Last year’s success of King Creosote and Jon Hopkin’s first album together Diamond Mine took many by surprise – not least the pair themselves.
Fife-born guitarist and singer songwriter King Creosote, aka Kenny Anderson, has been acclaimed for years for his prolific solo work on (similarly highly rated) label Fence Record, which he co-owns.
Meanwhile London-based Jon Hopkins is an electronic and ambient music producer who has worked with the likes of Imogen Heap, Brian Eno and David Holmes, and won an Ivor Novello award for his score to 2010 sci-fi film Monsters.
Friends for years, the long-gestating album was released in March, and after strong reviews had an organic slow burn which eventually saw Diamond Mine nominated for the coveted Mercury Prize, which led to further interest and now to a first full UK tour – also probably the only on such a scale before they return to their own solo endeavours.
Speaking backstage before their Celtic Connections show, King Creosote aka Kenny Anderson said: “When you make a record you don’t sit down and think about the playing of it live.
“Because it was a side project for us both, and we didn’t know how it would be received by a record label, we didn’t know when it would come out and all these sorts of things, you only make the record and then afterwards it becomes apparent if you do or do not have to play it live.
“We played live shows before, and to build an album into a live show was quite an effort.
“Tonight it is a full band and it sounds like the album, but from this point on it’s pretty much just Jon and I as a duo – even that in itself, you can’t envisage how many people want to come see two guys harmonium.”
Jon explained: “There are not many albums that are so peaceful that you could just sit there and let it wash over you. I think it’s just accidentally like a nice place to visit for half-an-hour – or 32 minutes.”
KC talked of how this quiet release for the album meant that the pair are releasing singles to promote their tours – most dates on their current UK tour already sold out – rather than the other way around as is more traditional.
He added: “It’s been a steady build as well. There was no huge fanfare for Diamond Mine when it arrived.
“Then the Mercury Prize nomination – and subsequent losing of – definitely kicked that album to a broad audience, but you don’t know that, you don’t know what sales are, and so it’s only until you book a tour... I actually thought a lot of the venues on this tour were too big, I didn’t think we would fill them at all.
“We’ve had the heebie jeebies thinking about trying to take these little quirky songs – and they’re very quiet songs – and to go into a bear pit. So we did think about touring and we thought we’d play to 200-people max, and we thought we could almost handle that size of audience, because it is just harmonium, one vocal and a guitar play who has two styles!”
Jon joked: “You did a third style yesterday! We did some London shows as it started to build, and we found we could somehow hold a room with more people in it than normal with these very quiet songs.
“I think people have taken the album on board and got used to it, and I think it’s nice that we’re playing the whole thing, because the point of this album is – as he said it has no singles, no stand-out moments! – it’s like one piece of music, so we should perform it faithfully.”
Of future plans, Jon said he’s doing his next solo album and a film score, and added: “We are thinking, we’ve got some plans laid to follow this up, but it’ll be a long time.”
KC explained: “I too have a record that’s sat in the vault for about a year, so that should arrive in May, but not as an album. It’ll be an EP, a second EP in August and then the third in November. That’s where I am, and a few Fence events.”
Jon added: “Kenny’s been writing some amazing new songs, so we’ll just see if we can get that elusive single this time!”
- For more reviews, interviews and news from Celtic Connections visit our STV microsite.
- For details on the live tour visit kcjh.co.uk.
