Its Chris Turpin- the lead singerr of Kill It Kid’s- birthday, and our phone interview is scheduled for 11:15 (in the morning). Suffice to say, I’m not too confident about him a) answering his phone or b) being sober enough upon answering the phone to legibly answer questions, especially when you consider his singing voice at times sounds like the secret lovechild of Tom Waits and Anthony Hegarty (and no, I don’t know how that would work either, but the point stands).
Fortunately I am proved wrong, and it turns out a decidedly non-hungover Chris and the rest of the marvellous Kill It Kid- who are just about to release their stunning first single ‘Lord Send Me An Angel Down’ on the 18th May-are speeding up the motorway to the capital for what Chris calls a ‘hectic day’ with an ‘industry showcase, video shoot, meetings...’ KiK are, it is clear, finding out first hand what it means to be one of the most highly-thought of bands on possibly the best independent record label in the country (One Little Indian). One could understand if he felt nervous around the media merry-go-round, or even disliked doing, well, exactly what he’s doing now. But there’s not a hint of this as he proclaims to ‘enjoy it all’, even saying that the band have had ‘a couple of weeks of nothing, and have began to get a bit bored.’ Its all very well mannered, thoughtful and, even if he’s just being nice (which I don’t think is actually the case), quite the antithesis of the stereotypical gobby indie oik frontman slagging off all and sundry in pursuit of a headline.
So the media side of things is okay. But what about the pressure? After all, here is a band that were picked up by One Little Indian just three months after their inception, then flown out to Seattle to record their album in the same studio as Fleet Foxes, with a producer (Ryan Hadlock) that has worked on records by such luminaries as The Strokes, Regina Spektor, Johnny Flynn, The Gossip and many more besides: ‘We are a little bit nervous about it’, he admits, understandably, before displaying a refreshing sense of perspective by going on to say ‘at the end of the day, our part of the deals been done now. They picked us up only three months after forming ,so what we’ve just produced is the sound of us at that point.’
Despite this relatively short lifespan, it transpires Chris himself has been playing in bands since he was 15, and like many bands their coming together was a concoction of serendipitous fortune. ‘I was playing an acoustic show at Uni. Marc Jones came along and said if you ever need a drummer...’
Steph Ward, the sultry Alison Krauss a-like whose sultry tones contrast wonderfully with Chris’s throaty growl, met him ‘playing in a terrible soul band. She asked me to play behind her at a jazz concert. ‘ Bassist Adam Timmins then joined up, and it just exploded right? Wrong. ‘We got everyone together minus the violin player...it sounded pretty terrible,’ he laughs. Fortunately, violinist Richard Jones was not long to enter the fray, and this devastating, remarkably mature (they are all 20-22) concoction of delta blues, folk and rock was born.
Such a merry band of influences, and the fact their name comes from a recording by legendary bluesman Blind Willie Mctell, leads one to wonder whether any one particular artist has directly informed their music, but Chris says ‘there’s not one particular person. Though a lot of the music we’re interested in is stuff born out of a particularly horrendous time.’ Blues is clearly at the heart of this statement, though he namechecks Johnny Cash- whom he ‘greatly admires’- before we slip briefly into a reminiscence about Bruce Springsteen who’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Nebraska he professes an affection for, before delighting me- a huge Springsteen fan- no end by declaring that ‘he is The Boss!’.
The theme here certainly seems to be that of the distinctly American tradition of honest folk on the wrong side of the road; a return, it might be said, to traditional values of music and song-writing. When this is put forward, Chris agrees and admits ‘this was a conscious decision. All we ever wanted to do was play this sound that’s different from a lot of the indie music out there.’ Frankly, when you see Kill it Kid live and observe the genuinely affectionate interplay between all the bands members, but especially that between singers Chris and Steph, they seem a million miles from the bland posturing indie pap that blights the airwaves: ‘At the end of the day, we’re there to have fun. To entertain. All these middle class indie bands that pose around on stage, that’s not us.’ To anyone that’s seen them play, this won’t be in question as all the members frequently dissolve into a stomping, crashing, howling whole, seemingly unbothered whether or not Gordon Smart thinks they look cool.
So as we wend out way to the end of conversation and Chris talks about the bands second single- ‘Burst Its Banks’- due in October, the album after that and the venues he’s looking forward to playing (Concorde 2 in Brighton and a homecoming gig of sorts at Moles in Bath), one can’t help but wonder if this eloquent, softly spoken only-just-22 lad who sings like a man who’s lived 50 years of toil and grimy romance will actually show any sign of his age. As I wish him a happy birthday and good wishes for the day ahead, I tell him to try and not to get too pissed that night. ‘Don’t worry’ he tells me, ‘I will.’
Guess that’ll have to do for now....
Posted In Features, May 15 2009.
Words - David