You may remember when King Nun burst onto the music scene back in 2016 and caught many peoples eye with their mesmerising indie/punk tunes. Two years later and they released their anticipated debut EP ‘I Have Love’.
The five-track release showcases the diversity of the bands’ music, with every song having its own unique and individual sound. There’s a particular energetic feel to every track, accompanied with some quirky, yet meaningful lyrics, as heard in ‘Greasy Hotel’.
Accompanying the release of the EP, King Nun recently embarked on their first headline tour across the UK. This was off the back of supporting fellow Dirty Hit label quartet Pale Waves on their most recent tour.
Sunday November 18th saw the ‘Chinese Medicine’ rockers play their Leeds leg of the tour at the fantastic Hyde Park Book Club.
I caught up with frontman Theo Polyzoides to chat about their recent LP, their tour and other happenings in the world of King Nun.
What has the reaction been like to the I Have Love EP?
It’s been fantastic, I think the biggest thing we saw immediately was a four-stars in a magazine called DIY that we love a lot. That really impacted us in a big way I think. It was incredibly lovely to see.
What was the writing process like for your new songs?
We were working with this producer called Rupert Lydon, who was in a group a while ago called Grand National and they’re fucking sensational, I really recommend people checking them out. So, we went in a studio with him with these five songs that were built essentially to be love songs from a punk rock point of view.
He helped us visualise what’s going on and unravel everything and from there the writing process almost becomes a blur because when you get so invested in something it becomes symbiotic with your normal life. It was all we were doing for like a year.
As you have a punk and indie sound, wondered what your musical influences are?
We’re so all over the place, which I realise isn’t uncommon within bands, but I think the thing that really united us together was when we all got into the New York and 70s CBGB scene at the same time. Immediately we all picked up on Richard Hell, who was kind of the insurgent of that scene from our point of view. He then led us onto Blondie, The Ramones, Dead Boys, Television, all these sensational bands who were all sort of pushing through into this new genre.
How has your first headline tour been?
It’s been absolutely wonderful, I’m so happy we picked the support that we did, and I mean this is our first headline (tour) so there are lots of things we had to just jump in and go with. Being able to dictate the show and then finding out what our show was.
I’m not used to really addressing the crowd as a headliner, I’m used to addressing the crowd as an opener! At this point I’m pretty good at the ‘let’s go guys, lets party down!’, but I’m not so good at the like ‘okay, this is the final product’, do you know what I mean! So, I think it’s been a beautiful experience having the whole show under our control and finding out we can properly do it with a magnificent support behind us.
You have played Live at Leeds before; did you receive a positive reaction from the crowd?
100%, easily yes, I think at both Live at Leeds audiences. If they were due just to Leeds and not just a festival. If that’s anything to go by and anything to judge the crowds by then I’m not worried in the slightest. They were very energetic and very dancy and wonderful to hang out with for an hour.
You were in session with Jack Saunders on Radio 1 recently, what is it like to receive exposure from stations such as Radio 1?
You go a bit numb I think, with the wheel and the speed these things are going at, we’re in like a perpetual sensation of ‘oh my God’ ‘oh my God’ ‘oh my God’ all the time. So when the Jack Saunders thing was kicking off, it was like right we’re going to have just put our feet down and run with this, because if we stop and start gaping at it, it’s going to get away from us.
So I think really, we just stuck our heels in and tried to give the best performance we could, without trying not to get shocked at the fact we’re on Radio 1. It was such a phenomenally huge thing for us and it was pretty insane to be honest with you!
If you want to hear the full interview, check it out here! –
Leeds: Live and Loud 