Blue King Brown

Fri 4th Sep, 2009 in Features

Hard-gigging roots collective Blue King Brown is piling into the bus to play Blueprint Festival this month. The all-Australian four-day gathering in Ararat, Victoria will see the band doing what they do best – spreading good vibes. FasterLouder caught up with the guys ahead of their homecoming.

For the last few months you’ve been skipping all over the world – Germany, Austria, Canada. What has the reception been like?
We’ve found that people respond to our music in a similar way throughout the world, which has been really positive. We were able to reach new audiences throughout Europe and also return to some towns and cities we visited last time throughout Canada and the US. We also managed to sell out our first show in the UK which was a surprise and a great feeling for the last show of the entire tour.

You’re playing a whole bunch of festivals over the next five months – including the Blueprint Festival in Ararat, Victoria. Is there a big difference between your festival set and a standalone show?
The main difference is the length and thereby the dynamic and theatrics of the show. At a festival we usually come out all guns blazing and rock right through to the end of our set because it’s often only one hour or less. We really enjoy playing like this, but at our own shows we’re able to really create an experience and add all the lovely extras like projections, longer jams, creative lighting and more music.

In your experience are festivals the same the world over – is there any particular one that stands out?
There are definitely similarities between festivals all over the world. One we played recently in Switzerland called Gurten Festival reminded us of the Byron Bay Blues Festival but had its own thing going as well, including being situated on top of a mountain in the old city of Bern. There’s a river that runs down the mountain into the township and it’s said that people who live on the mountain will jump on a raft or in a boat and ride down to town for work each day. Not sure how they get back up though?

How important is it for the band to get out to regional Australia and play smaller gigs and festivals?
For us it’s really important. We understand the need to spread our music far and wide and appreciate the opportunities to visit the smaller towns and also support those festivals creating a positive cultural experience for the local and national community.

Your shows are always so energetic and hard-hitting – how do you maintain that enthusiasm and power show after show?
We really enjoy the live forum, so playing live is always a buzz for us. Sure it can be harder to get amped up before a show if we’ve been on the road for a really long time without sleep, but irrelevant of that, once we walk on stage, there’s that positive feeling. The energy from the crowd has an enormous ability to dissolve any weariness and shake any tiredness.

Sounds like the recording process for the new record was one huge adventure?
We started out in Sing Sing recording studios Melbourne, then went on to Kingston Jamaica to record all the vocals. It was a great time and being there surrounded by so much talent and great music has definitely inspired our up coming release. We’ve collaborated with incredible artists like Sly and Robbie, Jah Mason, Queen Ifrica and others.

We’ve been spending a lot of time producing it and getting really fussy in order to perfect every moment of sound. It’s been really fun and a different experience to the first album, in part because we’re using a lot more programmed beats mashed up with the live instrumentation and other electronically produced sounds.

Your music always has a message – what’s firing you up at the moment?
The forthcoming G8 summit in Copenhagen this December, where world leaders will decide on a carbon reduction target post 2012 and aim for an agreed target of 80% greenhouse gas reduction by 2050. We should make sure our politicians solidify this goal. It is so important that we tell our representatives what we want is real and effective policies and outcomes from this summit to ensure we are on our way to real and lasting change for the benefit of our people and our planet. Write to Peter Garrett, Penny Wong and Kevin Rudd now!

Blue King Brown play Blueprint Festival in Ararat, Victoria from 18 to 21 September.