|
Working Knights.
There's not much
middle-ground with The Black Knights.
Love 'em, loathe 'em, ignore 'em or adore 'em; and that's just
the way they like it.
The Black Knights
are a Voodoo-trash-blues duo from Irlam, and
salfordmusic recently
caught up with Gary Hope and Thomas Pickford for a chat about
what they've been up to for the last six months, and about their
forthcoming album release with
Recreation Records.
salfordmusic:
"So what are you lads up to at the moment?"
Tom: "we're just getting our heads down now- ready to record the
album- which has always been a dream of mine to spend
time creatively on music- 'cos I only judge music by albums, not
individual songs.
Signing
to Recreation Records was quite straightforward really, we
passed on our songs to Andy Chester (the head
honcho of Recreation Records) and he was keen to have us on the label,
and we were keen to sign. So by summertime we will have a
collection of
songs that will be ready to be recorded.
We're looking forward to having a block of time to concentrate
on recording new songs. We've always prided
ourselves on being a great live band, and now it's time to
translate that into an album."
Gary: "As
for using extra instrumentation, we'll only add other sounds if
we think it suits. We don't want to lose the essence of what we
are.
We did an EP in the summer of 2009 called Parade of Piranhas
which was really well received, and still selling quite well.
We put it out ourselves- we thought that rather than wait for
somebody else to do it- we would just get on with it."
salfordmusic:
"What about your attraction to the blues? Is it an interest in
the stylistics of blues music or more the themes and subject
matter that early 1920s and 1930s blues singers concentrated on?
Themes such as disenfranchisement, rejection of traditional love
songs, the plight of the underdog etc?"
Gary: "We’re drawn to the
seedier side of the blues – it’s a genre founded in oppression
and dark dealings. Extending the story you’ve got Robert Johnson
selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads and all the
narrative and themes that surround it…
 Also
as a duo its something that works out well for us in that it’s a
genre led by feel, in-the-moment and raw, exciting. We like to
reject traditional narratives and current themes. Songs about
the everyman, dance-floors and the mediocrity of everyday life
are staples for a lot of listeners and bands, but they don’t
interest me.
Going back to Johnson, he was also seen as
superhuman, possessed, and striking up a deal with the devil in
return for talent. I’m drawn particularly to the idea of the
blues as a ethically corrupting dark force – and then the ideas
of shamanism and voodoo – it’s a great well of themes to dive
into.
We’ll always be/feel the underdog –
numerically and in terms of our approach. In this city (and we
have wider reaching aims) we stand alone. That is both a
blessing and a curse.
Blues started amongst the slaves as a way to
show their perceived masters that they couldn’t break them, it
isn’t afraid to look the demon in the eye and stand up to it
It’s easy to gloss over and pretend it isn’t there, attempt
escapism, but standing toe-to-toe and exposing all the ugliness,
depravity, and darkness in the world is the only way to not be
defeated by it.
All this is bollocks unless we put our own
slant on it, so we take these ideas, refine them and spit them
back out. I’ll always look to ally the classic themes of blues
against more modern ideas – time will move on but society and
people all have the same flaws and behavioral tics that they
ever had.
That’s what makes blues a relevant genre for
me. Some may dismiss it as 'dadrock shite', and if done poorly
or wrongly it is. But we’ve taken it and reinvented it for the
21st century: voodoo trash blues for the 21st
Century, raw, dark, sinister and sexy. We’ll never be and never
wanted to be the next token everyman hero for Manchester – we’re
the ones who hide in the alleyways and expose their hypocrisies
and flaws, myth-killers."
salfordmusic: "Is the fact that there is just two of you an antidote to
laziness? In that neither of you can afford to have an
off-night?"
Gary: "If I have an off-night then I get a drumstick thrown at my
head and if Tom has an off-night then he gets a
guitar thrown at him- so we don't generally have that many
off-nights. But we don't believe in being blasé
and lazy; we are out to entertain. Musical theatre is what I
would describe it as. We want to provide a spectacle-
which might be a bit of an old-fashioned way of thinking- but
that's what we feel."
Tom: "...and there's nowhere to hide in a two-piece band- which is a
bit dangerous- and gives us an edge."
Gary: "Since
Parade of Piranhas, which was just a case of 'turn up to
11, smash it out and make everyone's ears bleed' we've learnt
to make our sound a bit more sinister, give our sound a bit more
space- which for the band to grow artistically
and evolve is something we had to do: more light and shade was
needed."
Tom: "Sometimes a whisper can have more impact than a shout."
|
