Having Fun And Enjoying Casual Misery

M[m]: You are most known for your noise output, in particular, Kylie Minoise-the project you set up in the early 2000’s. So King Futile was a surprising/ huge departure- please talk about how & when the idea came about for the project?

Lea: It started around ten years ago with a song that I wrote and recorded called 'COLUMBO'. I programmed all the parts on a sequencer with lots of layers and then put vocals onto them, lots of harmonies, etc. I did another four songs in this style and had several others partly done, but some other stuff took priority at this point so I didn't do anything with them.

A couple of years later, I returned to the recordings and put some electric guitars onto some of the tracks and made them a bit harder-edged, which brought them to life a bit more. I also made a video for 'COLUMBO' with Sarah Glass, but I still wasn't totally sure about it all, so I didn't do anything with any of it. I liked the songs, but wasn't convinced that I was into the general aesthetic of the recordings. I decided at this point to start from scratch and try to record them in a rougher lo-fi way, so I dusted off my old four-track cassette portastudio and used a really basic drum machine, electric guitar with a shit distortion pedal and a cheap/crap microphone to record stripped-back versions of the songs that I already had while also writing some new ones.

For about five years, I kept writing and recording and re-recording songs over and over in many different ways while slowly losing my mind. This in turn, began to influence the lyrics that I was writing as they took on a bleaker, more darkly humorous edge which I really liked, but I still wasn't happy with the sound of the recordings.

The turning point came when I bought an acoustic guitar, then a while later started using open tunings. I stripped all the songs right back and re-arranged them to fit this set-up and style, and then it fell into place for me eventually.

M[m]: Please talk a little bit about what you use for creating songs for King Futile?

Lea: I use an acoustic guitar and a percussion thing which I tap with my foot. The songs are recorded live with no overdubs using an old tape recorder that belonged to my grandmother, and are done sitting at the window in my living room, where the acoustics are good due to the wood panelling. The recordings are then fed into a WEM COPICAT tape delay. I use a pen and paper for writing lyrics.

M[m]: King Futile material has a strong outsider music feel, with often quite tongue-in-cheek/ sharply sarcastic tone to the lyrics. Please talk a little bit about the project's influences?

Lea: Sound-wise, old blues and country records had the biggest influence, I think, due to their raw live sound. It's important for me that KING FUTILE sounds like something that's been done by me and not someone else as much as possible. I don't mean that I think this stuff is particularly original at all or anything, in fact, I stopped striving for originality many years ago and have developed a big appreciation for stuff that's 'samey'. It took me a long time to be comfortable with the sound of my voice without it being buried in effects/distortion etc. It's more important that it sounds like me, and is my voice rather than it sounding 'good'. I could make it sound 'better', but I want it to sound more real and honest in a sense. The tone of the lyrics came about from the process of trying to come up with something that I was happy with, so in a sense, the biggest influence lyrically is my personal failure, and its negative impact on my mental health and trying to see the funny side in the futility of human existence. The lyrics definitely reflect my personality.

M[m]: To date, you’ve recorded two albums with the project- Casual Misery & How To Have Fun. How long did it take to write & record each?. Did anything sonically change? And lyrically/theme-wise, how do you personally feel they vary?

Lea: As I said previously, it took me years to arrive at the KING FUTILE sound but now I've got it, making the recordings is very fast as they are done live in the first take unless I really fuck up enough that I have to stop and do it again. I'm very hardline about this as I know that if I get into doing re-takes I could lose years of my life again, ha ha ha! It wasn't easy for me to resist adding more guitar parts, other instruments, vocal harmonies, effects etc for a long time, but I'm very zen about the purity of the recordings now.

Writing-wise, I play guitar pretty much every day and always have a few song ideas music wise knocking around. Lyric ideas seem to come from nowhere, and when they do I tend to write them quite fast and try not to overthink them. I try to keep the whole thing as simple as possible. Sometimes the whole song comes into my head, music, lyrics and structure, and I just have to find the chords on the guitar and record it straight away before I forget it. The recording of the song 'IN HELL' on CASUAL MISERY is the first time I ever sang it and played it aloud outside of my own head. I don't think that the first two albums vary at all really, which is intentional. Future albums won't vary either.

It took me a long time to come up with a visual presentation that I was happy with as well as a sound. I went through so many different album covers and band names over the years before finally settling on the white on black handwritten covers and the name 'KING FUTILE'.

M[m]: What’s with the Zelda-named tracks on the King Futile- I take it you’re a fan of the games?

Lea: Those tracks are named after my cat Zelda, who died almost 2 years ago now. I still miss her terribly. She was a constant companion when I was developing the King Futile stuff, and she used to love to lie on her back at my feet when I played acoustic guitar.

M[m]: Have you had any thoughts about playing some of King Futile in a live situation?, and if so how would you investigate the stage set-up/ presentation?

Lea: Yeah, I'd like to do it live. I've been asked a couple of times, but I've not been able to do it due to prior commitments. I'd use an electric guitar instead of an acoustic, though I think. I sit down to play guitar, with it lying horizontally on my lap as I use an open tuning with my thumb pressing down all the strings right across the fretboard to make the chords. When I'm recording, I can only do 2 or 3 songs before my thumb starts to cramp up. I broke a couple of bones in my left hand during an OPAQUE gig about twenty years ago, and it's never been quite the same since. Electric guitars tend to be a little more physically forgiving to play.

M[m]: The two King Futile have been released on your own long-running label- please talk a little bit about why/ how it came about?. And what have been some of the releases you're most proud of on the label & why?

Lea: I started Kovorox Sound to release my own stuff as well as friends and people that I'd meet on tour. At the time, there was no music streaming or downloads, really, and CD-R was the main format of the underground. Once KYLIE MINOISE got a bit of attention I started to receive lots of demos through the post, and some of these led to releases as well. I'm proud of everything that I've put out. Highlights for me include the NIGHT OF THE BLOODY ANTLER film and soundtrack set, THE FNORDS 'SHEILA KEITH' 7 inch, KYLIE MINOISE 'SPANK-MAGIC LODGE'. These releases have a strong visual presentation as well as the content being strong.

M[m]: Ahh, yes, your unsettling horror film The Night Of The Bloody Antler- I recall rather enjoying that!. Is it still in print, and any thoughts on making any other films?

Lea: Yeah, it's still available from the Kovorox Sound website. There have been several plans over the years for other film projects which reached various levels of development but didn't get off the ground. It may happen at some point. There has been talk of a Night Of The Bloody Antler sequel for example. Here's a trailer for the film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eh4EfBlffo

M[m]: I wanted to touch on your other two solo ventures, are they still active- your noise project Kylie Minoise, and retro-focused sample 'n' electronica project Official Music Team.

Lea: I've got some new KYLIE MINOISE stuff recorded, which will probably come out soon. I doubt I'll ever do KYLIE MINOISE live again. No OFFICIAL MUSIC TEAM plans at the moment

M[m]: I know you’ve always been involved with projects with others- what is currently active on this side?

Lea: Currently - GULSKUL with Sarah Glass and Sara Ohm. We're doing some recording in Gothenburg in April. TINOKUKNOI AREVULOPAPO with Sarah Glass, longform atmospheric instrumentals. BURN PHANTOM BURN with Sarah Glass, which is song based with debut release out soon.

M[m]: What can you tell us about the Burn Phantom Burn project?

Lea: Sarah(Glass) and I recorded some songs a while back over a couple of weekends using whatever equipment was lying around. They were done very spontaneously with as much of a one-take feel as possible. We both played all the instruments and Sarah wrote the lyrics pretty much on the spot and did the vocals. The first couple of releases will be these tracks. Over the last few weeks, we've been doing some more in a similar way, which we're also really happy with, so we're working on them at the moment. We may do gigs with this as well.

M[m]: I’ve seen a few photos of you in Japan- was this just a holiday, or do you live there now- if not, where are you based now?

Lea Japan was a holiday. I really love it there. I live in a tiny village on the shore of a loch in Scotland.

M[m]: Where did you go in Japan, and what was your take on the country?

Lea: I've been to Japan several times over the years. The first couple of times to do Kylie Minoise gigs and the other times for holidays. I've been all over, big cities and smaller places. It's my favourite place. I feel very at ease in Japan.

M[m]: You used to live in Glasgow- right?. When and why did you decide to move out of the city?

Lea: I left Glasgow about 7 and a half years ago. I'd been there for about 18 years and really loved it for most of that time, but it was time for a change.

M[m]: What's next for you, and can we expect another King Futile album?

Lea: New KING FUTILE album 'ZEN AS FUCK' is probably out now. debut TINOKUKNOI AREVULOPAPO release probably out now. Debut BURN PHANTOM BURN release out soon.

Big thanks to Lea for his time and effort with the interview. All three King Futile albums can be bought directly from http://www.kovoroxsound.com/KOVOROXRELEASES.htm, and the projects bandcamp is here https://kingfutile.bandcamp.com/