Jen catches up with Kingfisha prior to their tour.
Kingfisha are back with new album Offered it Up and to celebrate the release of their second album, Kingfisha are bringing the party back home for a run of shows bound to knock the socks right off your feet. Brisbane roof raisers Kingfisha have been laying down weighty reggae and dub, and bringing their passionate music to eager audiences for 5 years, in the process cementing themselves as Australia’s premier reggae act. The 6-piece band deliver crafted and modern reggae music by coupling their love of Jamaican rhythms with personal depth and style.
Their incredibly well received self titled debut album saw lead single ‘Piece of the Puzzle’ added to triple j and the album landed album of the week status at PBS FM, Radio Australia and East Side Radio amongst plenty of rave reviews and Kingfisha enjoyed touring opportunities that have taken them to some of the world’s most interesting places such as a recent wildly successful run of shows in Africa including South Africa, Mozambique, Reunion Island and Swaziland. Going from strength to strength, Kingfisha recently inked deals with 123 Agency for bookings and ABC Music for the release of Offered it Up out on September 9th ahead of their huge national tour which will see Kingfisha team up with long term collaborators Earth Frequency Festival to present the hometown Brisbane launch at the Triffid.
Jen had a chat with Kingfisha prior to their tour. Congrats on the release of your new album, now all the waiting is over and you hear what fans think of it how are you feeling about that whole “it is now out there” kind of thing?
Feeling great about it… really happy with how it all came together and relieved that we can now move on and focus on playing and writing more tunes
You guys are no newcomers to the music scene, what do you feel are the achievements that you are the proudest of?
Probably staying together and still writing music that we are all enjoying playing live together.
You have a pretty big tour coming up! Starting in Cairns and heading all over Aus although I notice a lack on SA in the tour was there a reason for that?
Not really, it just didn’t workout for this tour.. Hopefully next year
Is there something that you learnt from releasing Piece of the Puzzle that you did differently this time around?
We tried some different production approaches for offered it up and learnt heaps along the way which we’ll be able to take into future releases…
That is great. A question that I have wanted to ask a larger band, I saw Reel Big Fish at the Prince Bandroom a couple of years ago and the stage was not big enough for them, and with 5 of you, have you ever had a stage so small that you have not been able to do your usual ‘thing’ on stage?
There used to be this great venue in Brisbane called the Joynt that had this tiny stage that we could barely fit on with all our gear. We always had great vibes at that venue though, maybe because we were so close to each other.
After listening to your album a few times, was ‘Hold On’ always going to be your opening song or was it a matter of shuffling them around when you knew what was going on the album?
We actually had the gold as our first Tune and after getting the masters back and listening to the album a few times it just didn’t feel right. We tried a few different other tunes first and then decided to go with hold on for no real particular reason other than it felt cool.
Do you have plans to make a music video soon?
We would really like to. There’s been a few ideas going around, but budgets holding us back at the moment so will see what happens.
Totally love the Album cover design. Did you do that yourselves? It is really really good!
A good friend of ours Lachlan Mitchell Whipped that up for us last year.. He’s done the artwork for hiatus Kaiyote albums as well…. He does amazing stuff.
I really like ‘The Gold’ I think the lyrics are very clever, also ‘in a Memory’ are all your songs written by personal experience? In fact how does your writing process go?
A lot of our songs our inspired by personal expenses.. For this album I brought most of the tunes into the rehearsal room and then everyone would play there part in making them better… 2 tunes were built from the rhythm up in the studio..
There were so many positive comments on your facebook page, do you take much attention to those comments? Are you ever concerned about negative comments about your music when you work so hard on an album?
It has been cool to hear some nice things about the album but I find it best if I don’t read to many reviews about the band…
That is fair. Thanks heaps for your time, Jen
“So smooth and understated it verges on soulful” The Brag
“With a range of infusions, their sound is distinctly reggae layered with some gorgeous
vocal melodies to create a completely fresh sound” Rip It Up
KINGFISHA – TOUR DATES
1 Oct – Wallaby Creek Festival QLD
7 Oct – Torquay Hotel, VIC
8 Oct – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
15 Oct – Newtown Social Club, NSW
21 Oct – Transit Bar – Canberra ACT
22 Oct – Dragon Dreaming Festival, ACT
23 Oct – Swagger Festival, VIC
5 Nov – Imperial Hotel, Sunshine Coast QLD
11 Nov – The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba QLD
12 Nov – The Shark Bar, Gold Coast QLD
18 Nov – Settlers Inn, Margaret River WA
19 Nov – Indi Bar, Scarborough, WA
20 Nov – Mojos, Fremantle WA
3 Dec – The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
4 Dec – Hotel Brunswick, Brunswick Heads NSW
New album Offered It Up is out September 9th
Pre-order the album now on iTunes to receive the new single ‘Left It’ instantly
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