King Creosote
Kenny Anderson is an extraordinary man. Making music under the moniker King Creosote, Anderson manages simultaneously to be a remarkable musician, a genius songwriter, the inspirational head of a record label and the beating heart of the fantastic Fence Collective, all from the sleepy fishing village of Anstruther in the East Neuk of Fife.
Ten years ago, tired of chasing a fickle music industry around, Anderson returned to his native Fife, drew a line in the sand, and set about creating his own incredible, touching and heartwarming music in a stress-free environment, surrounded by like-minded friends. Producing quality tunes at a prolific rate, he recorded album after album at home, released them on his own Fence Records and sold them around Fife and beyond. Word spread. More like-minded souls gravitated towards Anderson and his notorious jam sessions in the local Ship Tavern, and the Fence Collective was born.
These days the Fence Collective boasts dozens of artists, including Domino signing James Yorkston, the legendary Lone Pigeon (Anderson's brother Gordon and one-time member of the Beta Band), while current rising star KT Tunstall is also a former member. The Fence Collective have become a lighthouse in the fog of the music industry, a bastion of the D.I.Y. music-making ethic, and Fence Records is now a bustling cottage industry in its own right.
As for King Creosote, having put out over two dozen albums (yes, really) on limited release, Anderson decided it was time to step things up a gear in 2003 with his first properly distributed national release, 'Kenny and Beth's Musakal Boatrides', a fantastic collection including everything from drunken sea shanties to experimental drone-folk to feisty skiffle-pop, all imbued with Anderson's characteristic charm and easy-going demeanour. Accompanied by his Fence Collective chums, Anderson strummed his guitar, squeezed his accordion and sang like a heartbroken angel. Needless to say, the record met with universal acclaim.
After a host of side projects, collaborations, and some time off to organise two phenomenal Fence festivals in Anstruther, Anderson returned to King Creosote duties, releasing the home-recorded 'Rocket D.I.Y.' through Domino/Fence in Spring 2005, a record which built on the foundations of 'Kenny and Beth's...' while adding a newfound maturity of vision and poignant depth of songwriting to Anderson's arsenal.
And so to Autumn 2005, and the latest and greatest King Creosote release. Recorded in collaboration with Mancunian psychedelic minstrels The Earlies in their studio, and released on The Earlies' imprint of Names/679 Recordings, 'K.C. Rules OK' begins a whole new chapter of the King Creosote story, and promises to be a breakthrough record.
The album, preceded by the superb and diverse 'Favourite Girl' EP, expands the King Creosote musical palette further with horns, beats, strings and atmospherics, but is still at heart a collection of extraordinarily touching, funny, sad, poignant, heartbreaking and downright beautiful songs, nothing more than you'd expect from a man with as big a heart and as big a talent as Kenny Anderson. K.C. Rules OK? You bet your life he does.
Ten years ago, tired of chasing a fickle music industry around, Anderson returned to his native Fife, drew a line in the sand, and set about creating his own incredible, touching and heartwarming music in a stress-free environment, surrounded by like-minded friends. Producing quality tunes at a prolific rate, he recorded album after album at home, released them on his own Fence Records and sold them around Fife and beyond. Word spread. More like-minded souls gravitated towards Anderson and his notorious jam sessions in the local Ship Tavern, and the Fence Collective was born.
These days the Fence Collective boasts dozens of artists, including Domino signing James Yorkston, the legendary Lone Pigeon (Anderson's brother Gordon and one-time member of the Beta Band), while current rising star KT Tunstall is also a former member. The Fence Collective have become a lighthouse in the fog of the music industry, a bastion of the D.I.Y. music-making ethic, and Fence Records is now a bustling cottage industry in its own right.
As for King Creosote, having put out over two dozen albums (yes, really) on limited release, Anderson decided it was time to step things up a gear in 2003 with his first properly distributed national release, 'Kenny and Beth's Musakal Boatrides', a fantastic collection including everything from drunken sea shanties to experimental drone-folk to feisty skiffle-pop, all imbued with Anderson's characteristic charm and easy-going demeanour. Accompanied by his Fence Collective chums, Anderson strummed his guitar, squeezed his accordion and sang like a heartbroken angel. Needless to say, the record met with universal acclaim.
After a host of side projects, collaborations, and some time off to organise two phenomenal Fence festivals in Anstruther, Anderson returned to King Creosote duties, releasing the home-recorded 'Rocket D.I.Y.' through Domino/Fence in Spring 2005, a record which built on the foundations of 'Kenny and Beth's...' while adding a newfound maturity of vision and poignant depth of songwriting to Anderson's arsenal.
And so to Autumn 2005, and the latest and greatest King Creosote release. Recorded in collaboration with Mancunian psychedelic minstrels The Earlies in their studio, and released on The Earlies' imprint of Names/679 Recordings, 'K.C. Rules OK' begins a whole new chapter of the King Creosote story, and promises to be a breakthrough record.
The album, preceded by the superb and diverse 'Favourite Girl' EP, expands the King Creosote musical palette further with horns, beats, strings and atmospherics, but is still at heart a collection of extraordinarily touching, funny, sad, poignant, heartbreaking and downright beautiful songs, nothing more than you'd expect from a man with as big a heart and as big a talent as Kenny Anderson. K.C. Rules OK? You bet your life he does.