“We’re just so excited to be going to Australia!” Charming and refreshingly down-to-earth, Black Kids’ frontman Reggie Youngblood chats to FasterLouder about the festival circuit, their eagerness to get down under and his (lack of) gracefulness – all the while laughing his ass off.
You guys have had so much success lately. Kudos. But it’s a double-edged sword. Getting hype also equals getting shit, people being jealous. How do you deal with bad press?
It’s not very difficult. I mean, at end of the day I’m a grown man. We kind of work from a too simplistic philosophy – our music is obviously for those who enjoy it. Not going to hold a gun to anyone’s head if they don’t like it! We steal a lot of our sounds from other acts we listen to; this might annoy certain purists, but we think it’s about drawing on what you listen to.
Yeah, knowing your musical history is pretty darn important; what has been done in the past to get to this point.
Yep, exactly.
On that note, how’s your BDO history knowledge? Up to scratch?
We actually heard about it from Cut Copy. We toured with them and they were all like, ‘so, are you guys going to play Big Day Out?’ We didn’t know what they were talking about!
Well, to let you in on the secret, it’s partly populated by this type of subhuman being known as the bogan. Probably equivalent to your redneck…they’re pretty excitable at these types of things. Shirts off, vomiting, beer sculling, all that…
[Laughs] They sound interesting. We’ve definitely seen their equivalent over here.
Well, in the spirit of Australian-ism, what are the most ‘bogan’ things you guys might do while you’re over here?
I think probably once a month we allow ourselves to get pissed off our heads and our tour manager and our crew babysit us! I can’t keep it up like I used to anyone. [Music] is a bit of a day job at times, and I’m a bit of an old man now. I can’t do it every night. I need to be subtle about it [laughs].
So which tune should festival goers in Oz look forward to being dropped?
Sugar Mountain by Neil Young, for sure. Of ours, I’d say I Can’t Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance, obviously!
On that note, would you ever get your groove on to your own stuff?
Oh man! Not in Black Kids. In another local group we recorded a demo and we were out one night at a club and the DJ played a song and I was so pissed, I was like, “What is this?! I love this song!” Then one of my friends came up and tapped me on shoulder and was like, “Hey dumbass, you’re dancing to our own song.” So I felt pretty stupid.
Well, embarrassing moments, let’s go there. Most embarrassing onstage moment?
I think I fall once every performance. They think, “Oh, he’s intoxicated”, and I try to play on that but that’s really how graceful I am.
The band itself ‘sounds’ extroverted. Your sound lends itself to danceability and energy. Some like the quiet perfection of production however. Which do you guys prefer, and why?
I’ve always kinda see them as separate things that serve different purposes – I don’t know about preference. They both can be kind of an experience; creating versus a very physical sharing. I’d say when you do three weeks straight of one you kinda wish you were doing the other, you know! Grass is always greener and all that.
Finally, leave us with some cheeky gossip. Who parties hardest on tour?
Definitely our crew! We go to bed and leave our tour manager up with the roadies – they’re the ones that really represent the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. Then the girls [Dawn and Ali] – they like to party. They are a little bit like the men of our band!
The Black Kids will get you dancing at Big Day Out this month. They’ve also pencilled in a couple of sideshows – check the Gig Guide listings below.
