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Your blog ‘Fear The Ocean’ is an honest, warm and filter-free read. The most recent entry, ‘The Right Hand’, where you talk about the death of your father, is very profound and one that a lot of people will identify with. Although it deals with a great loss, the overriding feeling that I came away with was one of strength. Does that make sense? “Thank you very much. I really enjoy writing. It’s a chance to make linear sense of everything going through my head and get it out in a way that makes most sense to me. I write until it feels honest then trim the fat and whatever’s left gets posted. I wrote that back in February, around the time of the tenth anniversary of his death. I’ve let go of a lot of demons in the past year, and one of them was this need to prove to myself that I could be the performer I promised I would. Coming back off tour, I re-read that and it seemed right to share it again. I speak to everyone that comes to our shows and a recurring theme was how happy I looked onstage. It’s a lot to try and unpackage to a stranger in two minutes at the merch stand, but being onstage is my heaven. I can’t help but grin my stupid face off because I’m doing the thing I love most with the people I love most for the strangers I love most for the reason I love most. Rather than being a constant bar I had to measure myself against, having the memory of my father and the connection we had through rock and roll is an inspiration and fuel for all that I do. I suppose you’re right – it is a piece about strength. I have no dark wolves howling at my door anymore, I’m stronger than that. I’ve accepted he’s gone, and I take the best of him with me every time I get onstage. That’s the best legacy I can give him.” The Idol Dead of course feature the inimitable Polly Phluid on vocals. Polly said from the stage that if you are in a band, having a crowd sing a song back to you that you have written is the best feeling in the world. Can you put it into words how much that means to you when it happens? “Polly is completely right, and he definitely speaks for all of us when he says that. It’s a primal, tribal thing to witness that, hearing words you wrote down sometime, someplace coming back from the crowd. I got a text message from Polly on new years day 2013 saying ‘Love the bones of you kid’. My stomach does backflips every time I hear a room full of people singing that text at us as I remember how much love and gratitude I was feeling when wrote it, and how soaked in love we are from the people that come to our shows. We travel all over the country and to get that reaction wherever we go is intensely rewarding. We’re not just small town heroes anymore, playing to just our friends and families. People have taken us to heart and it really drives the band. Polly wrote a lot of the lyrics in Tension & Release at a low part of his life and I don’t think there was much thought gone into how it would be perceived by the listener. We never write to order, but there were moments in his creation process where even I was thinking ‘Oh man, this is too personal to put out’. The first time we heard him strum Sympathy Bullet we all stood around listening we were all heads down, arms folded, catching each other’s eyes. It felt like we were reading his diary. Polly is the bravest guy I know at the best of times, and he held nothing back about what happened to him. Since the Tension & Release songs started to appear in the live sets, I’ve just watched him draw life from people singing back at him. I think he needs to hear the words more than he needs to sing them. Behind the stage act of false ego, Polly is a thoughtful, sensitive guy that pours himself into his art form. He’s the voice of the band, and he puts his words into the mouths of the crowd. Feeling that connection with others, that vindication, feeling how loved and understood he is, knowing he makes a difference…that’s what saved Polly.” In the current climate of venues closing, Wildfire Festival sadly getting cancelled this year, and all the doom and gloom out there in general, how hard is it to make a career in music sustainable? “It took us ten years hard work to become an overnight success and I don’t understand why anyone would think it would be any different. If you don’t feel successful, redefine success. When we first started and got some traction I was naive and expected that eventually we might be able to make a full time go of it based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever. After a little dalliance with some label courting, we went down the route of the direct-to-fan business model and I rewrote all my expectations of the band, what we were going to accomplish, how we were going to achieve it, and so on. Since then being an Idol has been the most rewarding force for good in my life. I want to make memories with my best friends, I want to travel, I want to meet new people, I want to put out quality music, I want to do good charitable works with the audience we have, and I want it to be self-sustaining and all-inclusive. Year in, year out, we hit all those goals and that makes me feel successful. It doesn’t pay my bills but I also don’t spend ten months a year touring or play shows I don’t want to play. We’re doing this thing on our our terms, consciously guiding our own ship, and we’re doing it as a team. That’s success. Year in, year out, we’re told about the next big thing, the next band with a buzz about them, the next lot with a chance to crack the glass ceiling. I don’t like that attitude personally, as it works backwards. Get told it enough and you start believing it, then your brain coughs up all the cliches that people think they have to tick off, and then you get all sorts of daft situations with attitude problems. I’ve seen some bullshit happen, and it’s always because it’s easy to start believing that any of this is real. No one on our level is doing this for a living, no one is going to be the next KISS, so chill out and stop getting ideas above your station. That sort of person is the sort that will complain loudly about there being no future in it and how miserable they are with their lack of success. It’s easier now than every to find bandmates, to get the resources to write and record your music, to book shows and tour. Doom and gloom can get bent: this is the best hobby any of us will have. I think the one band that we all know that are making waves and who truly deserve it are Massive Wagons. We’ve shared a few stages over the past few years and their passion and drive for what they do is clear and apparent, and those guys work hard with a good team around them to be successful. They’re firing on all cylinders right now, and when the Earache news was announced we were so stoked for them. They’ve shown that hard work, smart decisions, a solid act and good people on the team can all pay off if you stick at it. I don’t know the background to Wildfire cancelling, but we played there a couple of times and it seemed like it was onto a winner. Great array of bands, beautiful location, brilliantly organised by people that really cared about live music, and a solid reputation carried on from Les Fest. I feel bad for Dave. It was clear after talking to him for maybe ten seconds that he was genuinely passionate about the whole thing and he was nothing but warmth and vigour to us, so it’s sad to see that he’s been priced out of the market. I hope this doesn’t put him off live music for good.” What’s the story about you falling down the stairs in The Cathouse in Glasgow… in drag?! “Hahahaha, I can’t believe Polly brought that up onstage! Glasgow is always an adventure; I fucking adore the place and the people there. We were on our first UK tour in 2011 supporting Drugdealer Cheerleader on their farewell tour. Every night, as their name suggested, they had girls in town that got dressed up as cheerleaders and went on before the show to dance to Marilyn Manson before the band came on, and for a few songs in the show. Some of the girls followed the tour, being cheerleader for a few nights. I got on with one of them in York and when she appeared in Glasgow the next night we got friendly and she invited me back to her hotel room with the other cheerleader. I didn’t know what to expect. They got me hammered on a concoction of spirits then stripped me off and dressed me up as a cheerleader. I had big backcombed hair, tonnes of eye makeup that looked like bruises, false eyelashes, a little crop top with my stomach stuck out – the works. They thought it was hilarious, and suggested we hit The Cathouse which is where the after-show was meant to be. I got in alright (despite having lost my wallet and keys) and we had fun. I don’t know why or how it started, but we ended up in the smoking area with them taking turns to punch me in the face as hard as they could. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, we split up when they went to the toilet together, I get bored of waiting and went wandering. I’m still processing the neat spirits they’d been feeding me, I’d not eaten, I’d been getting clocked on the jaw repeatedly for about ten minutes, and I’m staggering around this dark multi-floor club with my eyes half glued shut and my Converse laces undone. It was inevitable: I took a spill heading down the stairs, grabbed the rail to try and halt my fall and went down the next flight in full Buster Keaton head over heels style. I’m laid at the bottom of the stairs more bruise than man trying to figure out which way is up when this bouncer bodily picks me up by both arms and hauls me to my feet. He weighs me up, asks me if I’m gonna be any trouble. This guys huge too, like a fucking refrigerator with an earpiece. I’m all of eight stone, looking like a drag Jack Skellington, half cut and stunned from my fall. It wasn’t looking good. With no other option, I slapped his hands off me and yelled in his face ‘I can’t walk in these bastard high heels!’. I stormed off, left him stood there with a look of confusion on his face. Sometimes being mouthy gets you out of the worst situations. It’s definately worked for me over the years. I celebrated my freedom by finding my friends, crowdsurfing down the stairs on the way out, and trying to throw myself through McDonald’s window. I bounced. Glasgow; always an adventure.” What’s the established band out there, still packing them in on the Academy sized circuit, that you feel The Idol Dead would be the perfect match for? “Personally, I’d support the crap out of bands like Alkaline Trio or A.F.I. They’re two big influences on what I bring to the band and there’s a lot of crossover points in what we do but I don’t think we’re well known in their audience and I’d savour the opportunity to win over that crowd every night. If we went for a little bigger act, I’d walk through fire to open for Alice Cooper. That would be a perfect fit for us, what we do, and who we aspire to be like. I know a couple of people that know Alice well and it’s always been great to hear that he’s one of those rare stars that is even kinder, friendlier and more down to earth in private than his already glowing public persona. I’d literally follow the dude around in awe every night hanging off his every word if we ever got that slot. I’d beg him to behead me onstage. That would rule.” Lastly, what does the remainder of 2018 hold for yourself as well as for The Idol Dead? “This is the Idol Dead’s tenth year together so in November for our birthday we’re holding a weekend residency at Santiago’s Bar in Leeds. We’re doing an acoustic night, limited entry, with a film crew and a pianist joining us for some reinterpretations. The second night is the full band show with supports, and both sets will be fan-voted from our entire catalogue. That’s our next major project, and in the meantime we’ll have our regular run of shows and festival slots. All our gigs are listed on www.theidoldead.com/gigs. Outside of The Idol Dead, I’ve got a lot on. I guest a lot on other people’s music which is something Idol has always encouraged. Polly even broke out and started Blood4Bones a few years back, and I ended up writing and singing on a couple of their songs on the album [last year’s debut, Broken Machine]. I’m keen to work with them again as it’s something very different and removed from the sounds I usually make. We’ve not had the talk yet and worked out the details but I’d love to carry on what I’m doing with PowderKeg if we can make the distance and timing around Idol work out. Playing different songs on a different instrument was a great stretch of how I approach and learn music, and I love those guys to bits. It’s just occurred to me that literally every time I’ve met Brian, we’ve performed music together. That’s a special relationship right there. I’ve been writing with a couple of friends for a few months too and that’s yielded some great tunes. Charlie [Wray, Idol tech] has never been in a band or played guitar before, so working with her has been a complete shake up of how I write songs. Ben [Marsden, The Main Grains guitarist] is a god damn treasure to work with too. He’s so laid back and creative, really brings a good vibe to what we’re doing. When I get a hot minute to sort out all the registration and stuff, we’ll be renaming that before we start releasing and booking shows. Someone already has Terrible Humans, which was the original project name so we’ve been sat on it till we figured that out. All will be revealed. Finally, I’ve been writing my own music for a long time and this year I think I can finally afford to give it the time and money it deserves. It’s been a bit of an albatross as it’s been well known amongst my circle that I write under the Fear The Ocean moniker, and I occasionally pop up and do some shows, but I’ve never released any actual music. I’m feeling good about it this year though, and the first album is already written and ready to go. I started a thread online too about possibly doing a bit of a solo tour – living room gigs, bring your own bottle, that sort of thing – and that got a life of it’s own. I’ve had messages from promotors about getting it nailed down to certain dates, and that’s crazy in itself. I will actually probably follow through with it. It seems like there’s a lot of interest and I like the DIY spirit its fostered amongst my friends, so I’m keen to buy a sleeping bag and a railcard and go wandering to find my own feet with it. Exciting times, man!” Cheers KC, your time is much appreciated!]]>
