Lets start at the beginning, you were born in an industrial Lancashire town, when did you discover your love for music and fashion and what was the inspiration?
Industrial Lancashire of the 1950s – dark, damp and grey. Everything covered in soot – especially the kids.

We went to the cinema to escape by gazing into those other worlds. Black and white films particularly intrigued and frightened me.

They were like some hyper-real version of that monochrome world. An unstable annexe of some kind, where anything might happen. The man in the grey suit, the woman with lipstick and her own grey suit, and the city, were always the main characters. The city had a life of its own. All the forces at play were mysterious and unpredictable. Total surrealism. You walked back into the daylight completely disoriented.

All this formed my basic dream grammar. I was too young to understand all those adult concerns contained in the plots and was therefore forced to make up my own version of the movie I was watching. Deep terror, love, hilarious mistakes and sadness were all invested with the unmediated ferocity and earnestness of a child. I still wake up from 1958.

Technicolour movies were completely different – all warm and friendly. The buildings, cars, clothes, people, dialogue – even the weather, looked beautiful and full of hope. The music was wide and warm as the Pacific. Those American voices sounded like the Technicolour looked. Had no idea this was fiction –  imagined everything I saw was real, but happening somewhere else. I immediately subscribed.

After that I used to try to find clothes like characters in the films wore, and haunted places resembling the locations. I particularly liked Oxford Street in Manchester because it looked like a tiny corner of New York. Went to the beach in Ainsdale because it had white sand dunes and sold Coca-Cola ice-cold. Found books and comics from New York – Marvel comics, College Parodies, Ad men Magazines, Saturday Evening Post and Mad Magazine. Anything that seemed connected. Music and writing too. Discovered Blues, then Bernstein and The Beats.

Later I became a mod, hitch hiking down to London to buy clothes – first 501s from Whitechapel, sweaters from W Bill in Bond Street, hand stitched driving-heel shoes from Anello and Davide.

Then I hitched to Paris and Germany around 1965/6 and everything changed. Found that the French also loved American cinema, but were busy making their own version – Truffaut and the Nouvelle Vague etc.

Saw French and Italian movies – everything from Last Year in Marienbad to Un Chien Andalou, Visconti and Fellini, via Czech animation and experimental film. Heard Piaf and Brel and Barbara and Erik Satie. Chet Baker and Rue De la Huchette. Even enjoyed cheap European jukebox music. The world suddenly became much wider. I realized I’d swapped the US for Europe and there was my future, all laid out.

‘Le Style Anglais’ was the hip thing in Paris at that time – a French version of English classic clothes. But being French, everything was much better cut, materials much finer and it was all stylish as hell. Swapped subscriptions immediately. Still got the shoes I bought near Le Petit Zinc.

Your early music years were spent in Preston and Manchester. Your first band was called Woolly Fish and then Tiger Lily that would eventually evolve into the infamous ‘Ultravox’ can you tell us a bit about your journey?
In the early 60s there were bands on every street around Manchester. Everybody was in at least one. The Wooly Fish one was an art school band formed by a friend Phil Barnes. We were Psychedelic – in a daft art school sort of way.

I couldn’t play an instrument at the time. The frustration of playing other people’s songs made me learn guitar – just enough so I could write songs myself. Felt much better about it all then – came to realise that was what really interested me.

So when I came to London to go to the Royal College of Art, I formed Ultravox. The idea came from a discussion on ‘Design for the Real World’. All about working with the materials you know, rather than some academic version of Fine Art. So the band became my Real World Art project. I was trying to somehow wrestle all that previous stuff into a single form. I’m still wrestling.

This liking for Europe allowed an unrockist attitude to music, so I was ready for German music, Neu! and Synthesizers, when they arrived.

Neu! were also punk way before it hit Britain – around the same time it evolved in New York and Detroit. We were the last in line. By the time it hit here, Germany had moved on to evolve Electronica proper in the early versions of Cluster, Michael Rother, Bauman, Conny Plank, Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. I was still much more in tune with Europe than Britain at that moment.

Post Ultravox and early punk your music evolved with more of an electronic synthesized sound do you think that is when the music and visual fusion really came into its own?
Yes. Away from the band format, and all that formalized rockist lifestyle. I was finally free to shape things the way I really wanted. We’d begun to work with electronics in the band, but I urgently wanted to see how far you could actually take all this stuff – drum machines, synthesizers, recording, processing. I became aware of a set of completely absorbing possible futures, all multiplying under my excited gaze.

You are a prolific artist and very collaborative – Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Steve Jansen (Japan), Paul Daley (Leftfield) etc.† Do you have a future wish list of collaborators?
Oh yes – Aphex Twin. Mira from Ladytron, who has a unique way with analogue synths and a beautiful unrecognised voice. Billy Currie and Rob Simon who  interplay so well together- I think that still has some way to go. I’d like to do some work with Phil Manzanera – one of the all time great guitarists.

Collaboration seems to be entering other areas too – like film and writing.

Kazuo Ishiguro is someone I have some ideas for. A really world class fiction writer is rare in Britain now, and he is that for sure.

Paul Auster and Michael Chabon and Doctorow in New York are all producing wonderful stuff. Adam Curtis, too – he’s made some of the most magnificent documentaries I’ve ever seen. And Katie Mitchell some of the most imaginative theatrical production work – she made the close-up possible in theatre – quite an achievement, that merging of entire forms via technology and intelligence.

I can see the intersection of many of these threads turning into something wondrously fertile. Just want to edge into the conversation a little.

You have participated with art organisation, ArtHertz with the screenings of your short films as part of the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival for the last two years.† You are working on some new films for next year. Can you tell us more?
I met up with Iain Sinclair recently. He wrote London Orbital, that marvelous book of unrecognized omnipresent London. He has lots of film records of his life and times and we’re beginning to work on a project.

Sinclair really initiated the thread of new London writing – via his seminal influence on Hawksmoor, by Peter Ackroyd. An entire genre has since resulted. I think he’s a central writer to this phase of British literature, in a similar way that Ballard was recently been revealed to be.

So, a core of writers with vision, direction and relevance is now becoming visible. Ballard and Sinclair and Ishiguro are the new axis.

About time, too. British writing – especially fiction- had got into an embarrassing dead end. All a bit self important and irrelevant.

I’ve recently become aware of an intriguing company of people working around London now – these include Jonathan Barnbrook – he’s a truly original designer also working in film, and Ian Emes, an engaged and prolific animator and filmmaker. There are several others, and together with the writers I mentioned before, there seems to be some kind of arts renaissance in Britain at the moment – and it’s all slowly becoming interconnected with music and with other countries – Italy, Spain and France, as well as America. Lots of projects are being discussed.†

What comes first, the music or the visuals?
They both evolve together. I think they’re the same process, just different forms of it. Often a photograph will trigger a phrase, which becomes a story – then a song or a piece of music will evolve. Material from some endless movie. It all seems to happen without much intervention from me. I’m happy to be the British Channel.

You have an interesting line up on stage for your upcoming analogue gig at the Roundhouse. We would love to know more about this?
Good – It’s being added to all the time – Iain Sinclair, Gary Numan, Benge, Karborn, and Louis Gordon. Some of the people from Ghostbox, John Wozencroft from Touch and the RCA, Paul Daley, Steve D’Agostino, Mark Fisher from KPunk and the Wire. Some others I can’t mention yet.

We’re projecting lots of films, including versions of the one I’m making with Iain – and there’ll be a discussion involving Iain Sinclair, Mark Fisher, John Wozencroft and some of the people from Ghost Box, together with projections of their films in the cinema. Ghostbox are the next genetic evolution of the Mute and Warp succession- Companies as a vehicle for imagination and new vision. I guess it will all begin with London and Hauntology –Electricity and Ghosts.

Then there will be Gary Numan DJing on the main stage – Mr. Central Electric. Legend. What can you say?

Later, we’ll be playing new electronic songs – some of the Paul Daley ones and Benge’s as well – on analogue synths from Benge’s studio. Big Moog modulars and lots of others – Arp, Minimoog, Prophet, CR78, the lot. We’ll be the wee shadows under the mountain of power circuitry. A Projection and Shapeshifting Sonic Decimation Unit, courtesy of Benge and Karborn…on into the night.

The idea is to present a snapshot of London now – a nod to those marvelous Warhol events in New York – The Exploding Plastic Inevitable – and especially  the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at Alexander Palace in the 1960’s, where a new sort of London began to manifest. Modest as that.

You have experienced and enjoyed some great fashion genres through your musical career, from Mod to Punk to New Romantics. Do you feel these influenced your music and which was your favorite?
They all did. I think the Mod phase was pretty central – all the others seemed to be recombinations of this.

The forgotten Technohippy vision of the late 1960’s was pretty important too – it couldn’t quite manifest then, but supplied a blueprint for a future when technology could actually perform hallucinogenic acts in public.

Punk did us all a favour by blowtorching all the baroque barnacles off the edifice. But it aged dramatically. Two years in and senility struck. Too much speed. New Romantic was good at first – coincided with discovering Italy- that was as big for me as France America and Germany. When I came back it had all become a bit clumsy, but still fun. Brickies in tights. A sub-Roxy re-run, really.

I think the favourite must be that New York / Paris axis of the early1960s – Beatnik black. Existentialism. Warhol. Art Movies. Miles Davies and Kind of Blue. Birth of Electronica – Carlos and Theremin, then Cage and DuChamp Happenings. Modern Art. Lofts.

I was just a year or two too young, and in the wrong place. Just missed it. Isn’t that always the way.

If you were shipwrecked on a desert Island what 3 items could you not live without?

Some means of starting a fire, a two-way radio, and a surf-emergent Ursula Andress.

The MIRRORBALL Exhibition will be exhibited at the Kirk Originals store until July 2010

John Foxx wears Blake from the Vector Sunglass collection.
www.arthertz.com
www.metamatic.com

Photograph by Dennis Da Silva and Emre Soykan for ArtHertz. Special Thanks to Beach Blanket Babylon, Shoreditch.

When the opportunity arose for Kirk Originals to catch up with David Mcalmont we jumped at the chance. We wanted to get to know the man behind the voice.

“…that voice- sweet, but never sickly, and purer than Himalayan melt-water. Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Philip Bailey spring to mind: David Mcalmont is really that good.”
(The Daily Telegraph).

David talks to us about style, soul and what it means to be slightly different.
Lets start at the beginning. When did you discover you could sing?
DM: I would say that it was at church in the West Indies. I sang a song called El Shaddai, originally recorded by Amy Grant and I became known for my version of that song.
After discovering your love and talent for music were there any artists that inspired you to write and perform?
DM: I lived in Guyana from most of the 80s and there was lot of great American Soul music doing the rounds. I loved the atmosphere of Earth Wind & Fire, the playfulness of Michael Jackson and the Spirituality of Stevie Wonder.
Your early involvement with music was with a band called the Thieves. The Thieves fused elements of soul and funk with post-punk and textural arrangements. Would you say that was an accurate description?
DM: I call that music my artistically adventurous phase. That music was compared to The Associates and the Cocteaus and I was encouraged by Saul Freeman to be melodically eccentric.
After going solo and a stint supporting Morrissey you were approached by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. The sound of Mcalmont and Butler was born! This must have been very exciting and a pinnacle point in your career?
DM:I was delighted. I love what Bernard did as a guitarist and his ability as a songwriter and producer was a welcome surprise. Great collaborator.
You have worked with some great artists over the last decade such as Gabrielle, Sharleen Spiteri and Duffy. How was that?
DM: I enjoyed being trusted by Bernard and the Boilerhouse Boys to create unique backing vocal textures for these artists.
Most recently you have collaborated with classical composer Michael Nyman to produce the album “The Glare’. The album received critical acclaim from the press. Can you tell us more about this?
DM: A very, very happy point in my creative career; I love  Michael’s music. I think it’s really rock and roll and I can’t keep still when I’m at his gigs. I’m thrilled that we discovered a common ground and developed a spirited collaboration.
You have a very unique style do you feel that your music influences your style?
DM: I allow myself to impersonate other singers, especially female, but I don’t sound like them but their phrasing influences my singing and keeps me unique. I think that Luther Vandross took a similar approach by emulating Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross.
Eyewear it seems, has been an important part of your look. Would you agree? Was it the passion Kirk Originals has that you liked when you discovered Kirk Originals?
DM: I have always loved glasses and always wanted to wear them but it has been difficult to find eyewear that rises to the occasion of my sartorial flamboyance. Kirk Originals walk it.
We have to ask you! If you were shipwrecked on a dessert Island what 3 items would you take?
DM: A crate of sparkling water, a supply of lip-balm and Kirk Originals with transitions lenses.
So what does the future hold for David Mcalmont?
DM: More music adventure and “Kirkies” as I now call them.

Link: http://www.davidmcalmont.co.uk/

So boys when did you meet and where?
DDS: Well we met on My Space just before a DJ gig at EGG where we met properly. I wasn’t sure of Roger’s gender but he’s really just a young alien with shiny bits and heels.

RS: After seeing the promo flyer for the Wearable Art For Durable People at EGG, where I did the visuals for, I added everyone who was DJing, performing and promoting on myspace, Dennis was the only one who replied.
Would you say you had similar tastes in music?
DDS: Very similar but we conflict at Barbra Streisand. I shan’t hold that against him though…as yet.
RS: Yes, we both believe there is no bad music, only bad musicians. We love music.

What would you say would be the ultimate dance floor track that sums up your characters?
DDS: Probably something that only exists in my head at the moment – a mashup involving Michael Jackson, John Foxx and Aphex Twin.
RS: Michael Jackson’s Black or White

What was the first club you both went to?
DDS: Some place on Sandy Lane in Barbados
RS: Café de Paris

What or who inspired you to become DJ’s?
DDS: Depeche Mode and David Bowie.
RS: I wanted to control a venue’s atmosphere and people’s night!

Where are you DJing at the moment?
DDS: A new weekly Indie / Electro night called Über in South London
RS: Resident DJ at Beach Blanket Babylon (BBB) in Shoreditch on Wednesdays and at BBB in Notting Hill on Friday’s and Saturday’s.

What attributes complements each other DJ sets?
DDS: I’m not in love with what is currently referred to as ‘Pop’ so I play what I want.
RS: Being outcasts and playing what we feels instead of what is expected.

Dennis you also have an art agency called ArtHertz. Tell us more about that
DDS: I started ArtHertz in 2006 to create events involving art and music staged in unconventional spaces, particularly those involving large scale architecture. I’m very lucky to get the chance to work with some of my favourite artists who are my friends as well – I have the best job in the world! We’ve produced and curated events for Fulham Palace, Durham Castle, Apple Store & Rushes Soho Shorts, most recently the DNA Exhibition at Horse Hospital. We will have a stand at the Kinetica Art Fair 2010 in February then a major art and music event that includes a séance at Battersea Power Station in May entitled, Electricity and Ghosts.

Roger you are quite the ‘creative’ with a background in video editing, graphic design and photography. What is the most creative thing you have achieved to date?
RS: I’m always creating. When I’m not creating something that people have asked me or paid me for, I’m busy creating out of my heart and mind. It’s a self-imposed rule that my next work will always have to be something better. I never settle, I’m never satisfied. I do a lot of artwork involving photography, drawing, design and I’m constantly writing lyrics. Some of the pieces I have created recently are my favourite work so far, but no one has seen in it yet.
But if I have to name a couple of favourite creations, right now, it would have to be the Foxx video and my face.

Dennis do you think there is a natural synergy between art and the type of music you play?
DDS: Absolutely, they are inextricably linked and part of the same language as well as
great antidotes to each other.

Roger you recently showcased your John Foxx inspired video “From Trash” video at the John’s DNA exhibition curated by Dennis and Arthertz. What was your inspiration behind your video?
RS: The one and only inspiration for John Foxx’s video presentation was purely the man who I consider the King of Electronic, John Foxx.
His music speaks to me so loudly! I hear and see life with his music! It’s so interesting for me to look back now at how I did that 22 minute piece in 3 days. I had no time at all, yet everything came out so easily. It was one of those beautiful experiences where the work created itself, I was just the source. His music charged me with energy.
I used clips from four 1950’s sci fi movies, The Mysterians, Project Moonbase, Conquest of Space, When Worlds Collide and the silent Metropolis to marry five of my favourite Foxx tracks. Once I had all that assembled, the video created itself, I was really just the source. Even though I created some images from scratch and shot others, the way the images connected to the music was beyond coincidence, it was magic!
My obsession with music completely took over me and it was honestly one of the most delightful violent processes I had ever been through.
John Foxx’s music violence controls me! His music moves! Things that move are beautiful!

You both have a very unique fashion style. What would you wear if you were to visit her majesty the Queen?
RS: Something to make her envious.
DDS: When I was last in her presence, I wore French blue so maybe something purple this time and I’ll probably make more of a statement with my hair so that I’m not upstaged by La Spy.

What is your favourite Kirk Originals eyewear collection and why?
DDS: My favorite collection would be the artistically creative Kirk Heroes; each style has an illustrated character. I wear Sir Reginald who as it happens knew Leonardo Da Vinci. Mind you there is a striking resemblance between the suave Olaf ‘The Shadow’ Kirk and me.
RS: The Sunshine collection especially the Ricky in Gold, their inspiration derives from the decadent glamour of the 70’s.

If you were both marooned on a desert island what 3 items could you not live without?
RS: iPod, sunglasses and Michael Jackson’s Live in Bucharest DVD
DDS: A fully fitted kitchen, Roger’s iPod & A Stargate.

So what does the colourful future hold for this dynamic DJing duo?
DDS: Roger is an integral part of ArHertz and although we fight a lot, I have to admit he’s a great talent. We get asked to DJ more & more but it’s difficult with our schedules but we plan to invest more time into this in 2010 alongside some ‘live’ stuff involving Roger’s visuals.

Links
www.ArtHertz.com
www.myspace/rogerspy
www.youtube/rogerspy

www.facebook.com/rogerspy
www.facebook.com/dennisdasilva1

Dennis Da Silva wears Sir Reginald H5 from the Kirk Heroes collection. Photo  – Helena Tepli
Roger Spy wears Ricky from the Sunshine Sunglass collection

You have been described as a “maker of delicate yet stubborn songs; an instinctive traveler; a human scrapbook” – and have become somewhat of a cult figure on the UK songwriting scene. Would you say this was an accurate description?
K: The songs are certainly delicate and stubborn. I don’t like things to be too comfortable otherwise you end up getting complacent. I spent about ten years hitching around the UK before I really started writing songs and the more you move around, the more stuff you collect to put in songs. As for the cult songwriter thing, that makes me laugh – it’s a great way of saying I’m an acquired taste!

You have twice been nominated for a BBC Folk Award (2002 for album ‘Honeysuckle’ and 2004 for Best Original Song for ‘Coffee Coloured Strings’). Would you like to share with us your secret formula?
K: I’m not sure I know what it is!  I got off to a good start with the Folk Awards but since then I’ve been precariously balanced on the edge of the Folk thing because what I do doesn’t fit easily into categories. We’re like the musical equivalent of Carnival folk and eventually you have to move on because musically you don’t quite belong anywhere.

Mat, you first worked with Kirsty on her second album ‘Frost’ and you have worked together ever since. How did you meet and what do you think has kept you working together?
M: Kirsty and I met backstage at a festival in 2002. She had just released her first album and was performing solo. She was nervous as hell, and we just hit it off and stayed in touch. I guested on ‘Frost’ but didn’t really become a fundamental part of the mix until the ‘Frost’ tour. Over the years we’ve developed a kind of synchronicity that comes with working and traveling together. There’s a kind of musical telepathy onstage that makes the shows very organic. I think audiences connect with that.

Kirsty and Mat, the Hobopop Collective is your recently developed band. Interesting name. Care to elaborate?
K: ‘Hobopop’ refers to the music being of no-fixed-abode – it switches genre all the time, so we named the band as a skit on that aspect of what we do. As for the ‘Collective’, when we started the band, we decided we wanted to keep the format open for guests so that every show is different to the last. It’s great to keep everyone on their toes and it means the sound and the show is always fresh.
M: I can’t remember who first came up with the word ‘Hobopop’ – it may have been a journalist describing our sound. The word is evocative and fun and it stuck, becoming the name of our production company and record label too. We’ve since had ‘folk noir’, ‘vaudebilly’ and (one of my favorites) ‘Simon & Garfunkel – the Tim Burton version’.

You have some influential, like-minded emerging Jazz artists as part of the Hobopop Collective such as double bassist, Nick Blacka (Aim, Mrs Columbo) and drummer Rob Turner (Neil Yates’ New Origins, Magic Hat Ensemble). What do you look for in your collective?
M: Eccentricity, enthusiasm and a lack of preconception. We knew we wanted something modular with this band and we also knew we wanted to work with dynamic musicians from a range of scenes. It would have been really easy to pick out a bunch of session players who were well known on the roots scene, and commercially that would probably have been the more sensible option too, but we wanted to be sure that the playing was fun and would slightly skew the angle of the songs.
K: We’ve been really lucky in the musicians we’ve discovered for the project. It’s also true that in the year and a half that the band’s been going we’ve all grown together and learnt a lot about each other both as players and as people. I don’t think that when we first met Rob he could have conceived of ever playing a couple of watering cans and a washboard instead of his regular drum kit, but I like to think we’ve just brought out his dormant hobo side.

Your latest and most poignant project was the live recording of your forthcoming Spring 2010 album aptly named No. 5. Why did you decide to record this album live?
M: It was borne of a desire to make something completely honest, to re-connect with the audience and bring them into the process of making one of Kirsty’s records. I had worked playing on the debut album from The Brute Chorus, which was also made in this way, and that experience re-ignited the idea we had had for a while of making a live recording. We worked hard on getting the right room and setup – we wanted to be ‘on the level’ with the audience – to have them right up there with us, so we just got rid of the stage and played on the floor.
Live work is such a large part of what we do, and it is the most direct contact we have with our audience – there was an energy we wanted to capture.

Christopher Cundy (The Guillemots), James Steel (The Brute Chorus), Gabriel Minnikin (The Guthries) and Richard Hawley’s Clive Mellor played at the show that became “No. 5”. That is a hefty line up and must have been amazing?
M: We’re lucky to have such obliging friends! It has been an honour and pleasure to work with these guys, most of whom we have known for years. I hope the record will show that they’ve really made significant additions to the musicality of the songs too.
K: We were thrilled that they all agreed to work on the project with us. It’s a daunting thing, making a live album, full in the knowledge that every sound you make is going down for posterity – especially when you’ve only had a few rehearsals – so I admire their bravery! Whilst we’ve worked with James and Chris before, working with Clive was a totally new thing and I’m excited that he came on board.

The gig to record No. 5 sold out within a week. That must have been very exciting?
K: I’ll admit that when the tickets first went on sale I was skeptical. I had a few sleepless nights as to whether anyone would want to come! When we heard that the show was selling out so fast I was absolutely delighted and the whole thing started to be a bit more real to me.
M: It was very exciting. For the tickets to go so quickly was exactly the kind of boost we needed to get moving on making the show so unique and special. When you put together a project like this one its very easy to get so involved you forget that without an audience there really is no project at all! The guys who came were just great – enthusiastic, receptive and supportive – and they have been a fundamental part of the sound of this record. Whatever our performances may be from that night, they were formed by the support of the crowd.

We can see that you express your creativity and individuality in your lyrics and music. Would you say you use the same formula with your fashion style?
K: The style of the band has kind of developed quite organically over the past few years. We were drawn to a jaded-vintage look – based on 1930s and 1940s silent movies – so that the whole style was ruffled and slightly frayed as if we’d been out in a speakeasy all night. My own style more or less grew downwards from the battered bowler hat I acquired a couple of years ago, and from a cross-dressing, Chaplinesque black-and-white take on vaudeville.
M: I’ve always been a great admirer of the styles of Felix the Cat and Captain Haddock from the Tintin strips. I try to blend them together in my own way.

What is it that drew you to discover Kirk Originals Eyewear and incorporating them into your unique, quirky sense of style?
K: I’ve been wearing glasses since I was fourteen and so over the years I’ve tried lots of different styles. Glasses, like the battered bowler hat and tattered frock, are such a vital part of the way I look.  True, I could have gone for contacts, but the great thing about specs is that you can really make a statement with them. What’s so great about Kirks for me is that aside from being eyecatching, iconic, beautifully designed frames, they have such a great sense of humour! The sparkly Kirks I wore on stage for the No.5 gig couldn’t have been more perfect for the show!
M: There’s a great sense of complicity when you come accross people who are approaching what they do with a little of what you try and have yourself. In this case, eccentricity, an eye for detail and a certain disregard for convention!

I have to ask you… if you were marooned on a desert Island what 3 items could you not live without?
K: Glasses, guitar, water-cooler.
M: Water-cooler? For those ‘water-cooler moments’?
K: Ok then, fresh water supply – it doesn’t have to be cool…
M: Oh I see. Can I share it?
K: Are you there too? Cool! Of course you can. What are you having?
M: Well since I don’t need water I’ll have the Complete Tom Waits catalogue, my fretless banjo and my coffee maker.
K: So you need a plug and a CD player then? Does that mean you’re leaving the laptop at home?
M: I figured I could use the outlet you had your water cooler in from time to time. Oh yeah – the laptop. And the internet. Darn, this is hard, Eyetunes…

With the recording of your live album No. 5 under your belt, what else does the future hold for Kirsty McGee and the Hobopop Collective?
M: Its all No.5 stuff for a while – promotion, planning, design, manufacture, touring… We’re keeping a record of it all, from performance to release, on our new No.5 blog (http://kirstymcgeeno5.blogspot.com).

Most of 2010 will be probably spent on the road touring the album, with plans for tours in Scotland and Europe again as well as England. But we like to keep things as open as we can, and see which way the wind blows us. We are supposed to be hobos, after all…
www.kirstymcgee.com
www.hobopop.com
Kirsty wears Seb 35/N from the Sculpture Optical collection
Mat wears Demon from the Turbo collectionEye Catching Hobo

Did you just wake up one morning and decide to write and direct a Bollywood style musical?

No! I’ve always been fascinated by the character of Heathcliff. He was the “outsider” who had to work ten times as hard as all those around him – like me in a way.

Why did you pick Emily Brontes ‘Wuthering Heights?’ instead of, lets say, Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’?

Mainly for the Heathcliff’s character. Also, Jane Austen is not passionate of dark enough for me.

Have you ever been to Yorkshire Moors?

No – but doing Bronte Goes to Bollywood has given me a real yurning to go and explore the Moors.

Are you a romantic at heart?

Yes. Very much!

Do you think Emily Bronte would give ‘Bronte Goes to Bollywood’ the thumbs up?

Yes. Its loyal to the characters and their journeys – and we are all very affectionate towards the story.

Bollywood film productions are usually BIG affairs. Did you find it easy to translate into a live stage performance?

No. It was a long process but with the collaboration of the Tamasha Theatre Company and lots of research we have a fabulous project on our hands.

The stage version is a great success. Is that why you headed off to the Oscars earlier this year? Is there a film version in the pipeline?

Yes there is. It’s only at the “talking about” stage at the moment so who knows!

What did you think of the Oscars?

Amazing! The Indians took over. It’s the Age of the Beige!!

What fashion items did you ensure were packed in your case?

My slim fitted suits and waistcoats and my Kirk Originals – the Don sunglasses from the Eclipse collection.

You have a confident fashion style is there one designer you admire?

I generally make up my own style but I do really like Ozwald Boateng.

What else does your future hold for you?

I am keen to develop some amazing projects and to work here in the UK, India and the States.

Having graduated from the Royal College Of Art, she puts her entry into the competitive world of TV directing as down to a succession of happy accidents, as is quite typical of many artistic jobs. “It just kind of happened because I had no idea of what directors did. I didn’t really have a burning ambition to be a director, it happened by a series of events. When I was at college and even before that I always used to offer to shoot everyone’s films because I was the only one who knew how to work a camera. I noticed that certain directors didn’t communicate very well with the actors so I used to quietly go up and have a quick word with them and the actors seemed to appreciate that and used to say that I should think about becoming a director.”

With film-making being such an exhausting process taking on a project does usually involve setting apart the best part of a year or even more to complete the work. During this period, as Robin underlines here, it’s an all consuming process. “It completely takes over your life. It is so intense right from the first day that you start to the last day when you finish. It really, really is so intense but in a lovely way because you inhabit a completely different world. There are so many things to think about and do everyday to make it all come together.”

However the exactions of the working lifestyle are counterbalanced by her enthusiasm for working with actors and writers and she’s amassed a more than enviable list of the finest UK acting talents across her works.

“I do love working with actors and that’s the reason I do it really. It’s hard to single anyone in particular out but one I’d like to mention is Timothy Spall. He is one of the mightiest, finest talents around and if you’re talking about pure acting talent, he’s right up there. Stephen Fry also is really brilliant. He’s so much of a Renaissance man and able to turn his hands to so much. I also really like and rate Anna Friel. I love her and as for other actors I admire, Brenda Blethyn, Alun Armstrong, Sarah Smart, Helen McCrory, really there’s so many and it’s such a difficult one to answer. The acting talent in the UK is truly phenomenal and I’ve been so lucky to work with so many great talents.”

Looking at the rapid development of her directing career, it is notable that before getting her breaks on major series, Robin jobbed about on the TV drama staples that are the mainstay of the schedules, the likes of The Bill, and Casualty.

It was a strategy that appeared to pay off. When ITV were setting up the tale of the unlucky lifestyles of lucky lottery winners, “At Home With The Braithwaites”, it was the writer Sally Wainwright with whom Robin had worked on “Playing The Field” who lobbied on her behalf to set up and direct the first tranche of the series. “That was a huge break. Sally sent me the full series of “At Home With The Braithwaites” as a mate and I wasn’t nearly big enough to direct the first block of the series. She very kindly went to the Exec Producer and said “I want Robin Sheppard to direct it.” They met me out of politeness and I knew that they were only meeting me on Sally’s say-so. Anyway at the end of the meeting they said, “Ah whatever, we like you and think you’re great” and they gave it to me. It was a big leap of faith for them.”

With Braithwaites becoming “a huge and very unexpected hit”, it cemented Robin’s standing as a director to look out for and other projects came to her as she worked with the likes of Robert Lindsay on “Hawk” and then on the BBC series “Sparkhouse”, a contemporary update of Wuthering Heights, staffed by a stellar cast of Sarah Smart, Joe McFadden, Celia Imrie and Alun Armstrong. and Working Title Television’s adaptation of Kingsley Amis’ novel “Lucky Jim”.

Moving onto the likes of “Between The Sheets”, working with Rob Lowe and Anna Friel on rom-com “Perfect Strangers” and then the adaptation of the true story of Angela Canning who was wrongly convicted of killing her daughters, “Cherished” which featured Sarah Lancashire and Timothy Spall in the leads.

“Cherished” became one of Robin’s projects which she’s “most proud of”. Yet in jumping across all these different genres, she acknowledges that “I do seem to cross genres a lot and people are quite amazed by that as a lot of directors tend to stick to what they do but my CV over the years has become much more varied. I do like to stretch myself.”

Recently Robin has been involved in establishing the recent Stephen Fry Sunday night hit “Kingdom” and has completed an adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel “Octavia” which stars Patrick Baladi, Richard Coyle and Tamsin Egerton. Kingdom “did amazingly well, getting 8.4 million viewers which is double what most things get now. It was fantastically well received and also bucked the trend for downward ratings for drama.”

With a director taking responsibility for the overall look of a piece, it should come as no surprise that Robin has elected to dress her characters in Kirk Originals eyewear throughout her career, noting the individuality and subtle style they bring to the character. “Kirk Originals have always featured in my productions where I can squeeze them in. Anna Friel who was in “Perfect Strangers” wore several pairs of the Vintage collection in that film and she loved them. I’m also looking to slip them into “Octavia” because it’s set in 1976 and also I genuinely love Kirk Originals. I think they look fantastic.”

Currently Robin is developing a feature film adaptation of the cult hit book ‘Apples’. “The screenplay is being written by the original novelist Richard Milward and it is being produced by Nikki Parrott at Tiger Lily films. We also have some funding from the Film Council under their ‘First Feature’ awards programme” says Robin. “It is a twisted tragic-comic love story – a frenetic, poetic, funny and graphic account of adolescent angst set on a Middlesbrough council estate. Notably when ‘Apples’ was published as a book Times Magazine described it as “Catcher in the Rye meets the Arctic Monkeys”.

Yet Robin never strays too far from her TV work having recently directed the BBC’s “New Tricks” with Amanda Redman, Dennis Waterman, Alun Armstrong and James Bolam – and experience she characteristically describes as “more fun than you should be allowed to have while working!”

Robin wears Olaf ‘The Shadow’ Kirk from the Kirk Heroes collection in H2

Words: James Masters

It was the Channel 4 screened and critically lauded “Hallo Panda” that brought Barrington and Kirk Originals together. A light comedy about the romantic travails of an American zoologist in London whose best buddy is a talking Panda bear, “Panda” elicited a fabulous response, not only down to the susceptibility of the British public to anything featuring large, fluffy, cute Panda Bears.Preparing the script, Barrington realised that all the characters required quirky, individualistic eyewear and “having stalked Kirk Originals for years”, he jumped at the opportunity for an “in”. “The director told me that all the lead characters wore really great glasses so I tracked down Kirks and when they were up for it, I was really, really flattered.”Taking “Panda” to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007, by then the smooth talking Barrington had already started to snaffle Kirk Originals eyewear for himself to immediate effects. “I was labelled the best sunglasses in Cannes with my Sunshine Vaughan’s and was photographed everywhere. I felt like I was never gonna be able to take them off ‘cos no-one would have paid attention to me if I wasn’t wearing them. They definitely got me into places that I wouldn’t have been able to get into without the glasses.”
So as we touch base again with Barrington, he is, as ever, a whirlwind of completed productions, upcoming productions and the staple, “several projects in various stages of development”. Following “Panda”, Barrington produced another short, “Player” directed by Mary Nighy (daughter of Bill Nighy) for which a stellar cast of Celia Imrie, Pete Postlethwaite and Haydyn Gwynne was assembled. Coming off this. he moved onto “The Heroes Journey” with Secret & Lies’ Phyllis Logan in the lead which was screened at last summer’s Edinburgh Film Festival. Notably both films are also in competition at prestigious festivals like Raindance, Bristol’s Encounters and The Leeds Film Festival.

An astute producer, Barrington understands the value of attaching marquee names to productions in order to get noticed. It always helps casting well known actors especially when you go back to the agent. If the short’s done anything they’re more likely to let you play with their other clients. That was part of the game-plan from back with “Free Speech” and Danny Dyer. We wanted to let people know that we could cope with name actors and can treat them accordingly, so hopefully they’d keep sending them to us.” The strategy appears to be working with stronger casts, companies and production houses getting behind Barrington’s upcoming projects. Next up would appear to be his London underworld, “Jerry Bruckheimer moment”, “The Debt / The Greed” (working titles), a murky Robin Hood inspired allegory of the relationship between coppers and villains and he’s also attached as a producer to an upcoming, heavyweight film noir, “Box”, a tale of an alienated Australian boxer coming to terms with London inner city living which takes shades of “Sunset Boulevard” and “Touch Of Evil”, relocating them to the English metropolis.
Yet Barrington’s main focus is currently a British take on the “High School Musical” phenomenon, “Chance To Dance”, a project attracting considerable heat due to its international prospects. “We’re trying to make the story authentic so alongside the dance, we can build in great drama and relevant characters. That’s one of the key selling points, to make sure it retains an edge.”“Chance To Dance” has already proved a calling card for Barrington and having pitched it to the UK Film Council earlier this year, it led to him being named as one of the “Breakthrough Brits”, being sent on an all expenses paid, networking trip to LA with the cream of British ethnic minority actors, writers and producers.

“It was my first time in the States. The hotel, “The London West Hollywood” had just opened with Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant and David Beckham la la la but we were too busy with our stuff. We wound up meeting a lot of useful people in the industry. We went to Warners, Fox, all of the studios and the carpet was really rolled out for us.”
And where Barrington goes, his Kirk Originals accompany him. Having been selected for LA, he returned to the Covent Garden store to add that stylish flourish for his Stateside cinematic adventure.
“Kirk Originals kindly arranged for me to get a pair of sunglasses for LA and I got this amazing pair, more glitter obviously, the new Sunshine Jean, I was getting stopped in the street, people asking me where the glasses came from.“I wore them all the time I was over in LA, at all my meetings. I never left home without them. I was sitting there in my Silver Jean Sunshine shades, looking all London, literally just taking it in so that was great.“I think Kirk Originals have almost become like my trademark now. Them and the hair, I’m pretty much sold on that. They’re both going to stay I reckon.”

Words: James Masters

Bounding into Kirk Original’s Covent Garden store on a balmy mid-summer morning, Alex Proud strides in with his typically ebullient charm and the same untameable energy which has seen his internationally renowned photographic gallery, Proud Galleries, expand its remit over the last ten years to become one of the capital’s favourite and most frequented gigs ‘n arts venues at both its central London gallery and Camden gig hang out.An habitual Kirk Originals wearer who point blank refuses to entertain any other eyewear brand, Alex’s cool and assertive independent spirit has proved a great match for the quirky, individual flourishes of Kirk Originals style as both Proud Galleries and Kirk Originals share an enthusiasm, passion and creative flair for the creative arts and in particular, the edgy, excesses of rock and roll. Proud Galleries’ success in aligning itself with the sharper end of London’s band scene came about when Alex took on a rock exhibition as a favour to his new secretary whose husband, Bob Morris was a photographer who’d worked with the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley. “We got more press coverage for that show and about 10,000 people came to see it. More people than we’d had in ten years came in one month. We knew we’d hit something so we decided to stay with that and dedicate the gallery to rock and roll photography.”
Having ascertained the pulling power of the rock star game, Alex and Proud Galleries immediately followed up with exhibitions that included the likes of Nirvana, The Jam, The Rolling Stones and newer names like The Libertines. With Proud Galleries’ ability to spot trends and move quickly on them, Alex feels that a reason for Proud Galleries’ success has been its inclusive attitude to new talent, promoters and artists. “Proud Galleries should always be quite different. There’s so many forms of music that we play but I try to stand above it and listen to the opinions of younger, far more, trendier people than myself. That’s enabled us to stay young ‘cos I don’t try and superimpose myself on it too much.”

“As a result when with something like the Libertine’s exhibition, a lot of people thought we were made to take them on and that people were already comparing them to the Beatles. I was more like “wow, really, alright, let’s have a look at them”. It was probably the only photographic exhibition that has had a riot outside when 3000 fans turned up. So I think that the focus on youth might have been why we are able to pick things like that a lot faster than other people.”
Opening a second gallery in Camden to complement the Buckingham St Gallery was what initially gave Alex the idea of taking Proud onto a hitherto unexplored level, fusing the rock photography with a cutting edge gig venue.
With over a thousand bands a year playing at Proud Galleries in Camden and upcoming photographic exhibitions set to feature The Clash, Led Zeppelin and an exclusive Elton John 70’s show, it would appear that Proud Galleries’ resurgence has proved a great affirmation of their commitment to creativity, something which Alex observes that the galleries share with the ethos of Kirk Originals.
“I think both Kirk Originals and Proud are independent brands and driven by a desire to create something different. There’s a pride in the independence, the quality and a pride in being independent. That’s probably the biggest similarity between Proud and Kirk Originals.”
Originally introduced to the joys of Kirk Originals eyewear by a mutual friend, Alex reckons “that there was common ground between us, a little bit passionate, a little bit leftfield” and he readily admits that it was love at first sight.
“I just put them on and was like “Oh my god. I was born to wear these glasses.” I’ve worn them every day since for about a decade. Honestly people do stop me on the tube asking me where those glasses come from. To be honest, I wouldn’t approach me on the tube but I suppose my Kirk Originals make me approachable and kind of lovable.”
With that endorsement readily and easily given, talk turns to Proud Galleries and Kirk Original’s ongoing artistic visions and before Alex flies out with the same consummate, vigour with which he entered, he expands on Kirk Originals’ and Proud’s ongoing commitments to the London scene, a compliment that we’re happy to take from London’s foremost gallery / venue owner and one of the capital’s most charming hosts and goodfellas.

“I think with both Kirk Originals and Proud, there’s an openness in your attitude to creativity and creative people. Hopefully we see original talent there and want to embrace it. With Proud, I do truly hope that people see an originality and find a home there, that’s what I want them to feel.”

Alex featured wearing Pan in Brown from the Saturn Collection.

Muse – XL Recordings
Could it be that Muse have finally found a cure for their flatulence? I’ve always had a problem with Muse, finding their sound pompous and overblown with no real power behind it, like stone-cladding a Barratt home and sticking a couple of lions at the end of the drive. Their three albums thus far – and especially the ludicrously over-rated last album ‘Absolution’ – have always felt like cracking one out fancy-style, with a palm of olive oil rather than a spot of soap – the end result (including the vague feeling of dejection and disappointment afterwards) is always the same, no matter the method.

How surprised I am then, that Muse’s magnificent powerhouse that is new album ‘Black Holes And Revelations’ rectifies – almost – everything that once was wrong. Firstly, Matt Bellamy has mellowed the nasal wail that rather suited his ratty visage to come up with a smoother vocal sound that well, sounds a lot like Thom Yorke when he’s going for the belty bits. In fact, you can hear Radiohead all over the epic tour-de-force of musicianship here – but it’s as if Yorke & co. finished ‘OK Computer’ and went and listened to Queen rather than the Warp back catalogue.

Secondly, Muse begin and end ‘Black Holes And Revelations’ on such impressive high notes that it’s hard to actually remember the middle. ‘Take A Bow’ is a song that most bands would reserve to close their albums. Not Muse. Oh no. Instead, strings perform a maypole around a Dubai-esque construction site of synthesisers and immensely clattering drums as Bellamy informs us that “you will burn in hell… you will burn in hell…” Phew. Can we have a cup of tea now, please?

Of course not – there are so many damn arpeggios on this record you could erect a sonic campsite with it, and with Rich Costey’s superb production of all the dense layers of multi-instrumentation, the whole is carried forth on great stern waves of water, plasma, black matter… who knows what? Because Muse are as peculiarly cosmically-fixated as ever, ‘Starlight’ even seeming to be a love song to a space vessel. Current single ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ is a curious lift from the cattleprod electronic tautness of Suede’s ‘Head Music’ blended with Prince. Eh? ‘Map Of The Problematique’, on the other hand, mixes roiling piano with spacey guitars, huge portentous drum fills and an overarching choral-meets-disco sound that seems to balance on a quivering tightrope of reason.

From then on, the album does sag rather, which is why the strong beginning and end are so handy. The ballad of ‘Invincible’ is more Muse-by-numbers, Bellamy bleating and the music rather thin, while ‘Soldier’s Poem’ is a plaintive acoustic piece with lyrics I’m afraid to pay to much attention to for fear of drowning in a sea of mawk. ‘Exo-Politics’ is somewhat lumpy both in word and song.

Thankfully ‘Assassin’ – which sounds not unlike an indie Rammstein – is much better, and ‘City Of Delusion’ is enticingly unsure whether it wants to soundtrack the closing credits of an epic film, the apocalypse, or a bunch of dancing gypsies.

But that’s nothing to closing track ‘Knights Of Cydonia’, the most insanely proggy thing Muse have ever done, with massive multi-tracked vocals, burbling synthesisers, and a build to a climax akin to a pyroclastic cloud thundering its way down a volcano towards a doomed town, the populace scrambling to flee in boats as pumice pounds down around them.

Yet despite all this gilded superfluity and vaulting ambition, I am more than sure that ‘Black Holes And Revelations’ isn’t an album that I’m going to be picking off the shelf in the future. For like the tin man, Muse are still in search of a heart and soul – the weaker tracks here are the ones where they try and bare something that’s non-existent. But as a bold statement and almost clinical exercise in making a profoundly massive album of wild ideas and musical overachievement, ‘Black Holes And Revelations’ transports Muse into a different dimension to their contemporaries.

Luke Turner for Playlouder

The Artic Monkeys – Domino Records.
Love them or loathe them for it, the biggest selling point with the Arctic Monkeys has always been their ability to paint sardonic portraits with the smut and scum that lines the gutters of their native Sheffield. With success however, comes the irony that in order to sell big they inevitably get elevated above those fusty hangouts. The Strokes fucked it up, but with their similarly rush-released second offering, Arctic Monkeys appear to have it pegged.

Although the mardy bums, scummy men, riot vans and dreams of naughtiness which littered their debut have been replaced with a more contemplative take on teenage ennui, for the most part it’s business as usual – the quartet serving up tales of youthful joy and trepidation whether their protagonists are sobering up outside a Barnsley kebab house at 4am or ingesting a fist of grade A toot courtesy of daddy’s plastic.

Sound-wise, ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ is less pop and more punk; less melodious but more urgent. With their intense build-up and releases bolstered by a newfound dark and acerbic layer, the album sees the band moving on from the Libertines-aping chord structures of their debut and pushing in new directions, most noticeably on the surf-guitar balladry of ‘Only Ones Who Know’ and the rubbery funk of ‘D Is For Dangerous’.

With the burden of holding the record for the fastest selling debut album of all time on their shoulders, you can occasionally sense the band’s acknowledgment that they need to make a good follow up, but the strain of expectation isn’t made too obvious, and it’s often used to their advantage. Indeed, on ‘Teddy Picker’ the self-awareness is channelled into a dark yet jaunty desert rock charged with a sense of knowing danger. An attack on the absurdity of celebrity culture, the track aptly announces the band’s position on refusing to whore themselves out, and is skilfully placed alongside ‘Brianstorm’, the chorus-free take on their time spent wondering what to say to a backstage interloper.

Despite being heralded by some as the heir to the wordy crown of Morrissey, Alex Turner’s lyrical output, until now, has been largely overrated – charming and occasionally funny, but rarely poetic or daring. On ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’, however, the singer’s detached lyrical way works wonders when describing the sexual proclivities of a dried-up thirty-something. “She likes her gentleman to be gentle/Was it a Mecca dobber or a betting pencil?” he asks, with the simple, sleazy northern innuendo sketched infinitely sharper than a million Kaiser Chiefs or Maximo Parks.

On ‘This House Is A Circus’ the frontman coats small town frustrations with a Hollywood sheen singing “We’re forever unfulfilled/And can’t think why/Like a search for murder clues/In a dead man’s eyes” – the celluloid cadence continuing on ‘If You Were There, Beware’, with its spectral piano line and cadaverous delivery.

With his generous – and occasionally grating – use of the words ‘sunshine’ and ‘darling’ Turner is a dab hand at being condescending, but on lounge-paced album closer ‘505′ we discover he doesn’t have all the answers. Instead, the track sees him open and insecure, with endless months on the road revealing a previously unseen honesty in the singer. With young lust replaced by yearning romance, it’s a genuinely touching climax to an album that sees Arctic Monkeys – in the absence of any truly great pop band – remaining Britain’s sharpest sonic prospect.

Norven Kane for Playlouder