 So
it’s slapped bang in the middle of Festival season and if you attended one of
the many this summer chances are you would have caught Northern Ireland
quartet Kharma 45. The band already have Glasonbury, Wirelss, Oxegen under
their belts and will also be playing Reading.
“That’s sort of the buzz you get off it,
going on stage with only two hour’s sleep and you’re all starving it’s like
‘Jesus I’m playing a festival!’. It’s just a crazy buzz you get off it,
“enthuses frontman Glenn Rosborough.
So
here’s a band who is surely one to look out for. Don’t believe the hype though warns Glenn. “Hype usually always turn out to be bulls*t.
Don’t believe what you read in the papers because too many bands are hyped and
they’re sh*te”.
Whatever
Glenn may make of the hype surrounding the band, lady luck is undoubtedly
smiling on them. Formed in their native Derry
in October 2006 by Glenn along with guitarist Peter Doherty (no not that one), who met on a music course.
They’re joined by drummer Phil Curran and bassist Shane McDevitt. It wouldn’t be long before they played their
first gig. “It pretty cool because the band had only been properly together for
about a week, so it was really weird. It
was like the worst PA ever and the worst soundman ever”, remembers Glenn.
It
would be sooner rather than later that they got signed to Warners after sending
them a demo. As Glenn puts it, “we just
made loads of demos and sent them out to everyone and our manager just followed
them up. We started the band in October 2005 and we were signed by May 2006 and
we were playing showcases in like December. We were signed before we went on
the road and did any touring”.
So do they consider themselves to be lucky that it al happened so quickly and
effortlessly? “Pretty much yeah! Not that
we knew we then, but we were really lucky how it happened”.
Their
unique sound, which blends dance genres with rock, is clearly a winner with fans.
“ I was on a music course at the time,
and sampled sounds and orchestra samples that’d be around and I knew Peter was
into electro stuff so when we came to together, we weren’t planning any
specific sound, we were just making music. It just came out that way”
explains Glenn.
As
for the current crop of bands being churned out by record labels, Glenn is far
from impressed. “It’s no longer about the music, it’s about what jeans you wear or if
you’re acting wacky or not rather than making great music,” he fumes. “There’s still a lot of bands making really
good music but it’s all blown out of proportion because the current single is
not really that great and any thing good that comes along is blown up too much”.
He
does however respect artists who are outspoken about important issues. “The whole point about music I think is to
share your opinion and stuff and everyone no matter who they are has to have an
opinion on politics. I don’t really buy into that Bono I’m going to save the
world thing because it’s not band thing, but you can still talk about lots of
things,” he reckons. ”They’re not
going to change the world, but it’s the fact they’re in a band means they can
draw attention to the matter. All the bands are afraid of that, they think hold
on what if we’re being whiney but
you’re not, you’re just bringing people’s attention to it”.
Due
out early next year, Kharma 45 have already completed their debut album with
Youth on board for production duties. “It
was brilliant because I think I we did it pretty quick compared to most bands.
I think we recorded it in two and a half weeks.
The way we do our demos is me and Peter will do a lot of the songs then
we programme it all ourselves and then drum and bass were added on when we went
into the studio. It was just basically recording it and adding stuff, there
wasn’t really a lot needed to be done to the songs. And it was really cool working with Youth
because he’s just legend of a man, the most quirky person I’ve ever met in my
life,” he recalls. ”You’d be sitting
with him in the studio and the studio and the next thing you know the
conversation would turn into time travel and things like that, just really
random conversations”.
Next
up though is their 5 x 5 Tour which will see them tour five regions of the UK in
five months. There’ll also be a different version of their 12” single, Come On,
released in each region to coincide with the gigs. So it’s all systems go for the Derry boys then?
“Aye, there’s nothing worse than sitting
about and getting bored with not having much to do,” says Glenn. “We’re just getting on the road, meeting
people, seeing people go mad and having a craic!”
The band
are on tour and will be playing Reading Festival on 26th August. For more
info: www.kharma45.com
Words: Helen Duong
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