Latest news with #TheK
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The K's Jamie Boyle issues urgent warning over music venues closing
The closure of grassroots music venues is threatening to derail the British music industry, warns The K's frontman Jamie Boyle ahead of a landmark performance at Hillsborough Stadium Indie band The K's admit it's harder for unsigned bands as grassroots venues face further closures. The band from Earlestown, located between Manchester and Liverpool are today playing The Sarah Nulty main stage at Tramlines Festival in Sheffield, enjoying the recent release of their second album, Pretty On The Internet. 'We're well excited,' said frontman Jamie Boyle. Speaking to the Mirror from Hillsborough Stadium, he went on to add: 'As soon as we finished our first album, our minds were set on the second.' Last year, their debut album reached Number Three, being beaten by Beyoncé and The Libertines. But should their album get to number one, what would it mean for the band? 'It means everything to us. We'd love it. We said yesterday when we did our album release show, there's still one box I haven't ticked for my first album campaign, as amazing as it was but to finally tick that box and get that Number One accolade to our name. 'But regardless, as long as we keep doing what we're doing for a living, making music we love, that's all that matters but a Number One, would be that cherry on the top.' Prior to the record being released, four tracks racked up an impressive four million streams, something the band struggled to get their heads around. 'I think when you see it on paper, you don't even think about it until you have to,' said guitarist Ryan Breslin. He added: 'It's unfathomable the number itself, you see it on paper and then you sit down and think how many people know these songs, it's crazy. I don't think you can actually visualise that community, so all that put into context, it's class. 'As long as people keep listening, as long as everything keeps going down so well, we'll keep doing what we're doing, hopefully it stays that way for a while.' However, they admit that during the creation of the record, they learned to mainly focus on nothing but the album process. 'Don't let anything cloud our vision,' they added. But having worked their way up the industry for the past decade, bassist Dexter commented: 'It's been a lot of hard work over the past ten, seven years. It's been quite hard work. Obviously we're getting to these stages, it's kind of like the fruits coming out of the trees now. It has been hard work but it's served us well.' More recently, the band have launched a pop-up shop in their hometown to celebrate the release of their album, with Ryan admitting it was 'cool' to meet the people who have supported them over the years and seen their rise to success. He went on to add: 'The streams on Spotify, it's hard to kind of comprehended when you've got 100 people still in a shop buying your albums. Yeah, it's a good feeling.' Living between Manchester and Liverpool has been a huge help for the band. 'You get more doors open for you when you live between massive music scenes. There are more venues on your doorstep, which is why it's such a shame. See so many closing doors on a lot of the venues that we started off playing aren't there anymore. Theres a lot of focus on keeping them open now which I hope succeeds.' One of the venues the band have played the most was The Leadmill, Ryan said: 'There's just something in the water.' Speaking about their set at Tramlines, drummer Nathan said: 'We can't wait I think was an extra buzz as well obviously, because we just dropped the album. So I think it's just going to be a little extra special on stage for us and for the fans as well.' Jamie added: 'I think it's going to be f**king mint. I think it's going to rock.'
Perth Now
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
The K's frontman Jamie Boyle reveals he's a proud Taylor Swift fan
The K's frontman Jamie Boyle has gushed that he is a proud Taylor Swift fan. The indie rocker says more people in the rock world should give modern pop music a chance and not box themselves into one genre, as he lists the 'Shake It Off hitmaker, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo as influences. Asked what artists he was listening to while working on the band's upcoming second studio album, 'Pretty On The Internet', he told "I'm constantly listening to new stuff and always exploring new genres and things like that. And I think one thing that surprises people is if you look at my playlist, I think people would be very surprised, because it goes from The Beatles, like '60s Beatles, through to like, '70s, '80s, punk, and then all the way through to like, like modern day pop music, like Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, people like this. People are far too quick to put themselves into one box, or one genre, and just be like, No, that's what I like. Everything else is s***. And it's like, if you actually sit down and listen to stuff, I think, like, if you give it the time, you may end up finding something you like in it. I also think for the vast majority off stuff, not everything, but I think if something's really big, there's always things to take away from it, even if you don't love it. Obviously, I'm not saying go and listen to Gangnam Style, but, I feel like with pop music, people in our sort of our circles are so quick to dismiss it. And I think if you listen to it a lot of the time, some of the songs are so well written, musically and lyrically. I think it's important to just listen to a broad range of music and cast a wider net as possible. And I think it sort of keeps things fresh as well, both as a listener and as a band, as a writer." It just so happens, The K's got Grammy Award winner Jim Lowe, who has mixed songs for Taylor in the past, to produce the follow-up to last year's number three album 'I Wonder If the World Knows?'. Elsewhere, Jamie revealed he would love to collaborate with his idols-turned-pals, The Libertines, who they were locked in a chart battle with. He said: "They are always dead sweet. It's weird, because, like, when we see them now, we go over for a chat and stuff, and we have a chat and I absolutely idolised them as a kid, I wouldn't have believed you, like 10 years ago, if you told me they'd recognise me. They've always been nothing but nice. So as we supported them a few times, and I absolutely love it every time we play with them, like I said, they're my favourite band ever. They actually got number one as well the week that we released our album. So if we're gonna lose to anyone, I'm glad it was them." Asked if a collaboration could be on the cards, he simply replied: "I'd absolutely love that." 'Pretty On The Internet' is out on June 27.
