King Creosote

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King Creosote
Background information
Birth name Kenneth Anderson[1]
Origin Fife, Scotland
Labels Fence Records, Domino Records, 679 Recordings, Double Six, Boer Records
Associated acts The Burns Unit, Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra, Khartoum Heroes, JOKES, Jon Hopkins, Kid Canaveral
Website kingcreosote.com

Kenny Anderson, known primarily by his stage name King Creosote,[2] is an independent singer-songwriter from Fife, Scotland. To date, Anderson has released over forty albums, with his latest, That Might Well Be It, Darling, released in 2013.[3] Anderson is also a member of Scottish-Canadian band The Burns Unit. In 2011, Anderson's collaborative album with Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine, was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Anderson's brothers are also musicians: Ian Anderson (known as Pip Dylan) and Gordon Anderson (Lone Pigeon) - who is lead singer and main songwriter with The Aliens. The three frequently collaborate at live shows and on album releases.

Musical career

After having featured in Scottish bands Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra and Khartoum Heroes, in 1995 Kenny Anderson launched the Fence record label and began recording albums under the name King Creosote.[4]

King Creosote was one of the original artists to contribute a t-shirt design for the Yellow Bird Project charity initiative, back in 2006. Anderson's design features an accordion, enscribed with the name "FENCE"; a reference to his DIY record label collective.[5]

Anderson founded Fence Records alongside Johnny Lynch,[6] but stepped back from day-to-day running of the label in 2010.

In recent years, Anderson has teamed up with Domino Records who have co-released some of his albums. He also spent some time on Warner subsidiary, 679, which gave him major label backing for the first time. His increasing frustration with the music industry and how digital recordings are becoming throwaway commodities led him to release his material in small, vinyl only runs which were largely only available at concerts.

To this end, KC Rules OK was re-released in 2006 with different versions of some songs, and a version of the album called "Chorlton and the Wh'earlies" recorded with The Earlies was available with some purchases. Bombshell was released with an additional disc, a DVD film of King Creosote and friends on tour.

In a June 2008 interview on BBC 6 Music, mistakenly introduced as "King Creole", he told Tom Robinson that he'd like to play a festival every weekend this summer and then return home for the weekdays.

In the 2007 film Hallam Foe two of his songs, "The Someone Else" and "King Bubbles in Sand", were featured.[7]

In late 2009, Anderson released a new studio album Flick the Vs, and crafted a performance only album, entitled My Nth Bit of Strange in Umpteen Years. Anderson also contributed to the Cold Seeds collaborative album along with Frances Donnelly of Animal Magic Tricks, and Neil Pennycook and Pete Harvey from Meursault; which was released on the Edinburgh-based indie label Song, By Toad Records. Anderson, Donnelly and Pennycook all wrote songs for the project, which all four performers then recorded together; each singer often taking the lead vocal role on a song written by another of the artists. The album was given a special limited release at the Fence Records Homegame Festival in Anstruther, Fife in March 2010, before a general release was announced for June 2010.

In 2011, Anderson attended the SxSW Music Festival and played a number of shows, two of which featured fellow Scottish attendees Kid Canaveral as his backing band. The same year, Anderson released Diamond Mine, a collaborative album with electronica composer Jon Hopkins, to critical acclaim. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize, with Anderson stating, "It feels like this is the beginning of something. And to feel that so far down the line, after putting out forty effing albums, oh my God! It means, I can still do this, it's not over."[8] The duo subsequently released an EP, Honest Words.

In 2013, Anderson released That Might Well Be It, Darling, a full-band re-recording of his limited edition vinyl album That Might Be It, Darling.

Discography

Albums

  • Queen Of Brush County (FNC 01, 1998)
  • Rain Weekend (FNC 02, 1998)
  • Inner Crail To Outer Space (FNC 03, 1998)
  • Or Is It? (FNC 04, 1998)
  • Gink Scootere (FNC 05, 1998)
  • 1999: An Endless Round Of Balls (Parties And Social Events) (FNC 06, 1999)
  • Wednesday (FNC 07, 1999)
  • Jacques De Fence (FNC JDF, 1999)
  • I Am 9 (FNC 09, 1999)
  • Planet Eggz (FNC 10, 1999)
  • Or Was It? (FNC 11, 2000)
  • 12 O'Clock on the Dot (FNC 12, 2000)
  • Stinks (FNC 13, 2000)
  • G (FNC 14, 2001)
  • Radge Weekend Starts Here (FNC 15, 2001)
  • King Creosote Says "Buy The Bazouki Hair Oil" (FNC 16, 2001)
  • Disclaimer (FNC 17, 2001)
  • Squeezebox Set (FNC 18 to 22, 2002) - 5 album boxset containing:-
    Fair Dubhs
    Favourite Girl
    Whelk Of Arse
    More Afraid Of Plastic
    Losing It on the Gyles (very limited [9])
  • Now (Nearly 36) (PF A01, 2003)
  • Psalm Clerk (FNC 23, 2003)
  • Ideal Rumpus Room Guide (PF B03, 2003)
  • Sea Glass (FNC 24, 2004)
  • Three Nuns" (PF B10, 2004)
  • Kenny and Beth's Musakal Boat Rides (FNC K&B, also Domino Recording Co, 2003)
  • Red On Green (FNC 26, 2004)
  • Kompanion Cet +1 (PF C06, 2004)
  • Rocket D.I.Y. (FNC 27, also Domino Recording Co, 2005)
  • Loose tea on his Wynd (2004)
  • Vintage Quays (FNC 29, 2004)
  • KC Rules OK (Names/679, 2005)
  • Harbour the Hillfolk (2005)
  • demos (2005)
  • Yellow On Red (FNC 31, 2005)
  • Isle of Lo Fi (FNC 32, 2006)
  • Waltzer (FNC 33, 2006)
  • Bombshell (Names/679, 2007)
  • Dumps vol.1 (2007) (limited run for 2007 purchasers of the latest release of the aforementioned Squeezebox set)
  • They Flock Like Vulcans to See Old Jupiter Eyes on His Home Craters (FNC 34, 2008)
  • Flick the Vs (Domino/Fence, 2009)
  • My Nth Bit of Strange in Umpteen Years (2009/2010) - performance-only album
  • That Might Be It, Darling (Fence, 2010) - Limited vinyl run.
  • Diamond Mine (Domino, 2011) (with Jon Hopkins)
  • Thrawn (2011)
  • Honest Words (Domino, 2011) (with Jon Hopkins)
  • I Learned from the Gaels (EP) (2012)
  • To Deal With Things (EP) (2012)
  • It Turned Out for the Best (EP) (2012)
  • Analogue Catalogue (Vinyl only EP) (Boer Records, 2013)
  • That Might Well Be It, Darling (Domino, 2013)
  • Sure & Steadfast (2013)[10]

Singles

Other recordings

  • 2005: He recorded a cover of Jeff Buckley's Grace for the tribute album Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley
  • 2006: He recorded an original song about the biblical plague of frogs called Relate the Tale for the Artangel /4AD project Plague Songs; He remixed Badly Drawn Boy's Nothing's Going to Change Your Mind for the single release (highest chart position in the UK #38); He recorded a version of the song Nothing Compares 2 U, originally written by Prince.
  • 2007: He recorded an original song, Where and When, with music by King Creosote and lyrics written by Scottish novelist Laura Hird. This was for the album Ballads of the Book, a collection of collaborations between Scottish musicians and novellists & poets.
  • 2008: He recorded a version of Malcolm Middleton's Choir which appeared on the b-side of the 7" single version of Blue Plastic Bags. This was something of a reciprocal deal, with Middleton having covered King Creosote's Margerita Red on his 2008 album, Sleight of Heart.[11]
  • 2010: He contributed to the Cold Seeds collaborative album along with Frances Donnelly of Animal Magic Tricks, and Neil Pennycook and Pete Harvey from Meursault, which was released on the Edinburgh-based indie label Song, By Toad Records. Anderson, Donnelly and Pennycook all wrote songs for the project, which all four performers then recorded together; each singer often taking the lead vocal role on a song written by another of the artists.
  • 2011: He collaborated with Jon Hopkins to create the album Diamond Mine, released 28 March on Domino Records. The songs were written earlier in King Creosote's career and revisited for this project.

References

  1. ↑ "Songwriter/Composer: ANDERSON KENNETH". BMI Repertoire. Broadcast Music Incorporated. Retrieved 2011-10-06. 
  2. ↑ "King Creosote Interview". Band Weblogs. 10 October 2007. Retrieved 2011-05-28. "I used to make records with a band called Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra, but always had to record a lot of my songs on my own. I wanted to put out these recordings on my own label Fence, so then I needed something to go on the fence. That’s the creosote part. I wrote down King Creosote, and immediately liked the juxtaposition of the regal and the carcinogenic." 
  3. ↑ "Record Label: Domino Records". 
  4. ↑ "King Creosote - Interview". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved February 2013. 
  5. ↑ Matheson, Whitney (2007-01-29). "Buy a shirt, help a charity". USA Today. Retrieved 2013-011-28. 
  6. ↑ "The Pictish Trail profile". Fence Records. Retrieved 16 October 2010. 
  7. ↑ "Domino | Albums | Hallam Foe - Original Soundtrack". Dominorecordco.com. Retrieved 2011-12-31. 
  8. ↑ Jude Rogers (30 August 2011). "King Creosote and Jon Hopkins: Diamond geezers | Music". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-12-31. 
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ http://www.alteregotradingcompany.org/hub/index.php?topic=7.0
  11. ↑

External links

King Creosote
Studio albums
EPs
With Jon Hopkins
Related articles
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