On his wonderful debut album, King Krule, the moniker for the 19 year old British singer-songwriter Archy Marshall, emerges as a punk poet who wears his heart on his sleeve. "What’s the point of covering things up?"
“Sweet,” drawls Archy Marshall when I tell him I’m happy that I have finally got him on the line – as if the tape is being played back too slowly. His speaking voice rasps just as deeply as the declamatory tones, in a succulent South London accent, to be heard on his debut album, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon. The 19-year-old Brit’s gritty big-city poetry has been widely acclaimed. Beyoncé put one of his songs on her Facebook page. The rappers Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt have praised him in public. The mix the slim red-haired singer has put together hasn’t come out of nowhere, however. From Gene Vincent to James Blake, from Joe Strummer to Fela Kuti, in his music you can hear Fifties rockabilly as well as hip hop, jazz, dubstep, funk, and Afrobeat. “Yeah. My music keeps on expanding.”
Your debut album came out on your nineteenth birthday. A nice birthday present, but I suspect it was no coincidence.
Archy Marshall: No, definitely not. My album documents the first nineteen years of my life, from my birth until now. I thought it was a nice symbol to underline it in that way. It is an extraordinarily important event for me, really monumental. If anything, it has really secured my role as an artist.
The image of a bruised teenager emerges from the lyrics. But, Billy Bragg-style, you link your personal malaise to a broader social context.
Marshall: At first, I wrote songs that were more narrative, that were just about everything that was going wrong in my life. Now I try to analyse things and distil a deeper meaning out of it and to express it in a more poetic way. What’s the point of covering things up? I wanted to make my debut with an aggressive punk album, and that’s how it turned out.
The title, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon, is about being really below your aspirations. The feeling that you can get nothing right, and that you are always controlled by higher forces. There are lots of young people struggling with those thoughts. It is so easy to get lost as a teenager.
“When positivity seems hard to reach, I keep my head down and my mouth shut," you sing in "Easy Easy". Is it better to keep quiet?
Marshall: At school I was always the guy who didn’t belong anywhere. Some people rebelled against the establishment; others kept quiet so as not to fall victim to bullies. I didn’t want to have anything to do with that sort of bullshit. In the next line I quote Winston Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, just keep going.” I found that ironic in that context, as I grew up surrounded by extreme leftists. Some people think he’s just a fake icon.
Long live King Krule
I guess “Cementality” is a word you made up yourself.
Marshall: Yeah. Lots of my songs are intertwined with the theme of the big city. “Cementality” is a song about suicide, how you want to jump out of a tall building and become one with the concrete. Those are thoughts that often ran through my mind. Hence the “mentality”. You have to get on with it.
Every bit as raw as your lyrics is your music, an unexpected mix of styles and genres. You make music with no blinkers on.
Marshall: I come from a broken family, but both my mother and my father played records all day long. My uncle played in a ska band. We often went to see his gigs. I think that’s where I picked up my sense of rhythm. I used to listen to music every minute of the day myself too, wherever I was. I drew strength from it, but it also gave me inspiration.
In “Baby Blue” you sound like a contemporary update of Chet Baker, with an airy xx vibe added to it.
Marshall: The original version was much rawer, you know. I love singers who pour out their hearts, like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. But I completely changed it when I discovered Ian Dury, his song “Sweet Gene Vincent” was at the start of it. I added some drum loops to make it a bit more dreamy.
Beyoncé and Frank Ocean have outed themselves as fans. Whose compliment were you most pleased about?
Marshall: Ah, with John Lurie’s. He is a musician, and also an actor and a painter. I’d definitely be on for a career like that.
King Krule • 12/10, 19.30, €14/17, BOTANIQUE, Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, 02-218.37.32, www.botanique.be
Marshall: Yeah. Lots of my songs are intertwined with the theme of the big city. “Cementality” is a song about suicide, how you want to jump out of a tall building and become one with the concrete. Those are thoughts that often ran through my mind. Hence the “mentality”. You have to get on with it.
Every bit as raw as your lyrics is your music, an unexpected mix of styles and genres. You make music with no blinkers on.
Marshall: I come from a broken family, but both my mother and my father played records all day long. My uncle played in a ska band. We often went to see his gigs. I think that’s where I picked up my sense of rhythm. I used to listen to music every minute of the day myself too, wherever I was. I drew strength from it, but it also gave me inspiration.
In “Baby Blue” you sound like a contemporary update of Chet Baker, with an airy xx vibe added to it.
Marshall: The original version was much rawer, you know. I love singers who pour out their hearts, like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. But I completely changed it when I discovered Ian Dury, his song “Sweet Gene Vincent” was at the start of it. I added some drum loops to make it a bit more dreamy.
Beyoncé and Frank Ocean have outed themselves as fans. Whose compliment were you most pleased about?
Marshall: Ah, with John Lurie’s. He is a musician, and also an actor and a painter. I’d definitely be on for a career like that.
King Krule • 12/10, 19.30, €14/17, BOTANIQUE, Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, 02-218.37.32, www.botanique.be
Read more about: Muziek
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