interview with Black Market Karma

What´s the name of your band? Black Market Karma

How was the band formed? Black Market Karma is the name that I make music under. We've always been a collective of friends over the years with people coming and going. We have a solid group now with the same members for a few years.

Can you tell about your band? We are a Neo-Psychedelic collective from south East London. 

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? Most of the members are from the suburbs of London with the exception of Louisa, who's is originally from Paris. Live I'm on guitar and Vocals, my brother Fin is on guitar, Louisa plays guitar and sometimes vocals, Mike's on the Bass and we are currently in between drummers.

 What was the ambitions of the band when you started? To make good music, work hard to create all the time and be prolific and to reach as many people as we can. This still is our ambition.

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? The style has been most affected by 60's Psychedelia and Garage Rock through to Shoegaze and Neo-Psych, Traditional music, Blues, Northern Soul, Rock'n'Roll and sometimes electronic sounds. Despite the various influences in the songs, we are able to bring it all together as a consistent and continuous body of work through production. We use a broad range of instruments to create a rich and layered sound.

Where was your first gig? I honestly don't remember.

Where was the latest gig? Manchester.

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? I write, record and produce all of our music at our studio.

Who has the best since of humor in the band? We can all be pretty funny when everything comes together.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? Neo-psychedelia sums it up pretty well. Like I said before we have a lot of different influences when it comes to styles of songwriting. Psychedelia has become a blanket term that can really be almost anything. That's what's great about it, the freedom.

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? It's free. You can do whatever you want and it can still be the same band. The lyrics are just experiences I've had in my life, a range of different emotions and ideas. A lot of them are fuelled by trying to capture that fire you get when music makes you feel invincible.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? All of the music is our own.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they?

We have 6 studio albums:

Comatose 

Cocoon

Easy Listening

Semper Fi

Upside Out Inside Down

The Sixth Time Around

The 6th was completed earlier this year and will be released soon. The other 5 studio albums, as well as a live album "Live At Radar" are available as free downloads on www.flowerpowerrecords.com 

They can also be bought on various sites such as Amazon and itunes. Our fourth album, Semper Fi is also available on Vinyl through www.flowerpowerrecords.com

Comatose was released in January 2012 with Cocoon, Easy Listening and Semper fi also in that year. Live at Radar was released in 2013 and Upside Out Inside Down in 2014

Do you have any clips on YouTube?

There's a ton of stuff on there. The live album was also filmed, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxrw7vduhA8

And this is "Skullgroover" from our latest album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=406OueWpeVY

 How old are you?/What got you started in music? I'm 24. I used to be obsessive with drawing when I was younger. The feeling of creating and finishing something is addictive. When I picked up a guitar that desire moved over to recording songs.

At what age did you start playing? 13

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? I think I was 14. Not sure about everyone else.

What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? Currently we're only booked to play one more show this year at The Water Rats in King's Cross, London on the 13th December. The show is being moved due to venue complication however, so I'm not sure where it will be yet.

Where have you played from then till now? So far we've played all around the UK and Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Belgium, Ireland and  Spain.

Which band is the best you've seen? I don't know about the best, but there's some good, newer bands around playing at the moment. Les Big Byrd, The Anteloids, Tess Parks, My Expansive Awareness, The Csomonauts, The Tangerines, Loaded. The Koolaid Electric Company were always good live but haven't played for a couple of years.  I saw a band last weekend called Velvet Morning that I really enjoyed. 

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? I don't know what the best was, we've had a lot of great times over the years. Last september at Rock In The Barn festival in Giverny, France was great. Just had a real special feeling to it.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Hoping to release our new album, The Sixth Time Around before the year is out. Do maybe 1 or 2 more shows before Christmas. I'm working on our 7th album at the moment. I'm five songs in and hoping to finish it before 2015.

Where do you usually play? We play all over but London is local to us, so usually there.

 How do you get psyched up for a gig? Soundcheck makes or breaks it for me. If everything goes well and we sound how we should, I'm happy.

What are your goals with your music? The same as they always were. To be prolific and to reach as many people as we can. 

When did you decide to go all in for the music? When I started playing the guitar. I knew straight away I wanted to do that.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern?  Both works for me. When you hear a piece of music you really enjoy it makes you want to create. It doesn't matter when it was made.

What are your sources of inspiration? Lyrically I'm affected by most things in my life, but musically it usually stems from music itself. Listening to it or playing and finding the start to an idea, then wanting to build on it.

What's the first step when making a new song? It depends. Most of the time it's one of two ways. I'll have an idea come into my head, usually when walking. I'll then want to try and get it record as close to what I was imagining. The other way is when I'm playing an instrument and find something I like as a starting point.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? I think it's great that music can be accessed in so many ways now. I do think there's a lot of value in buying a physical product, especially a vinyl and the tangibility of it. However, people say that downloading music, or even getting it free devalues it for the listener and I don't agree with that. If you love it a piece of music and the way it makes you feel, it doesn't matter how you got it. That feeling will still be the same. We currently have all our albums up for free download on our website but people still buy them on various sites and on Vinyl. We may not always keep it this way, but it's been a great tool for getting our band to new ears.

What would be your dreams for the band? To keep it going a long as we can, but stay consistent in the quality of music. To reach as many people as we can and keep it growing. To be able to be self sufficient and play shows around the world.

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? The Velvet Underground, The Beatles, Spacemen 3, Leadbelly, Bob Dyan, Spiritualized, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Serge Ginsbourg.  Tom Waits, Curtis Mayfield, The Troggs, My Bloody Valentine, The All Night Workers, Lilys, Magic Cstles, Flavor Crystals, Cape Kennedy Construction Company, The Warlocks, Jacques Dutronc The Kynds, The Cryan Shames, Sunny And The Sunsets, Panda Bears, Ravi Shankar, Jesus And Mary Chain, Daniel Johnston,  Black Angels, BRMC, Dead Rabbits, Buddy Guy, Can, Cosmonauts, Ducktails, The Koolaid Electric Company, Tess Parks, Cosmonauts, The Tangerines, The Seeds, Spectrum, Sonny Boy Williamson, Thee Oh Sees, Them There's a bunch more but here's a rough idea. 

What do you hold most dear? A lot of things are important to me, but when it comes down to it I guess all that really matters is Family, friends and your health.

Have you been part of any other projects? Recently I wrote and recorded some songs with Tess Parks. One of which will be released on an upcoming Rough Trade compilation with other bands such as Ringo Deathstarr and Tomorrow's Tulips.

Have you been in any other bands? No, I've always made music as Black Market Karma.

What would you do if there was no music? I'd do some other form of arts for sure. When I was younger I wanted to be a comic book artist.

How important are your fans? Everything, the best part of playing music is reciprocation. When everything comes together at a show and there's this intangible feeling between everyone that you can't quite explain.

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? I can't think of one standout thing. It's a great feeling when people share your music and spread the word. We get a lot of independent blogs etc featuring us. It's humbling to see the effort that goes into some of those things.

How often do you rehearse? It varies, most weeks usually.

Where do you rehearse? In our studio.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? When you record a lot of music, that latest thing always feels the most prominent. I'm happy with our latest record and can't wait for people to hear it. There's a song in it called "The First Time Around". It has 6 versions. Going from The 1st, to the 6th Time Around. They are all reprises, 2 to 5 been instrumental with completely different arrangements on each one. The 6th is a softer, slower version with lyrics. It's a kind of theme tune to the record. There's another song towards the end of the album called "The Noise In Your Head" that I'm happy with. It has a different style to anything we've done before. 

What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? Ambition and genuine love for what you do. If you're faking it or doing it for the wrong reasons, you won't keep it up.

Do you have any webpages?

www.blackmarketkarma.com

www.flowerpowerrecords.com

We're also on multiple social media sites. 

How do you view the music industry of today? We do everything ourselves as far as releases and recording, so I've never had to come up against industry problems in that regard. From what I can see there seems to be a lot of game-playing going on with the consumer. Musicians get taken advantage of a lot and I've heard industry people saying things such as "this band has too much music" which I find absolutely ridiculous when you really think about it. 

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Having control of your own interests. And at the most basic level, having somewhere to rehears and being able to record.

Tell us about upcoming gigs and why we should be at them? Our next show is with Goodsouls Promotions. It's run by brothers Chris and Mike. They're great people and treat you right. The other reason would be if you like our albums. I think, when the sound is good, live is the best way to experience a band.

Whats your Pre-show ritual? We don't really have one. I suppose each member probably has their own approach to it in their heads. As long as soundcheck goes well, I'm ready to play.

Do you have anything to add? Thanks for your time and spreading the word about Black Market Karma

Kommentera här: