Dean Foxx / Knock Out Kaine Interview
RockWich 2017
Lostock Club Sunday 27th August
By Beth Jones & Rick Tilley
Rick has had the great pleasure of talking to and interviewing Knock Out Kaine front man, Dean Foxx, on many occasions before, and we were really looking forward to seeing them perform at RockWich on the Sunday evening. It was my first time seeing them live and it was an added bonus when we bumped into Dean earlier in the day, prior to their set, and he was more than happy to have a brief chat with us about what’s new and upcoming in the Knock Out Kaine pipeline. It was my first time talking to Dean, but it was great fun as he is such a diamond geezer! And here is what he had to say:
Rick: So, you’re doing a new album – how’s it going?
Dean: Its going absolutely brilliantly!
Rick: I saw a recent comment on Facebook that you were up at 3.45am listening back to new tracks…?
Dean: Yeah, it’s going to knock the other two albums into a top hat!
Rick: Really?… Because I was blown away by the first one, and I got blown away even more by the second one so…
Dean: Yeah. We’ve hit that little sweet spot I think. It’s going to be heavier – not all of it, but I think 50% of it is going to be heavier than we have done before, still melodic, still rocky, but definitely with a heavier edge. But we’ve still got some quirky little bits and pieces that people are going to go “What?!” at, which is what we always do!
Rick: yeah you like to throw in a few curve balls don’t you!
Dean: Yeah. It’s certainly shaping up to be the best thing we have ever done, without a shadow of a doubt. I am bowled over by the material because it isn’t something we have written for an album, it has kind of organically grown, because we weren’t even going to record an album. We weren’t going to do anything creatively to put into the commercial arena for quite some time to come, and then it just happened. And it is the first time we have had a producer as well, which I was really cagey about being such a control freak! But the guy is brilliant. After the first studio session, I was quite happy to go, ‘Do you know what…run with it’!
Rick: Who have you got?
Dean: His Name’s Sam Cooke – no not the soul singer! I think he’s dead, isn’t he? – so that would be horrible!!! The smell in a studio environment is never any good after a few hours anyway so that would be horrible! But yeah, it’s turned out to be great, and this is the first time that we have had the scope to be able to spend some time on things. In the past, we’ve had a contract with someone and we’ve had a deadline and it’s all got to be done in that time, but this time we’ve let Sam in and he’s said ‘the album’s finished when it finished’. It’s lots of different studio sessions and it gives us time to breath and not have to slog, and it has just turned out brilliantly. We tracked the drums first as everyone does, but instead of going to the studio, Sam said ‘no we’re going to this place’, and he gave us an address and it was an old deconsecrated church! He had rented it out for a couple of days for the drums! And the drum sound is absolutely amazing – its intense. So, there is a lot of experimental and weird stuff going on as far as we’re concerned, with the new environments he has been putting us in to, but it’s turned out amazing!
Beth: Do you think that your creative sides came out more this time, because you didn’t have the constraints of thinking ‘we’ve got to write an album’?
Dean: Well the songs had already been written – I think you probably know from speaking to you before Rick, that we always have this pool of material because we’re always writing. So, we still did lots of demo’s round at Jim’s home studio to put them in a place where we knew exactly where they were going arrangement wise. That has been done in exactly the same way as we always do it. We are continuously working. We never go into a place where we are writing specifically for an album I suppose. So, we just went through a load of the demo tracks that we have done very recently. The first two albums had loads of songs that I had written that came to fruition in the studio, but I’d written them years and years and years ago, before the band ever even existed. On this one, there is one song that was written by me well before Knock Out Kaine existed, about 14 years ago, but the rest of them are new and exciting and FULL OF VIRVE! FULL OF VIM AND VIGOUR AND SPUNK!!!!
Rick: Haha! Is it more collaborative this time?
Dean: Yes – it is! Everyone has put their two penn’orth worth in, and as far as writing goes, this will be the first one where the credit on the album for each song will say, ‘written, arranged and performed by Knock Out Kaine’, rather than individual names, which makes me happy. Because I like that! …It’s because I’m a rock and roll socialist!! Not a communist! A rock and roll socialist!
Rick: There’s a song in there somewhere!! (laughter)
Beth: So, what’s next?
Dean: Well we will spend the rest of this year working on this record and that is it really. We have a handful of shows – we spent the first half of this year touring wall to wall like we normally do, but this last part we have some shows, like this one today here at RockWich, a couple of festival dates and then we will probably put together a Christmas Knock Out Kaine – KOKstock! At some outdoor venue in Lincoln later in the year, but the rest of the year is going to be spent doing the record!
Rick: I have been pushing your name for the new Stonedeaf Festival next year. I know a lot of people have and I think it’s perfect – cracking band, local to what they’re trying to do – it would be perfect to have you on.
Dean: Yeah! We’ll see what happens there. I’m hopeful it will be a good bash. If we’re not playing it and not doing something else, I will come along to have a look at it. It’s a great idea – it’s is a great premise to get back to the old one day thing!
Rick: Yeah, we are hoping to go.
Dean: It should be great. Anyway – I will give you a sneak preview of some of the album.
Rick: Oooh – are you sure?! Awesome.
Beth: Well this interview is a bit ‘off the cuff’ so that is about it, but I do like to try and ask everybody a random question at the end, so…. Jaffa Cakes – cake or biscuit?
Dean: Ooooooh you see, now everyone is going to say this, but you have opened a can of worms there haven’t you!!! I reckon cake, unless you leave it out too long on a plate and then it’s definitely a fuckin’ ‘orrible crunchy biscuit!!
Beth: But why is it a cake in the first place?
Dean: It’s spongey. It’s got a filling. It’s not a creamy filling accepted, it’s like a marmalade hybrid something!
Beth: But Jammy Dodgers have got jam inside.
Rick: Yeah but they’re biscuits – they’re not sponges!
Dean: And they are also horrible as well!! No one wants to eat one of them jam biscuits that ain’t got a little bit of that creamy shit in as well!! Creamy shit??! Where did that come from?! Creamy shit! That’s a story for another day that is!..(lots of laughing)
And on that note, Dean got his headphones out and played Rick a couple of tracks from the new album. To say Rick is excited about the release after hearing this sneak preview would be an understatement. We will be keeping you all up to date with release news for it, and recommend that fans, old and new, check it out.
We would like to thank Dean again for talking to us – always a pleasure, never a chore – and we looking forward to hooking up with him and the rest of Knock Out Kaine again very soon!
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Richard Tilley, Beth Jones and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to do adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities