By the bands own admission, King 810 are not foreveryone. Hailing from Flint Michigan aka Murdertown USA to say King 810have done the hard yards to get where they are is a gargantuan understatement.
While their signature sound could be described as harsh reality, there is
something far deeper to King 810 if you are prepared to follow them down the
rabbit holejust watch your back , because shit is about to get very real. Maniacs spoke to frontman and
lyricist David Gunn.
Alice In Wonderland may
seem a stage comparison for King 810s all-pervading, absolutely no punches
pulled tale of life on the streets, told on debut album Memoirs Of A Murderer. But the more you listen, the more it draws
you in and before you know, its got you and breathing heavily down the back of
your neck
Alice in Wonderland I
dont think consciously influenced me but it is maybe a sub-conscious factor or
an easy thing to tie it to, to help people understand exactly what it is. Says
Gunn huskily in explanation of the literary reference. You get into the artistry
half way through the record. Theres a layer to it and by the third and final
movement in the disk, although its still reality, its kind of abstract and purple
and greenish and youre so far down the rabbit hole that you dont really
remember where you came from. By the end youre kind of thinking this CD
started out with a track called Kill Em
All and I dont know where Im at right now! Its an easy analogy to pair
the record to with for people to understand it.
Another hint to the
would be punter that Memoirs is
certainly more than it initially seems, and certainly a lot smarter, is the division of the album
into 3 parts : the ID, Ego and Super-Ego, taken of course from the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund
Freud’s structural model of the psyche.
I think hed roll over
in his grave if he heard me talk about him Gunn says with a laugh regarding
his referencing Freud in his own writing Freud is more of a present theme. You
dont have to be able to understand any of this stuff you can just listen to it
for what it is, but if you want to get deeper, this thing is woven together in
extreme detail with more textures than
usual, more undertones than usual and more themes than usual. On so many levels
this is kind of fashioned to where theres no end. The deeper you want to go
with it, your realise that theres no coincidences and that every word every
verb, every syllable, every noun, every texture is by design and there is no
accident. Theres a lot more going on here than just a couple of annotations or
long winded explanations.
Memoirs Of A Murderer is interspersed with spoken word pieces, that hint of
Gunns earlier influences.
That was the outlet,
writing. Not necessarily music. he explains of what got him started and the
force that continues to drive him. I wrote from when I was six or seven. It
was always writing and telling stories. Then music came along and I dont know
how I got trapped into it or tricked into it but somehow Im just this writer
that happened to know some people that played music and they suckered me into
it and its then, yknow, 12 years now that I just cant get back! he laughs
gruffly.
Writing is what I
always wanted to do. What I think I was supposed to do in life. I never tried
to do anything else I never had any other plan or had any ambition to do
anything else like any other back up plan like a job or school. I dont write
anything like pen on paper. The words are just an outlet where you sit down and
close your eyes and it just startsyou dont realise youre done until your
mouth stops moving and words slop coming out so it is kind of poetic and that
is unapologetic because it comes from an organic place…without the delivery,
without the timbre and without the voice and perspective, it feels like writing
things on paper - as a storyteller - is abusive to the story.
While writing has always
been a personal outlet, thats not to say that the albums title is a literal
interpretation of Gunns life experiences and is more in reference to Flints
oft moniker of Murdertown USA and that violence is a universal issue, albeit
an unpopular one.
Well, I dont want to
incriminate myself right! he quips affably of the albums rather bleak title. But
I dont want to alienate Flint or where we come from. Thats why Kill Em All has stock footage from not
only Flint but across the US and even the world. Its a whole thing that s
saying this is everywhere this isnt just some crazy thing were talking about.
These are all real clips that really happened and its not just here [in Flint]
its everywhere and thats kind of the point of trying to make that social
commentary of holding the mirror up but of course, as usual, that got lost on
people.
All controversies aside
King 810 are genuinely excited about playing in Australia for the first time
as part of the Soundwave 2015 lineup.
I guess you wouldnt believe
it by what people say on the internet but the people in real life they have
been very responsive to us as a live band and theyve been supportive, so far
so good! If in Australia people think its OK then in some ways, thats more
flattering than someone in Flint that knows what youre saying because he has
to be down, because hes there.
Memoirs Of A Murderer is out
now on Roadrunner Records. Catch King 810 at Soundwave 2015.
