Black Kids, like some super pop party explosion, have risen sharply into the shindig stratosphere, attracting major label attention almost as soon as they stepped off the plane here in Britain. To say their bouncing bass beats, swellegant keyboard refrains and terrifically naughty and comical lyrics are infectious is an understatement… But I should stop gushing. Ok, one more gush: I met bassist Owen Holmes and drummer Kevin Snow of the band up a winding and treacherously confusing staircase in the Astoria (soon to be lost to London…) and found them to be two extremely lovely Black Kids. Not only the music but the band members themselves give this writer a reason to gush…
Owen Holmes
BCR: So how has the tour so far been treating you?
Owen Holmes: Oh, really good. I mean it when I say that these have been our best performances.
BCR: You’ve quite a bit to go and I know this isn’t your longest tour…
Owen Holmes: Ever since this time last year, it’s just been one tour after another. I know a lot of bands probably say that but with us it’s true. But I think it’s going really well and we’ve improved greatly just over the last couple of months.
BCR: Just because you know what works on stage and you’ve got everything down pat..?
Owen Holmes: Yeah, exactly. It took a while. When we first started getting attention we pretty much sucked live and that was the case for a while but now, it’s really come together.
BCR: I know a while ago you said that you thought you were a better studio band than you were a live band, so that’s changed?
Owen Holmes: Maybe putting it that way isn’t accurate but we’re definitely a better live band than we were. We’ve made some changes to the set that I think are really cool so we’re not just playing the album as it is on the album…
BCR: Since August 2007, only fourteen months ago you’ve been in NME, Vice, The Guardian, The Village Voice, Pitchfork Media, The New York Times, USA Today, Rolling Stone twice and BBC Sound of 2008 poll and a whole host of countries… Have you had time to breathe yet?
Owen Holmes: We’ve been home a total of two, two and a half weeks this whole year. I think we’ll have a chance to exhale over Thanksgiving; we’ll be home for that for two weeks and then a couple more weeks for Christmas. Those breaks aren’t coming a moment too soon…
BCR: Are you all still alright on the road?
Owen Holmes: If anything we’ve learned what not to do and what to do… You kinda learn what buttons to not push and what buttons… to push… the whole dynamic in the band is very established. We don’t hate each other.
BCR A lot of bands would have fallen apart with this sort of gruelling schedule.
Owen Holmes: Well, I know it sounds kinda corny but we were friends before we were a band, Reggie [Youngblood], Kevin [Snow] and I, over twelve years.
BCR: So there’s nothing that could…
Owen Holmes: I wouldn’t think so, I hope not. Nothing yet…
BCR: I know you’ve been in different bands together for the last ten years or so but how different are they from what Black Kids is now?
Owen Holmes: There was one called Mata Hari… I started off in punk bands personally but I’m always eager to point out that Reggie and Kevin started out in a Ska band…
BCR: Even with your penchant for Jimmy Buffet?
Owen Holmes: Oh! Right, um, probably because of my background to be honest… But if you kinda lined them all up you could see markers bubbling up through them. Like that Mata Hari band, Reggie always says it was basically a New Order tribute band. But with Black Kids we built on that and then got the girls…
BCR: I know Ali [Youngblood] is Reggie’s sister…
Owen Holmes: Yeah, Ali’s Reggie’s sister. We don’t really know who Dawn [Watley ] is.
BCR: So you just found her wondering past the studio…
Owen Holmes: Who just happened to know how to play the piano… No, she’s Ali’s best friend and we didn’t really know her before she started playing with us but now we’ve grown to love her. Love her not like her…
BCR: Maybe that was the thing that changed it over from the Cubby sound to the Black Kids sound? I know that people cite The Cure and such but I hear stuff like Grace Jones and A-Ha – proper pop music.
Owen Holmes: Yeah, that’s a real compliment, I agree. I appreciate you making that distinction because most people think that they can get away with saying The Cure. That means a lot to me. At least someone is getting that…
