At last! The ’Foxes EP’ is here!
And you can but it from i-tunes -
 ..
or, would you rather a copy of the handcrafted cd?
UK Residents
Foxes EP - International
Also, I still have a few copies of ’Five Stories’ available for direct purchase for £5 -
The letter K can stand for some surprising things – potassium, black, one thousand – and this is no exception. With so many male singer-songwriters putting the dour into troubadour and the bland into, er, bland, K Anderson is a kick up the backside, a kiss-off to the cliché. That’s not to say his songs are shrouded in pretension, far from it. Imagine if Rufus Wainwright shed his overwhelming self-interest, if Patrick Wolf jettisoned his smug delusions of grandeur, and you’re getting slightly warmer. Rarely one to sugarcoat a bitter pill, even for himself, when K has something to say he says it. Armed with an enviable, sometimes startling turn of phrase, his songs are loaded with meaning and refreshingly honest, cool observation. For every wry analysis, whether turned inward or out, you get the sense that K is a man keeping score with his destiny, acutely self-aware but not self-obsessed.
A somewhat itinerant youth saw K relocate from his birthplace of Dumfries to the warmer environs of Australia at the age of eight, spending time in Adelaide and Melbourne before returning to the UK in 2004. Throwing himself headlong into the London acoustic singer-songwriter circuit, snapping at the heels of recognition, K’s hard work paid off with the independent release of his acclaimed EP ‘Five Stories’ in 2006. By turns disarming, poignant and barbed, K’s meticulously crafted tales of dissolution, disorientation and (re)discovery struck a resonant chord with whomsoever chose to listen. With its unflinching, blow-by-blow account of life as a homosexual urbanite, the grit and passion of K’s vocal informs you that he means every word. Here, a masculine roguishness mingles with a traditionally more female sensitivity; “lesbian music by a boy,” he calls it, with tongue discreetly in cheek.
K wasn’t always so attuned to the likes of his musical heroes Jill Sobule and Ani DiFranco. “I grew up in a very FM radio-centric household and didn’t realise there was a life outside of the top 40 until my rebellious teenage phase,” says K before admitting, “which wasn’t all that rebellious, really.” No Wainwright-esque ‘my gay/drugs/addiction hell’ stories here then? “I loved cartoons. I’m still anxiously trying to find a way to be both a world famous pop star and save the world in half-hour weekly instalments!”
Perhaps K’s greatest love is for making lists (and checking them twice). “I’m obsessed with reading self-help books, too,” he laughs. “But rather than inspiring me they make me think the writer is a prat. And I’m constantly buying toy instruments that I bash around and play with until they give me the sound that I want. What else? Comic books are high on the list!”
K continues to explore in his latest creations all these themes and more as he forges his upcoming full-length debut (Summer 2008). Relentless in his pursuit of a greater perception of the history and cultural constructs of his surroundings, and of his place among them, K is itching with ideas and with things he wants to tell you. No gloss, no bullshit, no false sincerity. You wouldn’t want him any other way.
|
