Showplug: Black Kat Boppers @The Legion
Black Kat Boppers hail from down on the South Coast Water Way in Southampton and are 4 fellas who love to play hard boppin’, jump up, rockin’ blues, dance music. They formed In Dec 2009 after some chance meetings, speculative phone calls and a little bit of fate. A shared love for rockin’ roots music was clear and they haven’t looked back since. There’s been triumphant performances at Glastonbury, Port Eliot, Bestival & Hyde Park (with Blur & The Specials).
Dave Showplug Taylor recently caught up with the band prior to their Showplug show in Swanage at the Legion, Saturday the 5th of April 2014 – get your tickets here folks!
Black Kat Boppers are:
Roy Phillips – Vocals
Jon Best – Guitars, Harmonica & Vocals
Colin Owens – Drums & Vocals
Dylan Clarke – Stand Up Bass & Vocals
01. How did your band get together?
Played together when we were teenagers, busking all over the place, playing rockabilly. Fast forward many years, Jon and Roy were playing together, I had a message from a friend saying Jon had asked if I was around and fancied drumming, I said yea, we knew Dylan as he’s been to see us play so when we needed a bass player, he got the nod.
02. Where did your name come from?
Roy came up with the band name.
03. Who were your major influences and inspirations?
Mid 50s Rocknroll & R&B music! We had our individual slant on that.
04. What drove you to make music together?
It just feels good and sounds good when we’re doing it. No other reason needed. I think playing together when we were young means it’s ingrained in you somewhere.
05. What can someone who has never seen you live before expect from your shows?
Full, 100% rockin’ commitment! Plenty of dancing. We don’t hold back. We show off and have a good time ha. Some pretty fine tunes too.
06. Who writes your songs? What types of themes and subjects do you deal with?
Roy and Jon write the songs then maybe we’ll work through them as a band, make em work! We’ve got songs about love, loss, being up, being down, dancing, fighting haha…
07. How has your music evolved since you first began playing together?
We’re pretty tight, intuitive, things come together quick. We love what we are and what we do so we try to keep on getting better.
08. What has been your biggest challenge as a band? How were you able to overcome this?
Recording can be hard work, but we pushed through and got some good results. We worked with Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon in the studio and they pushed us til our fingers bled and our heads were exploding but it was a good education from a couple of masters.
09. Does the band play covers? If so, do you argue over the choice of songs? Who usually gets his own way?
We play some covers, tunes we like, that we think we can do well. I cannot recall any arguments over that. A few crowd pleasers never go a miss.
10. What do you love and hate outside of music?
Hate? That’s a bit strong! I’m sure we all have stuff we don’t like? I hate cauliflower? I guess we love our kids and our favourite jackets, that kind of stuff!
11. Who would you most like to record with?
We’ve been pretty lucky with the people we’ve met and worked with. We recently did some songs live with Daisy from kitty, daisy & lewis. It sounded pretty damn good, we may record with her some time.
12. What should we be expecting from the band in the near future?
We’re doing some festivals, we’re getting some offers for some good shows abroad, maybe some tv stuff, maybe working with some interesting people. Hopefully having a great time and just keep on keepin on!
Web Links:
blackkatboppers.com
facebook.com/BlackKatBoppers
twitter.com/blackkatboppers
soundcloud.com/the-black-kat-boppers
