Band Spotlight: King 810

In our next Band Spotlight, we welcome back Gunn of King 810 to talk about new plans, and his band’s forthcoming UK tour.

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S] Hey Gunn, what are you up to today? Thanks for speaking to us.

I was writing awhile but now I’m on a bit of a break, so I was going to do this and if it doesn’t ruin me mentally, I was going to go back to writing.

S] What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve overcome over the last year, both creatively and personally?

There have been many challenges, but one that comes to mind, one that seems insurmountable kinda, came to the surface at the beginning of this year. I had been diagnosed with a disorder, but I don’t think now is the time to talk about it. A lot of explanation comes on the next record as it’s a main theme.

S] How excited are you for the forthcoming UK dates?

Some days I’m excited, some days I don’t think of it. The crowds are always enjoyable over there though, the shows always go over well. I don’t really think about shit like that though, I’m kinda just focused on how to pull off the show. I feel like it’s a bit harder to be KING than most other groups.

S] What’s the dynamic like in the band at present?

The dynamic is the best it’s been in maybe four years. Logistically it’s running pretty smooth. No one is incarcerated so that’s all you can ask for and although there was a close call last night, it’s all good.

S] How do you look back on the impact of ‘La Petite Mort…’ now?

The impact of LPM wasn’t proportional with the quality of the record. I didn’t hear an album come out that same year that I thought was as good as LPM. Not complaining or anything, because we’re used to that, but of course you always want your records to shake the earth upon release.

S] How do you personally define success and do you feel you’ve achieved that with KING 810?

I don’t bother to define success. A friend of mine defines it as quantifiable progress toward your goal or goals. I guess I kinda agree. Do I feel I’ve achieved a level of it? Yes. Do I consider myself successful? NO. Of course not. The level that I feel I’ve achieved is, and I mean this as a real calculation not a turn of phrase, one one thousandth of what I’ve set out to do and what I am after, so no, I’m not even at 1% where we’re sitting right now.

S] Would you say you yourself have become more comfortable as an artist, and your role in the music industry at this point?

No, I wouldn’t say that at all for a couple of reasons. The first one being I’ve always been comfortable as an artist, as uncomfortable as it’s been, if that makes sense. That’s never been the problem. To be honest, I haven’t understood my role in the music industry even at this point. I don’t even know if I’m a part of the industry. I don’t know anyone, don’t associate with anyone regularly, don’t play any kind of part or role. I’m not anyone’s friend, no one calls my cell phone, I’m not a band bro, as funny as it sounds. Nothing against it, I just feel like an alien in that world. I have the same group of shit friends. More of the world knows about our music, etc, but we’re kind of on an island when it comes to “the industry.” We’re an independent group – nobody is handing us a check, we pay for everything ourselves, we do everything ourselves, we manage ourselves, we book ourselves. I don’t think anyone realises what we’re doing here.

S] What advice would you give to emerging artist from smaller, more challenged areas around the world, where there’s not so much exposure (or money to find it), on how to get noticed, if they’ve taken inspiration from your work?

I haven’t had too much experience with this here, and I really only speak from experience so I don’t sit and spout off buzzwords or trending ideas like you’d mostly find in these types of answers. The only thing I can say we did was keep going. You keep doing what it is you’re doing until someone notices.

When everyone was saying we needed to move to Chicago or NY or to LA, that’s all we did. We just stayed put and made enough noise until someone somewhere who was important enough noticed and made a fuss about it. In our case it wasn’t even a good fuss, but negative things and controversy, which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone as the answer because it’s not.

That’s what people think we do, but that’s just us being us and someone happened to stumble upon it. To be clear, it makes things harder and it makes everything more difficult and it’s not worth it, if that’s any advice. You hear it all the time and it’s a tortured cliche but you’re going to have to be yourself – and consistently – because if you’re playing a role, that’s going to become exhausting, so you should be comfortable on your long ride. I don’t know if that answers your question, but I think that goes for anything.

Go watch this incredible band on tour:

Thu 29th Nov – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy 2
Fri 30th Nov – BRIGHTON Concorde 2
Sun 2nd Dec – BOURNEMOUTH The Old Fire Station
Mon 3rd Dec – PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
Wed 5th Dec – NORWICH Waterfront
Thu 6th Dec – TUNBRIDGE WELLS Forum
Fri 7th Dec – NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
Sat 8th Dec – LEICESTER Dryden Street Social
Sun 9th Dec – COLCHESTER Arts Centre
Tue 11th Dec – BRISTOL Fleece
Wed 12th Dec – STOKE ON TRENT Sugarmill
Thu 13th Dec – MANCHESTER Club Academy
Fri 14th Dec – LEEDS Key Club
Sun 16th Dec – SHEFFIELD Foundry
Mon 17th Dec – HULL The Welly 2
Tue 18th Dec – NEWCASTLE O2 Academy 2
Wed 19th Dec – OXFORD O2 Academy 2
Thu 20th Dec – LONDON Scala
Fri 21st Dec – BRIDGEND Hobo’s