3. a rchy marshall has been out record
shopping in South London. Speaking
about his purchases, the one that
seems to please him
the most is the
soundtrack to Watership Down, the
classic 1978 animated film
that tells the
dark, moving and violent tale of a warrenof
rabbitsfleeingtheirhome,withafewgruesome
battlesalongtheway.
“‘BrightEyes’,”Marshallslowlydrawlswith
warmhumour,referringtoArtGarfunkel’s
wistfulfolklullabythatbecamethefilm’s
theme.“That’swhatI’mfeelingnow.”
For someone who frequently looks
like a rabbit caught in the headlights in
his press shots (albeit a rabbit dressed by
Burberry), Marshall’s choice of record
purchase is a fitting one. And if you want
to drive the metaphor a notch further,
you could say that the mix of innocence
and worldly smarts displayed by the furry
protagonists in Watership Down is also
very much present in Archy Marshall,
manifested in his King Krule moniker - a
name which has been bubbling on various
excited music industry lips since mid-2011.
But first take a step back even further
to 2010. Marshall was known as Zoo Kid
and had been gradually posting his raw,
urban ballads onto his Bandcamp page,
collectively titling them
‘U.F.O.W.A.V.E’,
before leftfield indie label House Anxiety
released ‘Out Getting Ribs’, with ‘Has This
Hit’ as a B-side, two of the stand-out tracks
from
the collection.
It did the trick. The fuzzy emotiveness
of ‘Out Getting Ribs’ perfectly showcased
Marshall’s powerful, overly rugged voice,
spitting deeply personal reflections over
rough, treble-y guitar riffs, arousing a fair
bit of astonishment that this was all coming
from
a sixteen-year-old.
Fast-forward two years to late 2012.
Marshall has changed his musical alias to
King Krule and has just released another
burning, stripped-down single with a
jangled punk ethos, ‘Rock Bottom’, from
his
self-titled EP on Rinse, the label of former
pirate radio station Rinse FM, a pioneering
force in grime, dubstep and other dark
sounds of the electronic underground. It’s
an initially surprising pairing, even for him.
“They originally approached me, and I
was quite taken back by it,” says Marshall.
But he was also no stranger to pirate radio.
“I chose ‘Rock Bottom’ to release on Rinse
because the weekend when I wrote it,
me and my friend were listening to [the
station] quite a lot. There was a good
continuity to it.”
Releasing on Rinse isn’t exactly going
to harm
his credentials, either - not that
he needs a boost in that area. It’s fair to
say that Marshall has been (rightly) hyped
over the last two years, but it’s been of a
positive nature, with people expecting
him
to accomplish big things rather than
demanding it.
As you may have gathered by now,
Archy Marshall isn’t your average
young singer-songwriter. Perhaps it’s
not surprising in someone who cites
progressive mid-Twentieth Century poet
W. H. Auden as a lyrical inspiration, but
Marshall wrings more emotion out of every
gruff, jagged lyrical passage in ‘Out Getting
Ribs’ than can possibly be healthy, making
for a quietly outstanding song.
But music is more a cathartic exercise
for Marshall than the channelling of an
extroverted personality. “I’m
quite… dry,”
he claims. “That’s why I use my music, I
use that as the emotional side of myself. I
don’t like to get wrapped up in exposing
too much emotion.”
Writing music to expel emotion is one
thing. Writing affecting, uncompromising
songs that join the dots you never saw
between post-punk, dub, noir-ish new
wave and jazz, however, is quite another.
But this is no empty homage to various hip
genres, nor a revivalist at work. It’s simply
Marshall’s natural sound, a melting pot of
dynamic and varied musical trajectories,
thanks partly to his parents soundtracking
his childhood with everything from
Fela
Kuti to ska bands - check the King Krule
Rinse FM
podcast for a fascinating glimpse
into Marshall’s myriad passions, covering
everything from
New York No Wave to
oddball synth-pop to freak-funk jazz to
rootsy reggae.
Marshall describes his own res
sound in a charmingly lo-fi w
very big jumble. I call it
the way that it is ta
that’s happen
one thin
CLASHMUSIC.COM
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OVERT; OUR FAVOURITE F
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CLASH_81_sethi.indd
105
THE PROLIFIC CLASH
‘ONE’S TO WATCH’ HAS A PROVEN
TRACK RECORD OF PLUCKING OUT THE
BEST NAMES IN NEW MUSIC, AND FROM
ACROSS THE GENRE BOARD, LONG
BEFORE OTHERS.
IT’S SOMETHING THAT WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON.
ARTISTS WE’VE LEAPT ON BEFORE THE REST INCLUDE:
• KING KRULE
• ALT J
• ALUNAGEORGE
• CHVRCHES
• HAIM
• JAKE BUGG
• JAMES BLAKE
• LAURA MVULA
‘NEXT WAVE’:A NEW FACE FOR 2014
33
4. IN 2014, WE’RE RE-BRANDING OUR ‘ONES TO WATCH’
TAG TO SOMETHING WE CAN TRULY OWN – THIS
REINCARNATION IS TO BE NAMED ‘NEXT WAVE’, AND
WE’RE LOOKING FOR A PARTNER TO WORK WITH US
ON A SERIES OF FOUR EVENTS TO PROMOTE THE
STARS OF 2014.
TO CELEBRATE WE INTEND TO LAUNCH FEBRUARY 2014 AND ‘NEXT WAVE’ WILL
TAKE UP RESIDENCY AT HACKNEYS BRAND NEW VENUE, ‘OSLO’, OWNED BY
RENOWNED GIG PROMOTERS DHP, WHERE WE’LL BE SEPARATING TALENT FROM
HYPE AND FILTERING ORIGINALITY OVER TREND.
4
5. • MISPERS
• THE HICS
• ROSIE LOWE
• JUNGLE
• DAN CROLL
• SOUTHERN
• INDIANA
• CHARLOTTE OC
5
EACH THURSDAY WE WILL SHOWCASE 2 BRAND NEW
ACTS IN FRONT OF A CAPACITY 300 CROWD. ARTISTS
WE’RE IN CONVERSATIONS WITH INCLUDE:
THE EVENTS WILL BE FREE TO ATTEND AND A MIX OF INDUSTRY AND
COMPETITION WINNERS. THE EVENTS WILL BE PRODUCED IN CONJUNCTION
WITH PUBLIC WORLDWIDE AND DELIVERED TO THE HIGHEST PRODUCTION
STANDARDS
6. WE’RE LOOKING FOR A PARTNER OR PARTNERS IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE WORD, NOT JUST
FOR BADGING, WE BELIEVE THAT OUR GUESTS WILL EXPECT THE VERY HIGHEST QUALITY
BRAND EXPERIENCE AND AS SUCH WE WOULD LIKE TO OFFER THE RIGHT BRAND THE
FOLLOWING OPPORTUNITIES:
• BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NAMING OF THE EVENT
• ASSOCIATION IN KEY PRE-EVENT MESSAGING
• SHARING OF ALL VIDEO CONTENT FROM THE EVENT
• EXCLUSIVE BACKSTAGE INTERVIEWS
• BRANDING ON A BESPOKE NEXT WAVE AREA ON CLASHMUSIC.COM
• COMPETITION OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE TICKETS AWAY THROUGH YOUR NETWORKS
• FULL MAGAZINE COVERAGE AND SUPPORT
• OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR BRAND TO INVITE BRAND SUPPORTERS
• OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THE NEXT WAVE APP. TO LAUNCH IN JANUARY (OUR APP. WON THE
BEST MUSIC APP. AT THE DIGITAL MAGAZINE AWARDS ABOUT 10 MINUTES AGO!!)
• FULL MEDIA PARTNERSHIP
BRAND OPPORTUNITIES
6
7. WE WILL BE FILMING CONTENT AT THESE EVENTS
AND DEVELOPING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR
AMPLIFICATION, WE WILL DO THIS IN
COLLABORATION WITH THE CHOSEN BRAND
PARTNERS.
SOCIAL MEDIAAMPLIFICATION
7
8. THANK YOU
HQ
194 HERCULES ROAD
LONDON SE1 7LD
CLIENT
DIRECTOR
MATT GOODWIN
MATTG@CLASHMUSIC.COM
T. +44(0)207 628 2312
M. +44(0)780 874 0729
8
