King Krule Quotes

When I was younger, I used to do that a lot: I would hear a part of a song that would really relax me and then put it on repeat. That would send me to sleep. It was quite obvious classical music, people like Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel.

Stuff like Buena Vista Social Club and Fela Kuti were quite a main thing to my childhood. As soon as I reached an age where I realized that Fela was singing in English, when I got past his accent, I loved the rawness of it, and the funk and the rhythm and the melody.

I’m trying to create a collection of stories – the ‘U.F.O.W.A.V.E.’ songs are all stories. I haven‘t really taken direct lyrical influence from other songwriters, but my dad bought me a book of W.H. Auden’s poems when I was younger, and the imagery really interested me.

Growing up in any big city, you get exposed to so many beautiful cultures. I’ve grown up with a lot of open eyes around me that’s influenced my eyes to open.

I’ve mainly been sampling jazz because the tone of the chords are expressive in itself, so it’s quite nice to write over. It’s got interpretations of a lot of different genres, too, a lot of dubby-ness and experimental stuff.

My dad is an art director for BBC TV shows, and my mum does screen printing workshops. Both of my parents played instruments, too, and my mum used to have crazy house parties when me and my brother were young – dub and garage would be banging through my house.

I do love the music aspect of the Internet. The Internet made me.

I guess from 12 onwards I was always into my music.

Especially with the live, just the way I curve words, it’s about expression. It’s so emotive, to be able to release these words into a mike. It really emphasizes this insane tingle down my spine whenever I play.

Because the Internet’s there, I have access to a lot of the legends, like Fela Kuti. I used to watch a lot of Fela Kuti videos, just to see how he performed. He inspired me a lot, actually, because he was a man of many words, many good words.

I got alright GCSEs, but I was lost. I didn’t know what to do, whether to continue with education, go to uni, go to art school – then again, I was like, ‘Maybe I should just go and get a job, start early and make money.’

I went through quite a few establishments that maybe weren’t great for myself – security units, youth-offender places. I guess that was going to the lions‘ den. Social services said, ‘You’ve got to go to some sort of school.’

I want to get more and more sophisticated. I’m ready to go from being a kid to being a king.

I actually find a lot of pleasure in writing lyrics.

Jazz is more raw than punk in a lot of ways. It’s so expressive. A lot of people say to me, especially older people, ‘It took me ages to get into jazz.’