interviews

King Creosote - Fence Records

Written by Pete

Monday, 30 August 2010 20:35

King Creosote is part of the Fence Collective and is a renown solo artist,. His latest venture has been a album and live shows with the Burns Unit. Fence Records is a record label based in Fife, Scotland, which recently announced that they were change to producing vinyl only releases. We thought this radical and inventive move was worth a quick catch-up with Kenny:

Hello chaps

1) I have a vinyl and CD collection but I do download, paying £20 a month for 100 tracks from e music. I am driven to download by the price i.e. 10 CDs = £100 against the £20 to download. How are you going to promote less established acts at affordable prices using the vinyl
format?

No idea,we’re still pricing the various formats - 7", 10", 12" – and looking back to when we released picket fence sets, piggy-backing may well be our best option to introduce new acts into the fold, but i seriously doubt they will be "affordable" as you put it.

Music fans will sooner or later realise that paying less in order to own more and more mp3s sitting on their laptops is no solution to the problems that bands and labels now face. it might get to the point where there's only one way to buy a limited edition fence release, and that is to have attended one of our live events up here in Anstruther. compared with the money spent travelling, eating and sleeping in our wee town for a weekend, £25-£30 for an album might not have the same sting.

If after all our efforts it turns out that recorded music has such a reduced value that we at Fence struggle to sell even the smallest manufactured amounts, then I doubt we'll have to worry about the promotion of anything.

2) Bands like Marilion & Idlewild have raised funds to make albums, via subscriptions. i.e. allowing subscribers access to the recording process and getting their names on the album covers etc. Would that work for Fence in the future?

My manager has suggested this very thing as a way forward for King Creosote albums, but it all looks a bit desperate, no? who knows how it'll all pan out. we've always saved up our funds and spent them in as wise a way possible. i doubt that'll change, so I reckon we'll just release less
and less rather than go down this route.

3) Rough Trade Record stores in London sell their own (or, at least their own moniker) Turntables, for a hefty £200 each. Any plans of introducing a fence version?

none as yet. if I'd paid attention at university I’m pretty sure I’d be able to build the dashed things myself.

4) When on tour, where is the nearest thing to the best home cooked food? I'm told the Colchester Arts Centre for example supplies a mean curry.

I’m such a fussy eater, touring is a nightmare as far as feeding myself is concerned, so i make sure i have weetabix first thing and a jar of peanut butter in the merchandise box at all times - not for selling, you understand, but this is where all my rider snacks end up. the best home cooked grub is ruined by the addition of mushrooms or slimy veg, or eggs.

cheers, kc

Aug 2010

Fence Records information is here

Jocie Adams (Low Anthem)

Written by Pete
July, 2010: Jocie Adams answers questions from the Rock Club: 1) You come across as a shy, quiet band. How have you handled the media attention that came with making one of the albums of 2009? And were there any perks associated with your newfound ‘fame’? Fame is a pretty slippery word that doesn’t mean too much. We are lucky in that the attention in our case is much more on our music, our baby, than it is on us. While we are certainly not chatterboxes on stage, we make music with the intention of sharing it and I think we are all delighted to be able to share it with more people than we ever would have imagined possible. We also are lucky enough to have become a part of a community of artists and lovers of the arts all around the world. 2) If you weren’t in the Low Anthem, what would you be doing now? Ha… that is a good question. I myself have dreamed up about a million different paths, but in the end music seems to win. I guess the most appealing alternate dream at the moment is to create responsive multimedia spaces for psychiatric use. 3) What are you doing now? *Making music! Hanging out in a van with a bunch of good dudes. Living!* 4) If Brits were asked to list all the states of America, Rhode Island would slip the minds of most. What one interesting fact can you tell us about your home state to put it on the map? *It has the most coastline per square mile of any state in the U.S. It is also the smallest and most densely populated state.*
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Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake Interview - April 2010

Written by Pete
Sunday, 11 April 2010 20:34
The Rock Club is absolutely delighted to have an interview with Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub as, our very first interviewee on the site. We asked everyone on our mail list for their questions and Norman’s replies are below. Teenage Fanclub kick off a U.K. tour on 1^st May at the Camden Crawl and release their latest album ‘Shadows’ on 31st May. Thanks to Jim in our Toronto office for putting the interview together. The Interview Pete: You played Bandwagonesque at the Forum a few years’ back as part of the ATP Don't Look Back series. How was that? Can you see the Band doing something similar with other albums? *NB: It was fun. Brendan O'Hare who played drums on the album rejoined for the shows, of which we did three in total. Would we do it again? Really not sure to be honest.* When on tour, where is the nearest thing to the best home cooked food? I'm told the Colchester Arts Centre supplies a mean curry. *NB: Local knowledge is where it's at and very often the promoter will take you somewhere good.* Are the Band playing Glastonbury or any festivals this year? *NB: Nothing planned so far. I think we may be a little too late with our release to have a realistic chance of playing at any festivals this year. Big Day Out perhaps?* Any thoughts about writing the story of the band so far? *NB: We had a potted history on our website at one point. The Wikipedia is wildly inaccurate.*
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