Hello Kingsley. How you doin'?
I'm in a mental insomniac netherworld. I have been for sometime. This sounds incredibly (and predictably) goth and dark but it's not meant to, I would honestly love to sleep.
Ah, right, well before you do tell us who you are and what you do.
My name is Kingsley, I'm 5ft11 and I sing with the English north eastern rock band The Chapman Family. I have no tattoos but I do have a dog.
Were you named after Kingsley Amis. the author - or someone slightly more gloomy?
No. Do you know some other gloomy Kingsleys? I've never actually asked what I was named after to be honest with you. All I know is that it's an incredibly difficult name to introduce yourself as when you're a child or a teenager in the north of England.
Is it a myth that you're more morose than Morrissey?
People have a perception that I'm a depressive angry miserablist but I'm not - I'm just not ashamed or embarrassed to get depressed, angry or miserable if I happen to feel that way. I quite literally have lots of emotions. Besides, I think Morrissey is pretty funny.
You're from Stockton-on-Tees, are you its one claim to fame?
The mere fact that you're asking that question makes me worry about how little you were listening at school as you don't appear to know about the worlds first passenger railway - the Stockton to Darlington Railway, Stephenson's Rocket, or the birthplace of the friction match. Stockton is also the place that The Beatles were performing on the night JFK got shot in 1963. Everyone always says that they remember where they were when it happened and I'd love to ask Paul McCartney if he does. Ridley Scott went to my Sixth Form and he got inspiration for Blade Runner from the industrial architecture that surrounds the town which probably tells you what you need to know about how pretty it is round here. Chris Issak is from Stockton too - but the Californian version. Chris Issak has a voice like Galaxy caramel.
Thanks for that, erm, really just wanted a quick response! So let's get on to what you have to plug for us?
My awesome band are touring throughout England and Wales in February and we will also have a free download available then as a precursor to more new material to follow soon after.
Acting as your own PR here, give us a short spin on this upcoming tour.
I'm not going to lie we're a pretty challenging band and we can sometimes come across as a tough nut to crack. We're not though, we're all about entertainment...it's just a bit different. For this tour we're increasing the intensity visually and sonically. We want challenging. We want difficult. We want excitement. I'm an avid gig goer myself and I'm sick to death of being pummeled by blandness or being able to spot a knowing marketing campaign trait a mile off. I'm disappointed that the idea of "a band" isn't being used to challenge or provoke anymore. I am bored shitless of people wanting to be famous. I want to see people pouring their hearts out and sweating blood onstage as if it's the only possible thing they could do in life - I'm tired of seeing people play who'd seem more at home presenting fucking T4.
Go on then, give us a link to it and we'll stick it up.
February 7 - The Hop, Wakefield
February 8 - The Studio, Hartlepool
Febnuary 10 - Kraak Gallery, Manchester
February 11 - Fruit, Hull
February 13 - Clwb IFor Bach, Cardiff
February 16 - Joiners, Southampton
February 17 - The West Coast, Margate
February 18 - Green Door Store, Brighton
February 19 - Arts Centre, Colchester
February 20 - Surya, London
February 22 - The Rainbow, Birmingham
February 23 - The Cockpit, Leeds
February 24 - The Cluny 2, Newcastle
Margate and Brighton should be nice for the beach....in February!
You could replace the word "February" with any other month really couldn't you? British summertime now consists of two days in mid April where it stops raining for a bit. I'm alright with rain and wind and all that though, it's exciting.
You're releasing new choons I understand to coincide - what's this all about? Where and when will we be able to hear these wonderments?
We'll be releasing a free download and a video to coincide with the tour. Plus we'll be selling some exclusive self made CDs containing brand new demos that will only be available at the gigs - as if you needed another reason to come - then we'll be putting out a single soon after the tour, then an album later in the year.
You put a call out for Street Teamers. Right, let's get this show on the road: what do you need and where should interested parties apply?
"Street Team" sounds a bit intense doesn't it? Believe me, it's not. We're not asking people to give blood or anything, all we're after is for them to put up a few posters in chip shops and record stores and pester people who look like they might want to come and see us. As payment they'll get guestlist for themselves and a friend and maybe a couple of warm cans of Carling from our rider. If anyone lives in the towns we're playing just get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter and we'll sort it. I know it sounds incredibly unglamourous but band promotion due to the complete over-reliance by everyone of the fakery of the Internet has made it near impossible to get people to step away from their laptops.
You have a very interesting collection of material in your back catalogue. Which is the one track of your own you are most proud of and why?
I don't believe in being more proud of one than another as they're all my little babies. That'd be like David and Victoria Beckham publicly coming out saying they preferred Romeo over Harper Seven.
Who are your musical influences?
Anything that boils my blood.
Do you really think 'this English life is falling apart' as you claim on 'This English Life'? What would be your plan to stick it back together again?
We need - as a nation - to wake ourselves out of this idiotic cultural coma we've found ourselves in and stop being interested in utterly pointless things like Peter Andre's life being videotaped till the end of time for our pleasure on ITV2; the significance of the word "pleb"; and ex-soap stars ice skating badly in order to attempt to flag their long forgotten careers. I wonder if Shayne Ward realised when he won X Factor that only a few years later he'd be nervously shunted around an ice rink by a sparkly ex-professional akin to how a child casually prods a piece of shit with a stick in a park. These people aren't forced to do this rubbish, they have a choice - just as we have a choice not to watch it. The human being is a complex and wonderful thing capable of amazing things but unfortunately we're in danger of devolving into some sort of fame obsessed orange mush. Or "Katona'd" as it's more commonly known.
Last word: spill your word or words of wisdom. Say 'pass' if you have none.
Be polite and don't be an arsehole.
Thanks Kingsley.
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/thechapmanfamily
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/chapmanfamily
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