“I think it’s a bit of a junkie mentality in a way. You’re constantly chasing a high.”
That’s not really as incriminating as it sounds. King Farook are toying with metaphors as they attempt to describe their enthusiasm for touring.
“Man you know what it’s all about? This is our dream, what we’re doing right now is our dream. We all work day jobs and to be able to just get on the road and play to a whole bunch of new people who have never heard us before is what I live for. I love it.”
Chasing the highs from gig to gig has even left these musical junkies unaffected by the inevitable lows that accompany them.
“You’re in a van with three other smelly guys for ten hours, but it all disappears the minute you hit the stage and you rock it. It’s about constantly trying to feel that way. It keeps you going. So far so good. Hopefully that’s what keeps happening.”
Besides touring manically, King Farook recently released the Four Piece Feed Ep.
“It’s available in all record stores actually. If they don’t have it they’ll order it in. We’ve got distribution through MGM. We’re selling it at gigs as well and just pumping it. A couple of stations have given it a bit of a run so it’s been alright, slowly but surely.”
While only out for five months, it seems this release is already starting to show its age as the band develops.
“Kinda looking forward to some new stuff but the Four Piece Feed is our thing for a little bit. To be honest, it’s not really the sound we’re going for at the moment because we’ve changed members again.”
Line up changes in the band have seen them shift from a five piece to a four, losing and gaining different members along the way. The Four Piece Feed even includes some guitar tracks, when no one in the band plays one any more.
“The reason it was a bit of a dead end is because we actually included guitar. I played guitar on there as well as the bass but tried to keep the guitar to a minimum so it wouldn’t be missed live and it’s something that I’m trying to produce on the bass as well as guitar.”
“So we kind of sound like that, but I think in the future it’s not gonna sound like that because we’re gonna steer away from that kind of sound. We’re gonna write more in terms of what we do on stage. We wanna try to get what we do on stage on to a record. That’s obviously become the forte of what we do as a band. The more people tell us that the more it makes it obvious that’s what we should do on the next album. Not necessarily a live album, but cater the album more to the dynamic of what we do.”
Translating the raw energy of a live show to record successfully is not without its difficulties.
“It is really hard to capture that in the studio. That energy level isn’t necessarily there that you get from a crowd being in front of you all dancing and losing their fuckin’ minds. That’s the challenge for us: to get that energy, that liveness while still having the polish of a nice studio recording.”
With this challenging new direction, King Farook have a positive outlook on their next release.
“We feel pretty confident that the next batch of songs, the next batch of Farookness is gonna be the real shit. Not that the other stuff wasn’t, but we feel a lot more comfortable now.”
“In saying that, I don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet. It’s gonna get harder and we’re gonna be harder working in time to come.”
The next couple of months will see the band working hard on finishing their tour before taking some time off to write and record. There’s no question as to their most anticipated gig in Sydney.
“Romp is the big one for the Sydney market. It’s the 5th December at the Factory theatre. It’s a mini-festival with nine bands on two stages. We’re gonna headline that.”
By Dan Clarke
