Hamburg-based newcomers The Kecks formed late last year, with ex-Manuka Hive bassist Joel Phillips completing the multi-national - Australian, French, Austrian/German, British - line-up. Described as "a mix of a hefty dose of The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand", their debut single, 'Stick In My Throat' - premiered earlier this month by John Kennedy on Radio X - was released on June 21 via AWAL.
Who are you?
I am Joel Phillips, bassist with The Kecks. We are a curious blend of Aussie - Samuel Telford on guitar and backing vocals - French - Corentin "Dragon" Neyran on drums - Austrian - vocalist Lennart Uschmann - and Brit, which is me - all creating weird noise under Hamburg‘s seedy neon glow since 2018.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
We owe a lot of it to The Growlers actually. We only completed our line-up on board a Flixbus bound for Berlin to one of their shows. Sam, Lennart and Dragon had been jamming and getting ideas together but needed a bass player to complete the line-up. I had just moved to Hamburg and was getting on the same bus, drinking a beer at around 10 am, and everyone knows that two things that draw an Aussie in are mullets and beer! The mullet drew Sam in like a moth to a flame, we got chatting about music and the rest is history.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
We believe everybody is a sum of their influences and we very much wear ours on our sleeve. We are big into The Growlers - obviously - The Strokes, The Voidz, Kirin J Callinan, Tame Impala and such. Everyone in the band has a pretty broad musical taste though from 80s pop to jazz, so you get all sorts of weirdness thrown in.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
We are pretty fortunate that everybody in the band writes and brings ideas to the table, I don’t think we really have a process. We have found in the past that if you try and force it its usually shit and a very frustrating process so we kind of just let it happen. We have a room on the sixth floor of this bunker and somebody will usually bring in an idea, we will jam and flesh the idea out and then it’ll morph into something completely different. Everybody in this band is a genuine music lover and always listening to new things and having new idea so its more of a constant ongoing flow of ideas as opposed to a set process.
Tell us a little about your new single.
'Stick In My Throat' is our debut single produced by Jean Baptiste Pilon at London’s vibes Buffalo Studio and mastered by Giovanni Versari (Muse, Nic Cester) of La Maestà studio In Tredozio, Italy. It was amazing working with JB as he totally got what it was that we were trying to do and was totally into and weird ideas that we would have, we even managed to get some Omnichord on it! We’ve also shot an amazing video for it with our close friend and collaborator Carlos ‘Mexi Kravitz’ Andres. The guy is a total wizzard. The whole thing was entirely DIY with no budget but we are really pleased with how its turned out.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
We are over in the UK for a couple of show in July, then will be back for a bit more of a comprehensive tour in the winter along with a short European run. We’ve just got back from touring Germany with legendary The Only Ones frontman Peter Perrett which was an awesome experience and our first proper opportunity to hit the road.
19th July - Vintage Rockbar, Doncaster
20th July - Tramlines Festival, Sheffield
21st July - Yerrr Bar, Manchester
How's the year looking, plans-wise?
We are heading back into the studio with JB at the end of summer to record three more tracks, and until then we will just be getting out and playing in as many new places as possible. We just love playing live so if there’s a stage and people are willing to listen then The Kecky bois will turn up and blast our way into your ear holes.
Where can we hear more of your music?
You can find us on all good music retailers and streaming sites such as Spotify, SoundCloud, Amazon, Apple Music and Deezer. The video is also live on YouTube.
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Website // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter
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