced Cat Down. See, that's how that sound like meticulous and and how shameful shameless I was. It was just like, okay, let's let's get that guy that did that. a you know that We that record, Let's Get Ace, because we wanted to be like, keep growing.
00:39:57
Speaker
Well, and then we'll get into it, but King Prawn absolutely pulled that move as well later on. um So this release was enough of a success that they followed it up in 1998 with their first full proper album, Pride in London.
Review of 'Fried in London' Album
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah. This time with Harvey Porthole on the boards who had previously produced work by Snuff Therapy and Culture Shock. Yeah. ah Culture Shock and I would say was probably a huge influence on King Prawn. Yeah. While still rooted in hardcore punk, the band also had no shortage of groovy metal and dub reggae to create a jarring and nerve shattering sound.
00:40:28
Speaker
Here's what the band said about it it doesn't work for them you know i think that what's good about king prawn and separates us is we're into diverse music and listen to different types of music. We don't listen to any hardcore underground kinds of bands really what we just listen to is basically what we hear on the street and what we hear our friends play that's why it's like a true melting pot especially reggae sounds and rap sounds which we hear which is very british i think.
00:40:50
Speaker
That separates us because our stuff is very British and the Black culture is very strong in London. yeah That's why reggae, raga, jungle, rap is very popular. There are stations of it all the time, so you get influenced by that. And so we'll talk about it. This is Friday in London. Let's start with that song, Survive. wait i'll get knock
00:41:18
Speaker
well fuck yeah f fa don way out can we'
00:41:24
Speaker
So cool. Yeah. Just go like a whole 10 seconds with no music. Just vocals. What a move. Being unapologetically British. That guitar there is not and it's kind of doing the downbeat as well, it's kind of got a star in its like a book, but it's not, it's not the star point, right? No. This isn't at all, and you've got the thumbs up, because we're going to get into it.
00:41:54
Speaker
So sick. That's not a traditional ska beat either. At all, yeah. As soon as I can shoot B, it's like, It's building on different influences, like you said, and yeah, he never got the impression that band. We all felt like they wanted to be almost like a rock world music category. Yeah, it was, like you mentioned, like they kind of skipped over the whole like American 80s Scott Punk thing. Like I just found that all of the
00:42:32
Speaker
All of the influence was like way more Jamaican. you know like like there's There's way more like dance hall and there's way more. And the Scott influences are like like traditional Scott influences brought up to this like feverish punk level. well especially ah well definitely Definitely some specials and selecting and all that in there. yeah Yeah. But it was like you were saying, it's like, it's all pre-op Ivy. It's like before that, any of that ever happened. Totally. And I think like they work, I don't know if it was conscious, but they, you know, in the interviews, they talk about how proud they are about it being British music. Right. And I think by like intentionally removing the American side of it, except for I guess Rage Against the Machine. Um, but it almost felt intentional, like to some degree.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think don' i feel like you say, I mean, it's it's more a there there is a difference, and and I can sort of put some of the music on the King Pro side of this here. And, you know, some other bands, but there was bands that you used to play with in the UK that clearly they were into like American Ska Punk.
00:43:38
Speaker
bands, great bands like Less Than Jake and Real Big Fish and um you know even ones that were like into ah RX Bandits and like we were into those bands but it wasn't when we were writing we would be listening to like Garage and and Drum & Bass and stuff like that and going okay let's do this in a punk style and I think it's definitely It was definitely the same with King Prawn. Like I said, I saw them and were like, oh, that's how we can do something that's UK. But me and Layla are on Alen Bar Bar, so we have to do it differently, but we can take influence from that. And and that's where I said, that's where the Fuji ka thing came in with us, because you had the three MCs. Oh, OK. So, you know, we can do it like that. And ah we we with King Prawn, that they swapped vocals as well on the early record. So that was kind of and but just the ah
00:44:30
Speaker
like the first time we toured we ever went on tour we went on tour with King Prawn and he's watching him every night it's just like forget it do you know what I mean it was like oh god that's what we've got to do just in a very holistic way like not just from we we honestly we after they finished playing we'd we'd we'd go in the battering and he'd all be covered in sweat and he'd be like you know we'd We'd just be like, oh, well, how long have you been doing that? When did you do that? When did you get those demos doing that? Where did you get your t-shirts going? All right, yeah, between songs. Why was he doing the vocal? What you doing with that extra microphone? And they'd just be like, they'd just yeah help us out and tell us. And we just learned from them and learned from them. Because by the time they got to do and Surrender the Blender, they were an amazing life band.
00:45:14
Speaker
I just, incredible. I remember playing with Glazebury Village Hall with the, no it wasn't Glazebury Village Hall. Oh, where was it? There was a band called Battlestar Galactica that played with us as well. And a band called Puzzle Monkey as well.
00:45:29
Speaker
I can't remember what it was called, but it it it was like a village hall. It was like no stage. It's flat. And then they had the speakers and we, it was, we were on their neighbor on and they were just, so cause cause cause they had that like, cause they had Jerry, their sound man. He just knew that sound and was doing all sorts of crazy shit. You could, you could play in like just the most low rent little like dingy hall and just bring this like sound system esque um quality of of just sonic overload it would yeah do incredible yeah awesome we should uh cue up the next song we got racist copper because it'll go into the next thing i wanted to talk about yeah
00:46:10
Speaker
At first, I was like thinking about it like the metal copper. Yeah. Like bronze, gold, copper. How is that element so racist? yeah and I was like, bag yeah, you know what? Pennies are pretty suspicious. That's what we call the place. Coppers. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, yeah, Brit. It's copper. Yeah, racist copper.
00:46:35
Speaker
It's very fun. Yeah, I thought it was supposed to be Bobby. also the isn't That's just kind of redundant saying race is copper. It's implied.
00:46:51
Speaker
I love this song. It's like one of my favorites.
00:46:56
Speaker
You know me, I'm a sucker for, like, a dub-dote thing. Any dub-dote thing, I mean, do it. And then it just gets heavy. Yeah. Yeah, and that's, again, most fans, including us, 99 out of 100.
00:47:13
Speaker
a star punk bands have the token dub tune and then that's it it's just dub tunes you know what i mean and and then that comes in song six on the album or whatever and you kind of do a bit of wobbling and then it's back to skanking whereas them they do a reggae tune and then they put a big like full-on rock bits in it as well you think you can go and get a drink but then they get you with that drop yeah back in the pi yeah Yeah, and then you're back in the pit and you didn't even get your drink I just want to talk about lyrics really quickly before we take a break But it's a one thing that I noticed is the difference between or the the similarities between King Prawn and Sonic Boom 6 is that like when the it's political in nature, but it's very like
00:47:57
Speaker
um very local yeah in its in its approach as opposed to like a band like anti-flag i know cancelled but like you know it's all just like very broad stroked um politics or propaganda or something yeah yeah you're even propaganda i know that they're canadian should have more proud pride for that but like i feel like with the with king pran in sp6 it was like you know you can really feel like it it it talks about the city and it talks about the people along with the politics do you know why that is and and i can say this and this this uniquely with both with both of us that's why we are i mean nick in our band is in king brawn and um uh keith from countdown is a drummer in king brawn but it's like so but this is why we always got on with him because we could see these things in each other that is because my politics and al's politics don't come from the punk scene
00:48:49
Speaker
Right. Yeah. They don't. That's why an anti flag or and not like I've often used the example of anti flag where it's this a general actual dyed in the wall anti-capitalist message. Whereas I wouldn't say I'm necessarily an anti-capitalist. I'm a, cat I'm a, I'm a skeptical capitalist. aszz he I think that it's much more my political views are much more and complicated than just firmly landing on one side and I think that it's definitely the same. and i like I was very passionate about and about and
00:49:28
Speaker
wars in certain areas of the world that he's very, and he writes about on, you know, like the cha, cha, cha, cha, ring out in a bulldozer house. There's that one, rob them, rape them, that tune. It's talking about this very specific war that's not necessarily something, and like you say, racist copies, it's talking about copies in East End London, and that's like, you know,
00:49:54
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know when I wrote Piggy in the Middle. I was like, OK, it's going to be simple. I think that I think that we just we come from a similar thing where it's like, OK, I'm going to I'm not going to write an anti-police song. I'm going to write a song about a policeman that I knew. You know what I mean? yeah yeah and it's said And it's that personal experience that can then become something that you think about politically. And I do think it's a lot more powerful because, you know, right, if you go to a punk night and this is like a 19 year old that's never been out of his own town and he's going, you know, down with like the the only tune where I winced a little bit of ours is kind of go blood for oil because it's that's so and we'd later kind of movement not ah we still play it but it's and I kind of like asked the piss and vinegar of it but it's not it was something I felt a certain way about the ah the sort of Iraq war or whatever but
00:50:47
Speaker
and it's not something that then later it was kind of like that was okay we could write about that because that's the punk thing du jour to write about but when you're actually a little bit you get a little bit okay well this matters to me i'll write about that and i think that they definitely do do the same thing i think that um i mean sometimes we can go and sometimes the lyrics are just kind of like wrapping as well. that's right fun then That's always good live where he's just like not actually saying much, just moving some air and and and having a party. So I like that about them as well. All right. And with that, let's take a break and we'll get back more King Prawn.
00:51:28
Speaker
Welcome back to Checker Password here with Barney Boom of Sonic Boom 6 and we're talking King Prawn. So let's move along on the time, Skoshine.
Exploring 'Surrender to the Blender'
00:51:36
Speaker
The album was followed up in 2000 with the far more scoff forward surrender to the blender now featuring the horns of Dr. Nelly on the cornet with sax work by the inimitable Jake Fielding of Cap Down and the citizen fish horns of Matt the Professor on trombone and Alex Gordon on the trumpet.
00:51:51
Speaker
It also had a significant amount of strings, that's my favorite part of it, through a huge helping of hip-hop and prog into the mix. The band also shifted to new label, a metal label, Spitfire Records, and brought in Jerry Melchers, who had produced Civil Disobedience. So there's the tie-in. I love this demo. yeah and not my method It's all tied together. So let's talk about Surrender to the Blender. Let's kick off with the first track. ah Let's go day in, day out. We know this one.
00:52:22
Speaker
Oh, I came in on the bridge. So what do you think it means? What? Surrender to the blender. Blender genres. That's what I think. So surrender to them blending the genre. Like we are surrendering to the blender? Yes. Okay, it's a command. Yes. Stop fighting it with your inclinations to have one genre. No, just surrender. Have a render. I know what you're trying to do. Try to keep it pure, but now we want it mixed up. Blended. Surrender. That's what it is.
00:52:54
Speaker
Aspen answered. And they just were not writing songs this Scott before. And the horns make such a difference. Holy crap. yeah Yeah. Yeah. And it's like the tightest horns ever. Like, I mean, obviously pulled from existing bands. Did you say Coronet? Coronet, yeah. Oh, interesting. Not like the ice cream. It's also, it's a very natural move as well because it's not like in any way they were like,
00:53:22
Speaker
It's not like they were doing one thing and then they about-taste and went, okay, soon we're gonna do this. I can't even think of a band that's done that, but we've all seen that when a band's doing one style and then they're not completely popular and they do it. They would go farther with it anyway, survive and race as copper. And is it increased the pressures on um and Friday and Monday as well? So they just, you know what I mean? they they were making bands get into that stuff and then this album they just went more in that direction and it feels very natural it doesn't it's not like anybody stood there and went oh yeah they're trying to be trying to copy Mike Knight Boston's now it was just like yeah this actually makes sense because that was what was happening as far as the underground scene in the UK was there was a lot more gigs and a lot more
00:54:08
Speaker
and bands and stuff coming. And yeah yeah, as you said before, there's a lot of American bands. I'd never really thought about that, but that that is true. A lot of the American bands came over, maybe after have doing after doing like the walk tour and stuff like that. And then they were like, OK, let's do some UK gigs. So that may be it may be fair. Hay Day was in 1997. They'd be over here in 1999 playing all these venues like Exit the Cavern, The Underworld and in Camden, all these places where then we all went and and and and played too.
00:54:39
Speaker
yeah truly that first they're the earlier release they had like a bowl and they were mixing stuff but then in this album they were like well now we have a whole blender so let's throw more stuff in there they got a nutra ninja yeah before they just start you know have you ever seen them once what it's like that you have to wind it up you have to do it by hand Yeah, the Salomon TK Max, what do you call it? TJ Max, right? So you put the onions or the chives or whatever, and you do it by hand. That was it at the beginning. Now they've got, like you said, a nutri blend, but not even the entry level one, just the proper nutri bullet. We've got like 1500 watts, like fucking crushing that shit. Yeah. You got a mix. Yeah. So that's what we've got here. Yeah.
00:55:26
Speaker
Yeah, and it sounds incredible. like it's what And then I also have a bit of a bias because this was my King Prawn record too. When I was like in college, I listened to Surrender the Blender a shitload because I was got really into like Cap Down and a lot of other English bands. A band called Sonic Boom 6 as well. and um So just this has just given me waves of nostalgia also in in terms of like how awesome it is. but i guess we didn't really get your thoughts barney like how do you feel about fried in london versus surrender to the blender like in terms of like their sound and like how how you think it worked for them i think surviving racist copper are better than any tunes on surrender and blender but i think surrender blend is a much more coherent album the first
00:56:10
Speaker
um I think it that is their most coherent album. It's the album by them I've listened to the most, definitely. and Probably that then, that the then front and the the the next Got the First. But yeah, I think it's their best album. But it's not that and like someone's a hey and um day in, day out aren't great. It's that Race is Copper and Survive are classic stuff such good songs. But Increase the Pressure is great but there's there's a few tunes on m on Friday in London which are kind of fillery. I mean there's a lot of, on all the albums we've got like the little, it reminds me of The police Police. I love every album by The Police but there's so tunes that that that their presence is in no way malign or unwanted. Even that one where Stuart Copeland sings about his mum or his happy birthday or is it sort of
00:57:07
Speaker
you You don't skip it somehow. You tolerate it because as a whole, it adds to the entire... It's like a palate c cleanser and they do have some of them. They have just sort of mad flights of fancy. It's not like every tune. you it Sometimes down if if I was to play to run at the blender, I'd be like, oh yeah, that one, the one when he goes, go, go, go, go, go, go. It's just like 30 seconds of you running. This one's called the Postman song, 13 seconds. I'm sure he's just shouting.
00:57:36
Speaker
So yeah, so like, I like that. I like that. I like that e eccentricity. I like the confidence to just go, right, guys, we're gonna come out of the studio with this one postman song. i go it's thirteen seven yeah and you just And then you go, put that to X, I'm going pub. And then that's it.
00:57:55
Speaker
but But yeah, this is my first listen to King Prawn ever. And how's your feelings with it? It was much so. Barney, a lot of time I will have to listen to like third wave bands and what I will say, like even kind of like the earlier stuff that was like a little harder to listen to, like they're even their worst song is like easier to listen to than a boring third wave song. Oh, I like a mile if that means anything. They're not boring. This was not a hard. This was not a hard listen through. Sometimes I'm like sometimes it's tough.
00:58:26
Speaker
like that's it I have really no interest in listening to a scar punk band that doesn't sound like they've ever heard punk or scar they've only ever heard scar punk because right right it's getting diluted it's just a reflection and I was never into that like I like scar punk bands that and like even though suicide machines is scrappy as anything it's got that by that and it's it done good it's there's got a rhythm section whereas i'm not gonna i'm not because i think these bands are great and are hard working but there's these bands that's just like fast punk with loads of brass but then it's picked bass and it's not got any reggae in it it's got no no doorbell no no ah and these these kind of bands and most of them are we get uk ones but the most the american influences and you know they'll come under the car and i'll be like
00:59:15
Speaker
but but but but but but but but but but but better but but And it's kind of like, that's not it. We'll never disparage it, but that's not what I like. and But they are scar punk bands. I love punk and scar, but if it doesn't groove, and like God, King Prawn grooves.
00:59:32
Speaker
don but yeah yeah yeah for sure And ah yeah, I mean, the the um this and the next album have both got some absolute bangers on them. So yeah, I i think that and but with this album, like you said, with the brass and everything, that there's there's there's a lot more coherence to the sound and and and there's less of the sort of random rock riffs with a sort of raggery vocal over it. It's it's ah it's a bit more, um it's not necessari not more tuneful, it's but it's more song focused hooks.
01:00:03
Speaker
I was gonna say they discovered the hook. yeah Yeah, it was one of the biggest things like they were fine with making a catchy song now, right? Not just like a shout along or a sing along like actual like hooks with melody and and like ah overlapping vocals and a lot of other new things that they weren't really playing with before yeah um i do like as a as a bit of a metal junky too like starting to notice like their metal um taste is like so firmly rooted in like funk metal like rage we has machine for sure but even like you get like what jane's addiction a little bit there like in keep like all those cats like are so big with this so funny i was listening to them this ah because cuz he was doing this i had him on this morning and there was one that was like it was like
01:00:46
Speaker
yesterday and I was like that sounds like Jane's Addiction yeah yeah um a real high shouted vocal ah in a rhythm it must have been on so it was on it's somewhat on Friday in London and I was like yeah because that's exactly what it's only weren't they weren't exclusively listening to um you know they were they would be listening to Jane's Addiction and and um you know alternative rock bands like that because that those guys are older than i am so that they would have had that early 90s rock that would have been their big go going to gigs and all that yeah and they're like i mean based on what they're saying like they just had whatever was on the radio and if like what was on the radio was yeah like like pre-grunge uh alt rock like that was ah you can hear it really like seeped in there yeah on this album it's interesting because
01:01:36
Speaker
the the instrumentation is more consistent, and you picked up on that, as in, because on Friday in London, it still veers from song to song, whereas this, you because that it and that probably reflected, this probably coagulated around the live sound, what worked, you had never recorded it, but to make that sound bigger, they put a lot of dub, like reverb and echo on it.
01:02:00
Speaker
so then it was like okay when they must have been writing it, it sounds like a more coherent unit um and and we know we we've had that journey as well at times where you can hear that this album now, if they're gonna maybe if one bit previously they would have gone okay we'll try a different guitar on that we'll we'll try this whole thing on that instead they've gone okay so this is us we're gonna put a bit of strings on it but it's bass this guitar it's rock guitar and the sort of echo bits the drums the vocal and then we've got this palette of different brass to work with but let's keep it consistent across the record and that that i mean it makes the whole thing a nicer listener overall done it yeah and you it means you don't have to
01:02:44
Speaker
yeah You're not filling in the gaps ah ah as far as, the it asks less of your, a record asks less of your, if it's consistent. ah Let's play one more song. Which one do you like, Joey? and Do you want to do Amuse the Young or London Born? Amuse the Young. All right, that's a weird song.
01:03:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's why I picked it. one the you got yeah I love this. I love the dance hall, and it's super dark. This song stood out a lot. Yeah, it's so dark. At least you can go live to fight for ages. It's very catchy though. You know it's weird. yeah Well this should be ba ba, ba ba gong.
01:03:23
Speaker
ah i take the base lock so sit on the gri rides and they're all gruunty and breathy and then bar ra homo look at me pi yeah what they do it keep and dala There is like a Cookie Monster vibe to some of the vocals.
01:03:40
Speaker
He'd look at you and you'd go across and he'd be like... yeah on but sonic pool a funny in the own ta I love it.
01:03:51
Speaker
regard the ages and out Yeah, this fucking rips. I love this shit. The toasts? They were talking about it. So much toasting.
01:04:05
Speaker
Plus I'm like I love like a like a dancehall thing with like a synthy set like just I love that. It's like punk dancehall. Like you don't hear shit like that. It's so cool. totally I love it. All right. Let's move along. Is around this time that the rights to the band's first two releases flow to moon Europe who reissued with bonus tracks to the definitive editions of first defense and fried in London. The former are basically being turned into a proper full length.
01:04:29
Speaker
uh this was followed up again in 2003 with the record got the thirst now featuring ace back on the boards and a brand new label gulf the guest horns now included ben baseball bat of zen baseball bat and the scratches were provided by the one and only dj ollie tiba a mother fucking herbalizer so much scratching on this one that was so sweet i love the herbalizer super stoked that they were all over this The new sound had a decidedly more modern and accessible sound, but didn't compromise their intensity in genre blending. I'm just gonna end with what Nikolai said.
Discussion of 'Got the Thirst' and Band Hiatus
01:05:03
Speaker
We try and cover lyrical content subject matter that is of interest to us primarily. If you try and be Mr. Current Affairs, then chances are your song will be irrelevant before it's even been released. We try and cover universal themes that looks like they will be a big part of our world for time to come.
01:05:18
Speaker
Looking at many of the topics we have previously covered on past albums, they're just as, if not more relevant now than ever. And after this record was released, the band ah would take a hiatus with Al joining the Asian Dove Foundation and Babur Luck going on to a solo ah career. They would come back in 2012, but we'll save that for another day. Let's start with Dominant View. This is my number one song I listened to. this is by This is my favorite song that I heard. It's so killer. This is non numero uno for a solid.
01:05:50
Speaker
But that's it, this is the whole, with in the way that we didn't on Surrender on proper on this. And this is absolutely one of them.
01:06:08
Speaker
yeah That bass sound sounds so good. I really, yeah, the song is just bananas. So fast. So they work so quickly. Yeah. And they kind of like slowed down jungle beat sort of, like yeah so continued. There's that over-serving guitar offbeat as well. It's not really reggae. It's yeah just rock, flute and froze. And it's got, I mean, a way to sort of erode star, strictly star.
01:06:38
Speaker
that riff. Yeah, but yeah just that's just a hard rock riff. Yeah, titles it ah ah yeah totally. so like walking mother man yeah totally yeah death and it yeah know With the right stuff around there is this brilliant as it, as as music gets. Yeah. I hadn't listened to Got the Thirst more than maybe a couple of times. And this i so I sat down to listen to it this time and I was like,
01:07:07
Speaker
Man, this is way better than I remember it being, and it was so catchy. It was just like every song was just like banged with hooks. yeah like They really wanted to make something that like stood out and was like accessible. Every single time the scratching started, I was like, this is the perfect spot for fucking scratching. like it was just It was just fit in so well. I loved it. It was great. Yeah. On this, who because we came with it, and then this is this is um because Because they sort of stripped back on the brass as well, this this is kind of heavier than Surrender the Blender, this this record. But for me, and caught in a rut, just, I remember the first time I heard that, but because that was I was hearing this as it was being written, do you know what I mean? Just caught in a rut there, caught in a rut there.
01:07:57
Speaker
And it's like, that is that because when he when he'll play that beat as well, he kind of puts like a shuffle and it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you're like, poof, with that bassline and that throbbing and the vocal going on, it's like, forget it. Jesus. Yeah. Like, why are these guys not on? Yeah, we got it. Are you going to play it now? Are you going to play it? Yeah. Now you got to play it. Yeah. We had it.
01:08:25
Speaker
And this album is so road tested. That was the other thing, like all the songs were played live before. Oh, that sounds so good. And that's just it. Just your head goes like that. And it's in a rut is pretty good in it. In it. In a rut. In it. We've got some cool play in a day.
01:08:55
Speaker
You gotta do an inno. You gotta do an inno. British band gotta do an inno. Gotta do it to ya. Gotta do an inno. You have an inno or an outer for your belly button. I was like, we were going with this, I got an inno. Yeah, banga. Absolute banga.
01:09:26
Speaker
Oh, and then that. Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah. A fast skink? Yeah. They weren't shy on the sky. It's got a toned down horn section, but the sky was still everywhere on this record. Just heavier. Yeah, it's heavier now. That's, yeah, it's less world music. More Reading Festival, less Notting Hill Festival.
01:09:50
Speaker
Let's, uh, yeah, we got, Joey absolutely needs to listen to this. Yeah, we got it. You love it. Oh, were just smoking. we are smoking on yeah like This was controversial. Not in Canada. No, not anymore.
01:10:06
Speaker
No,
01:10:31
Speaker
Because it was so loud, you'd lose that tonality of the... This sounds a lot popular on the record than it did live. Right. It's very sublime-y. 3-11. 3-11, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I loved it. It's changed. You know, there was...
01:10:51
Speaker
I don't know, there was just raised eyebrows about it at the time as if they'd written like, you know? You know what I mean? As if they'd kind of settled out or whatever. But I don't know, it. It I'm, you know, I'm proud of it and I like it, it's not like I skip it, but, you know, if you're one of them sort of like Mardi types that wants to be serious about music, if suddenly you've got a load of your children singing or something, you might go, nah man. Yeah, if you have no fucking sense of humor, you're lame, then you might not like it.
01:11:33
Speaker
I reckon some Canadian punks the first time they heard that song, they went, I'm not dealing with any kids.
01:11:42
Speaker
I would not be surprised. Yeah. So I love a song like that, though. I like when it gets a little bit silly. That's also very like almost throwback to like 90s hip hop samples where like hip hop would always do kids on the floor. Yeah, like ODB used to always have the kids in the chorus. Yeah, maybe we'll have to procure some inference from the local comprehensive. Yeah, so now, yeah, some inference. Yeah, maybe next Halloween, Trick or Treat, write some names down. We're going to have to be careful with it, you know, especially, you know, how the world is. But I reckon we could. I will find a song to get some children on it. Or maybe find a song to get some kids on it.
01:12:23
Speaker
Uh, do you have any, where does God the thirst plays in the cannon for you, Barney? Before we close off, you know, my favorite, I'm not gonna say it's a deep coat because it is, it's, it's kind of a known tune by them, but, um, fucking bitter taste. Oh my God.
01:12:38
Speaker
as sweet
01:12:42
Speaker
See, I ripped off that bass line. We did a bigger than point rock. My bass line goes, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. We just rubbed that off them. They come in, played that, forget it. It was before this come out, remember we were on tour, we didn't really, we played
01:13:04
Speaker
It was like, okay, we'll what we'll do a tune like that. Changed a couple of notes. Yeah, what's got more listens, right? 83,000 listens and bigger than punk rock. So what's that 83,000 and we have got a bigger than punk rock.
01:13:25
Speaker
647,000 servant has become the master rock is not as good as bitter taste that shows there's no account for taste not being i don't agree with like yeah I don't agree with the streams usually. yeah No, we we added some stuff to it. we added I remember at a party, which is pretty catchy, it's pretty good. We added our little punk rock bit, so we did change it up. But I robbed that. and The actual bass line is a lead line from a song called Shit On You by D12.
01:14:03
Speaker
and union So I do love, I love the Dirty Dozen. Right, the Dirty Dozen. So an M&M's versus on that, forget it, brilliant. But that little lead line, I went, oh, that's nice. And then I went... then I went, okay. D12, this is the best line, sticking together, 647,000. And that's what happened. said it i'm not in it Send it Send it.
01:14:35
Speaker
and ah and I think that's as good a place to stop. I can't imagine. ah Barney, boom, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you so much. What have you got to plug? Yeah, promotion time.
01:14:46
Speaker
you know you know What we're plugging at the moment is ah we did a cover version on a recent release that's on Pooc Out Records, Good Friends of ours, Pooc and Katie, and it's called an album called Master of Trumpets and it's got a lot of international ska punk bands covering ah Heavy you metal tunes from from the 80s generally. So you've got air you've got redeeming doing Metallica You've got Rose Shambo doing bomb track. You've got suicide machines doing I hate God You've got videos go schools doing Slayer and of course you've got Sonic being six doing suicidal tendencies So not only but did we do that tune we also made a video for it. So that's on YouTube now That's our latest thing that's gonna tide us over but the the real key if you listen our tuning you dig it
01:15:38
Speaker
The interesting thing there is that the the way we recorded it, so we we recorded it ourselves, so James engineered and produced it and we all kind of chipped in, so we we recorded it in Blackpool but then we got this guy Elliot Vaughan who's worked with Sponge actually and he's done bits and bobs with lots of other big bands and Frank Turner and stuff.
01:16:00
Speaker
and he was he was into Sonic Boom 6 so we got talking to him and he mixed it and the mix, the production on it is so good because it's got's actually got our old um guitarist Ben on sax on it but it's got what what i we we were trying to harness was like the manic energy of the early stuff that was all written in a garage just trying to sound like a drum and bass band but playing punk and then the later stuff where we got more it's lighter, it's more produced ah it's more poppy. What we wanted to do was keep that the experience, keep the sonics, keep keep a lot of it, but return to someone that mad cap energy, return to something not fit to be in the same arrangement or the same bits on the first verse, the second verse, return to playing mad riffs that you only come up with when you stood together playing the song for the fifth time through, because we don't rehearse together anymore. So in the studio, we had little techniques, the ways of doing that, that were really cool. and
01:16:59
Speaker
and the way we recorded it. So it left room for improvisation, it left room for for stuff that was a bit more punky and spirit, but it sounds good. And then we send it to Elliot and then he worked with us to get this mix. And it's one of my favorite things what we've ever done. It just happened to be a good song to choose because soon as it we started playing it, because it builds up in the verses and then it releases and records and people people generally know it, even if they don't know, and you know, it that's that Tony Hawk's effect again. It's like, it's so um it's been really good. So we are what we're doing, we've basically got 1213 tunes now. So we're actually I'm going to James's next weekend, and we're going to um
01:17:38
Speaker
work on finishing writing it we've got no bare bones of the tunes and then we're just going to do some more work in the studio so hopefully by you early next year we'll have actually finished recording then it's going to be the mixing and then we need to find a label for it i think so and um i'm sure we'll have a single out hopefully the first half of next year we've got a few it's a lot of it is more it is more evocative of our early stuff. We've got a tune that's very big and important, right? We've got a tune that's like, and then there's some other mad stuff as well, but we've got one that's really SCARCO. It's just just a old-school SCARCO with bed on the sacks, which I love. I'm really excited about that. So yeah, we've got new stuff to check out, institutionalized, and also check out our compilation. And you know it's out there on vinyl. I think Scarpunk International might be distributing it, or they might have copies of it. and
01:18:27
Speaker
and but I don't know if they've sold out, but yeah, that' that's a really cool thing that that that's and that that's that's out there and nice to collabo with, you know, we've got if different international bands on there and and hopefully we'll make it to Canada one day.
01:18:44
Speaker
yeah you do we know i show to As long as we still kind of look the same, that that's, you know, thank God all my hair's not fell out or I've not, you know, not not and nothing wrong with being bald, that's James, but James was always bald. for comment that kid um As long as we look like ourselves and we're fit in outfit,
01:19:03
Speaker
and we can get up there and do it. We'll do it as long as we can. but As long as we can go over to America and play a festival in a room full of 700 kids singing our words back at us, we'll want to do it. So hopefully one day we'll will we will come to Canada. I'd love to. It's expensive though, isn't it?
01:19:19
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not going to pretend like it's a cheap affair for you. Yeah. But I feel like once you get here, the pound is worth so much more. So once you get here, your cost of living would be super cheap. Spending power will be high. It's like going to Japan.
Casual Talk: Investments and Travel Preferences
01:19:33
Speaker
Since he got in on Tuesday, I've been buying loads of Bitcoin. I'm just going to sell it after inauguration, but do you know what I mean? It's like if you can't beat him, do I know? That's right. Maybe I'll have a few thousand quid to chuck around Vancouver. Remember Vancouver better than Toronto, Quebec because we can't get to Toronto, Quebec. Vancouver is really easy and cheap for us and you'll love it there. It's got the mountains and the ocean. It's got rain. It'll be just like home.
01:20:06
Speaker
Oh God, yeah, we've been there anyway.
Engaging with Listeners and Podcast Support
01:20:08
Speaker
yeah Thanks for listening to Checkered Pass. Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok at checkeredpasspod, or send us an email at checkeredpasspod at gmail dot.com. Support the pod and get bonus content, including a full length and unedited video of this episode. Sign up for the Checkered Head Patreon at patreon dot.com slash checkeredpass. We also have merch available at checkeredpass.ca.
Shoutout to the Editing Team
01:20:25
Speaker
Checkered Pass is edited by Cutman and engineered by Joey. That's me. And until next time, I'm Rob.
01:20:30
Speaker
so lyn and i sorry work email and In the mortal words of King Prawn, we survive, yes we carry on.
01:20:43
Speaker
but's up this is brit from cat by and you're listening to checkered pass the interrupters hate us so that's something