Prev entry.
« Terror Laws Target Web Chatter
Next entry.
Think global, act … local? »
Kick My Junk
Monday, December 19th, 2005
This time we’re focusing on Melbourne ska boys Kick My Junk. To be perfectly honest this is the first ska music I’ve liked since Madness…
KMJ are a 7-piece band, and they don’t seem to take themselves very seriously, which is a plus considering that they’re playing ska music. I managed to get a very bad impromptu interview with Anty from KMJ via msn, as follows…
Will: Wanna do an interview?
Anty: Now?
Now if you want… I’m not very good at doing interviews.
No wuckus
Aaaaaaaaalrighty what is you name, and what do you do in KJM?
Anty, and I am the trumpet player, or thats what im told.
How many horns is there in the band in total?
We have a trumpet, trombone and a tenor sax… pretty standard i think. So - three!
Remember you’re talking to a man who knows nothing about ska… None of us really know that much about ska at all, some Pithians are quite avidly against it actually…
Hahahahah… yeah, theres a bit of that around
How does it feel to be featured on a site that normally has NOTHING to do with ska?
Yeah, thats huge as man, I didn’t know the site to be honest our guitarist mike knew about it though. Whats sort of shit does it normally deal with?
Hey shut up with the questions, I’m the interviewer. I kinda didn’t prepare any questions or anything though…
Hahaha… want me to ask you some questions then?
Sure.
What are you wearing?
… as long as they’re about your band.
Shit, scrap that last one then… okay who in KMJ is the sexiest?
I’d have to say Ben
Good one!
Bassist are always the sexiest
Yeah, he has red pubes though
Wow!
But we’ll forget that! hahah
No we won’t, I’m going to post it on teh internet
hahaha… well, we got a new member just recently
What new member?
His name is luke. He plays digeredoo in a couple of songs
Don’t worry I’ll correct all your shocking spelling
But then it won’t be punk will it?
Good point. didgeridoo in a ska band seems kinda weird though doesn’t it?
Yeah. i dunno. he’s a great mate of the band and it just seemed to make sense. I think he plays in about 5 of the songs at the moment. We’ve just done a recording with Jemma (I forget her last name) at SAE and he features in two of the three songs.
So sooner or later you’re going to have more people in your band than your audiences huh?
Thats the plan!
Awesome. okay more mediocre lame interviewey questions:
1 - “Where do you see yourselves 5 years from now?”
2 - “who do you think will end up being in jail / coming out of the closet / joining the army?
1 - passed out in a crack den
2 - Jail? …. none of us… we’re all soft cocks
Coming out of the closest….. have to be Sam… he has a really nice arse…
What does sam play?
Sax.. oh and probably our drummer frogg will join the army. hahaha..highly likely to be frogg
You ever worry as a trumpet player that you’re easily replaceable? … in fact WHO is most easily replaceable in a ska band?
In our band…. probably all of us apart from mike…. i think he is the only one who can play his instrument, but in general its so hard to say. I suppose one of the horns. It’s easy enough to teach horn parts.
Yeah, you kinda wonder with so many members if one dissapeared no-one would really realise huh?
Yeah, we’ve had a fair few line up changes, gone through heaps of people.
How many? when’d the band start?
The band started in 2001 I think, with the only orginal members being me, Norm and Ben. We had another trumpet then and a trombone…. no drummer. People came and went like there was no tomorrow, we only became a real band when mike joined - he played drums
Wait, thats not true. Shit, i forgot all this - Norm played drums at our first gig thing, a battle of the bands… at one point, during a song norm was dancing by himself were the audience should have been.
So the only irreplaceable member of your band is not only a replacement… but a drummer.
Hahah i dunno…. my head is trying to get over the thought of norm playing drums.
Anyway… it took a while but in 2003 in july we played our first real gig, it was in a ska bar - and the line up has been pretty much the same since.
There are ska bars?
uhm yeah! Sortof… The first thursday of every month at the arthouse was called ’skabar’, Sharon from Commissioner Gordon organised them. We sent sharon a shithouse demo and she gave us a gig. They are no more however.
Why so?
Not actually sure… i think the turn outs were pretty small and sharon got sick of organising them I think. not sure though. They were heaps of fun, unreal for starting bands and stuff.
Awesome, so the next step is world domination?
Hahah gotta do christmas shopping next
Do you all buy each other christmas presents?
Shit no, I don’t even like to speak to those guys… really i don’t know what the band wants next, more gigs i suppose. Just fun ey? We have 8 tracks recorded and we like them… but we don’t have cash to release them…
That’s always the way though isn’t it?…
I dunno. if it is, that sucks
Yeah.. now as a rampantly indie label-manager I gotta ask - do you plan to go the ‘indie’ route.. or are you looking for the first 700 page contract that comes your way from the ska division of General Electrics?
Thats a hard question. We just wanna play music that we like. i think other people might even like some of it… i know nothing about labels or anything… if anything presents itself then we will deal with that when it comes
So you’re not actively for or against major record labels and all that?
Well, I hate the thought of labels ripping of their bands and shit, heaps.. but I’m not actively fighting it. Kinda too dumb on that issue..
Either way, what do you think of melbourne ska culture?
Yeah, i fucking love it. the bands are wicked guys. Its so sad to see some of the good ones gone, like 99% Fat, User Friendly and the incredible dead goons. I think the whole scene in melbourne is a bit divided though, not just the ska one, but the whole punk thing, you know? Like KMJ’s been badmouthed before, and I hear other bands being badmouthed just by people on internet forums and shit like that.
I think we all share something… a similar interest… it kinda needs to be united more though.
I dunno… does that make any sense?
Yup… so do you think the internet has been a good or a bad thing for ska.. punk, music in general?
nah, its been great. so good for helping bands out and comminication and shit… for example your website, mp3.com.au and other forums are sooo good. I think it is just some of the attitudes, like i met some guy who was into screamo and that and he was paying me out saying how ska is dead and stuff, how its old hat. But that is just fucked to me… i love ska and so many people i know do… how can it be dead? And why seperate the whole thing?
I like other music than ska, like i love punk you know… fuck… it’s hard to articulate
Well ska does seem to be a scene all of itself, even within the punk scene.. why do you think it’s so seperatist? Because ska seperates itself, or people seperate ska?
Shit, I woudn’t know how to answer that… hopefully with bands like bagster and twist of fate that separation can fade out. It just seems so funny. all these bands yap about unity, but a small scene (comparision to the world) with people with similar interest can’t even unite…
Reckon it’ll ever happen?
Hahaha i hoped that i wouldn’t sound like a wanker…. seems like i have… fuck i got no idea… its music… its cool as
Heheh.. I agree. Well I’ve kinda ran out of un-prepared questions to not ask you… any last words?
Nah, not really. 
Please note individual items are the those of the autor, not Pith Records. Don't blame us.
This entry hereby entered into our archives by Will at the hour of 1:43 pm
on this very Monday, December 19th, our year of 2005.
Duly filed under Interviews, in accordance with standard practices.
Interested parties may follow responses through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
WordPress database error: [Table './pith_xmb1/wp_comments' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed]
SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID = '69' AND comment_approved = '1' ORDER BY comment_date
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.