It’s so rare in this day and age to come across a musician whose mantra involves creatively pushing against the rigid structures of society – but King Creosote does just that.
Coupling strong social and economic beliefs with a traditional approach to songwriting, the King, also known as Kenny Anderson, uses his music to mirror all aspects of his persona, from mentions of his native Scotland to his political stances on energy consumption.
Since his breakthrough release From Scotland With Love in 2014, Anderson has continued to display an attitude that’s equal part cosmic and DIY, his record Astronaut Meets Appleman touching on both the exalted and the everyday. His tunes are advanced yet approachable – touched and touching – and though the concept of the ‘unique’ is overdone in modern music criticism, Anderson is just that.
The album title, Anderson suggests, explores the conflict and harmony present between tradition and technology. “I don’t know if it’s that well known in Oz, but there’s a lot of digitisation in life at the moment” says Anderson. “I’m against it. Especially the effect that it’s had on the music industry.”
Although Astronaut is loaded with tension – the record drips with paradoxes – this thematic material appeared naturally, and Anderson stresses that he never forces his music to fit a certain mould. “I wanted to make a very played album, one with nothing really programmed,” he says. “We started the album on tape recording in analogue, but the digital methods did creep in.
“Sure, there is an advantage to WAV files working their way in to the ether, but despite that Astronaut is still a very performed album,” he explains. “I recorded it close to where the band lives on the west coast of Scotland. I brought a bit of the outside in, a bit of the outdoors. I wanted to make it sound immediate, and I went into the studio with songs barely half finished. I wanted them to be direct, to be old school.”
The album opens with ‘You Just Want’, a powerful, oddly anthemic tune, snaking disarmingly poppy melodies around the listener. It’s quickly followed by a ballad that mixes traditional instrumentation and electro stylings, a quirky number branded with a Welsh title. “It’s called ‘Melin Wynt’,” Anderson explains. “It’s an anti-wind turbine song. Lyrically I am having a go at modern life, especially in that song: I’m having a go at wind turbines, and in particular the people who think we’re getting low energy.
“Last September on our way to Festival Number Six in North Wales, I was up early the day of the trip and took a walk to the top of a hill. There was a sign: it said ‘melin wynt’, which means windmill. There is no windmill on the top of the hill; there’s no windmill, there’s an army of turbines. It’s like an alien vision, like War Of The Worlds – so there had to be a wind instrument in the song. I had bagpipes in mind for the drone because when you stand under turbines, they have a very distinctive sound.”
Getting that distinctive sound required an ensemble of stellar musicians, people who could not only play their instruments well in a stripped-back recording environment, but also understood Anderson’s vision and were able to mimic the sounds of the world and of society as he hears them.
“The bagpipes on ‘Melin Wynt’ were played by Mairearad Green. I wanted a song that creaked and groaned along,” says Anderson. “There is actually the noise of a wind turbine in the song and the ghosting of my vocals in the chorus.
“It’s the equivalent of your eyes watering up in the wind, the feeling that you’re getting lost in the headlong rush into a carbon emission lifestyle that isn’t doing us any good. The killer instrument is those bagpipes. I don’t think they sound like a typical bagpipe part in that song, or sound like anything melancholy. They’re oddly human, oddly alien.”
Nonetheless, despite all these heavy themes, it would be wrong to assume that Astronaut is one long bad time. There is a particular whimsy to Anderson’s songwriting, an element that the musician attributes to his personality rather than some considered artistic intent. “I do have a whimsical life: I think anybody playing music kind of does. At the same, I enjoy wordplay. I also have a maths degree, so things like numbers, codes and clues appeal to me.
“To be honest, I’m more into that than I am into trying to educate and really dig deep,” he continues. “Accidentally, I manage a real emotional weight in lyrics, but I think that only happens if you’ve had experiences like I have.”
For Anderson, it’s all about tension. Conflict underpins his music, his life, his persona – everything he does is affected by a Janus-like double-headed approach to the world. “I think a lot of the lyrics are quite dark,” Anderson says. “I think if you heard my lyrics with an emo singer, growling, you would hear it like that. I try to out whimsy myself every day, all the time. It’s a ridiculous life I live. I’ve got to be true to myself, to paint a really clear picture because at the end of the day, all I have is what I believe in.”
Astronaut Meets Applemanby King Creosote isout through Domino on Friday September 2.
