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DSD: How has the ‘Big Issue’ tour been?Itch (vocals/ukulele): It’s been brilliant. It’s been absolutely packed, queues around the block. Quite a lot of the kids have said they’re up for paying the normal ticket price [entry was free with the purchase of a ‘Big Issue’] and letting the vendors keep the rest of the money. It’s nice that it’s worked as a good tour for us and as a good tour for the reason we’re doing it.
Have the crowds been different now that you’re on the cover of ‘Kerrang!’ and being played on Radio 1?There’s definitely a lot of new faces on this tour. There’s definitely a lot more people that haven’t seen us before. It’s nice, playing to new people rather than just playing to the same people. It’s nice seeing new faces come and as a band it’s what keeps you going, that progression.
Did you ever think you’d be this successful when you started out in 2004?Yeah, we always believed in ourselves from day one and we always wanted to push it. We’ve got where we are due to hustling and a whole lot of hard work. A band like us really has no place in the mainstream, we’re like a sore thumb, and we got here from really working hard and grinding and we continue to do that every day. We continue to work our arses off. We don’t have too much time to sit down and reflect and pat ourselves on the back, we’re definitely still on the hustle.
I think coming from the punk scene and the DIY squat scene it was always a case that you had to get of your arse and do it yourself because no one else is going to do it for you, you know? I think we’ve always had that same mentality. It was empowering when we couldn’t get gigs and we walked around opening up our own squats and stuff in order to get people to see us. There was a sense of empowerment there. And from then on you can apply that really to anywhere in your live.
When did you start getting actively involved in politics? When I was younger and living on the streets this group of punks took me under their wing. They took me to a squat and let me live there with them. That really opened my eyes musically, and politically it really changed my world. I saw them going out and really getting involved in politics. I just saw how empowering it was that they really did have a voice, and together the voice is even loader and greater. I just realised that we’re not as powerless as we’re made out to be and we’re just as important as anybody else - that this country is just as much ours as it is the people in charge. I think that’s when I realised that we can lead, have our say and leave our mark.
How do you feel about the current economic crisis?Obviously it makes us very angry. We’re heading into a recession but I’d like to see a positive movement come out of it. I think we’re going to see a whole lot of commercial properties that are going to be empty in the next few years and I’d like to see a movement of people squatting in those properties and taking them over for positive usage.
We’re getting to a point now where people are getting angrier and more aware of what’s going. And when people come together and there’s genuine anger that’s when change happens. That’s when real change happens. So as much as it’s a terrible, negative thing I think there’s definitely hope in there.
Do you consciously set out to write ‘political’ songs?I don’t think I can just sit down and write a ‘political song’ or a ‘personal song’. I don’t want to feel that I have to make any song political or that I have to make every song personal. I feel at the moment that we’re lucky enough to be in a position to write about whatever we want. I don’t want us to be a one trick pony, you know? Like, as much as I love and respect Billy Bragg, a lot of people when they think of ‘Billy Bragg’ they think, ‘Oh, that political songwriter’, which kind of demeans him a bit. There’s a lot more depth to him and he’s a lot more real than that, in the same way that’s there a lot more depth to us than just being a political band. There’s a lot more sides to us.
Will you be involved in the May Day protests this year?On 4 May we’re going to go down to the Smash the EDO protest, which is an arms company based in Brighton. We’ve been down to there protest before worked quite closely with them. The last protest we went on with them was absolutely successful. We managed to get into the factory and smash the windows, which isn’t mindless vandalism like people may assume that it is. This is an arms company. And because they are a company and all they care about is making profit and money. The only way to hurt them isn’t by having 20 people standing outside going, ‘We don’t want bombs, we don’t want more war’. We have to hurt them financially.
Desperate people in desperate times turn into desperate situations in an attempt to actually be listened. It’s time to take direct action. We’ve seen that marching from A to B isn’t going to change things. In 2003 we had the anti-war protest was the largest protest this country’s ever seen and was ignored.
The movement is so large - it’s a movement of movements - it involves so many different causes that have come together. I think it’s definitely inspiring when you see people take the power into their own hands.
The King Blues’ album ‘Save The World, Get The Girl’ is out now on Field/Island. Their new political debate/arts website http://thestreetsareours.net is online now.
