Advertisement

Music

Krule’s Intentions

The afternoon after his Wrongbar show, I found British songwriter Archy Marshall, aka King Krule, in the abandoned conference room where I would interview him, walking around, trailing his hand along one of the walls. He is thin. His hair a more vibrant red than most photos capture. His eyes are expressive and affecting.

Despite having just turned 19 on August 24, the day his debut studio album, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon, dropped, Marshall carries himself with a pensive confidence that belies his age. He is thoughtful, but fearless when answering questions about his own career path and the whirlwind couple of years he’s just had.

There was a two-month period when he didn’t know how to get where he was trying to go and he thought of giving up. And, just two years ago, he and his mother didn’t see eye to eye on his career choices. But now, with the music world quickly becoming enamoured with her son, “she’s chill, man.”

While we chat, he references colour and aesthetics a lot. He describes moods, themes and periods in his life through color. (He often uses blue or gray, but goes with a calming white for the mood of today’s interview.) He mentions his older brother’s artwork more than once. His moniker, King Krule, is inspired by the 1958 movie musical King Creole – not a Donkey Kong character as is often falsely reported – and he likes the way the lettering looks.

When he sings, his powerful baritone is surprsing (he sounds at least twice his age). “It’s strange,” Marshall says. “No one ever really talked to me about my voice. People started writing about it and I was like, ‘What?’ I’m really about my lyrics, but more people were talking about my voice. It’s cool, but at first I got upset because I wanted people to focus on the content.”

The content of the soulful, jazz-fused indie-rock is visual, melancholy and metaphor-filled, at once bleak and bold. Marshall’s voice gets under your skin while his lyrics – some written as a very early teen – induce a wave of nostalgia.

“All of my stuff is raw, it’s emotive, it’s real,” he says. As for the media interest and how it will affect his own creative process, he is adamant that exposure will not change his artistry.

“I don’t give a shit,” he says. “I’m just going to go out and make music. That’s the best feeling. I think that’s what art is there for, to inspire people.”

On his often-sombre lyrical matter, Marshall is lighthearted. “I got sedated when I was young,” he jokes. The laugh disappears when I ask what he thinks he would create if he were in a place of complete peace, however, as opposed to the “blue wave” he’s currently in. “Probably something amazing,” he said. “But I doubt that will ever happen … I just think it’s very hard to reach that place.” (Amid heavy touring in Europe and here in North America, he is also already halfway through his second album.)

Performance-wise, he’s beginning to understand the impact he can have on an audience, calling it “empowering.”

“There was a moment where I just realized, ‘Shit, this is crazy,'” he says. “I once played a gig in Prague on my own and there was like 700 people. It was raining the entire time, pissing down, I was wearing a rain [jacket] … it was just me and my guitar. I remember stopping just for a few seconds to hear some silence and it was amazing. I had the power to be able to speak into this mic and I was in this guy’s ears way over there.”

Marshall takes his time trying to sum up his current week of travel. Pausing to consider the things he could speak about, performing in New York, the show in Toronto, all of the media he has done along the way, he laughs before sharing a memorable moment.

“Last night was really fun,” he says. “It’s hard to say one highlight … so much has happened. I like rooftops. Hotel rooftops, we got on some guy’s rooftop last night and chilled. Walked across a couple of roofs, had a nice view of that big tower. It was beautiful. I like views.”

As we wrap up so that Marshall can catch a flight, he leads the way down a hallway that is not the one we are supposed to take to return to his handler’s office. When I point toward where we are supposed to go, he smiles and keeps walking.

“Aren’t we going to get in trouble?” I say.

He shrugs and his smile widens. He doesn’t feel like going back, just yet.

Eventually we do end up at the now-empty office, handler off in search of his artist. But rather than pulling an immature prank, Marshall was reclaiming a bit of control over his own schedule: taking the long way around and stretching out the minutes of white calm before stepping back into the blue wave of his emerging celebrity. Once again, showing an awareness wiser than his years.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted