Andy Kandil has quickly become the guitarist’s guitarist on the psychobilly scene since arriving on these shores some twenty years ago. His remarkably accomplished playing for his own band the Moonshine Stalkers quickly brought him to the attention of many of the leading lights on the circuit. This has led to his participation in bands as diverse as the Guitar Slingers, Torment, Frenzy, Mad Sin, Space Bop, and most recently Banane Metalik. He is one of the most humble gentlemen that you could possibly hope to meet, who is all too eager to brush off any allusions to his genius.

AK: I took the example of the people that did things before me, you know? So, to me, I don’t see the special part that you see in that. So for me, that means a lot, man. 

NK: OK, if we can start off … where are you from?

AK: Well, I am now English, because I’ve been here for twenty years. I’m a fucking British Geezer. 

I’ve been here for twenty years, and I have a British passport and British citizenship, and that’s the only passport that is active currently. So I’m actually like really English. I’m from London. 

NK: But you were originally from the US? 

AK: San Diego, yes. And twenty years ago, I came here. And it’s been the best. You know, my life completely changed when I moved to London. There’s a magic that people used to say about London. And I only understood it after being twenty years here. You know, the moment I came in, first couple of weeks, I ran into Ginger and Doyley in Camden out of the blue. You know, I didn’t even know about Camden. 

So what brought me here… I had problems, and music was the only thing that really got me going. 

You know, it was something really like a fiction for me. And a friend of mine, said ‘Andy, man, you need to go to London’. So first off, I’m from like jump blues music and rockabilly music and surf music, and all that kind of old schoolish genre is very big. Yeah, so I grew up all around that stuff. I mean, Miles Davis retired in San Diego. We have such a great musical culture. And I’ve always been into a lot of genres ever since I was young, you know, like from punk rock to Johnny Cash, all that type of music, the jazz, Western swing. 

I was really lucky to have the upbringing because that music was in my head and my heart from a young age, you know. And at that time, I didn’t really know about psychobilly. I knew about what like neo-rockabilly, I knew about the Polecats. I knew about that. I was a huge Polecats fan. Of course, the Quakes, you know, but that wasn’t psychobilly, if you know what I mean. I didn’t know there was an actual like scene, like what’s happening in Europe like that, you know. And basically, a tattoo artist, Irish friend of mine, said, ‘man, you need to’…he saw where I was and I wasn’t doing well, like I said, and he said, ‘man, you need to go to London because this is where all that stuff was happening’. He used to live there like twenty years ago and he told me that twenty years ago. I literally went there for a week because that’s all I could afford. In that one week, I never came back. 

Yeah, that was it, really, you know. And I found out that you could really play that music that I love, which is… I didn’t know about psychobilly, but , you know, that kind of vintage-y, like surf, sixties, bluegrass, it was all that stuff mixed together for me, you know, even punk bands like Dead Kennedys. So, it was a chance to play that type of music and actually make a little bit of money to be able to do something. 

I wasn’t making any money back home. And yeah, and it just…the city just pulled me, everyone was so sweet, man. I swear to God, you know, the human beings here that I met are some of the sweetest, kindest people. I think anyone could meet in their life, you know, I met Ginger [Meadham], I met Doyley, I met Jenny Bellstar, I met Bruno [Malo], you know what I mean? 

I was so lucky to meet really, genuinely, beautiful people. They just came to me where I was. I was able to play in a relaxed environment where they were my friends and, you know…I love the humour, man. That was so important for me from coming from a dark place. You know, I love dark music. All that creepy, scary stuff to me is so positive. It’s not like actually dark. And blend that with a humour that the guys have. It’s fucking great man. 

It’s like living in a sitcom, you know? And yeah, it just helped me develop so much. And I did so well. And like I said, look, man, I met you also twenty years ago and you’re such an amazing person here. 

I don’t see anything special in what I do, honestly. To have the support of people around me like that, that actually see that and try and convince me that it is, that means a lot to me, man. As an artist, it’s sometimes quite difficult to try and think that you’re good because it kind of ruins art. But I really appreciate it. You’re on the support team that I have around me. It’s been amazing, man. That’s including you, Nick. Thanks a lot, brother. 

NK: It’s no trouble at all. So tell me, did you study guitar at college in the United States? 

AK: So studying music, that’s funny. I studied music here in the UK, actually, at an older age and it was a decision that came from… I understood all that music that I love. I had it in my ears and I had it in my hands and my heart and all that. But I really wanted to know the science that went behind it and I was horrible at school because of ADHD, you know? And getting through encouragement and stuff like that. I studied and man, it opened up my eyes. It gave me the tools to teach myself. That’s what it gave me. I remember graduating and I remember one of the coolest things my professor said to me was, I was fucking old, man. You know, I was the oldest kid in class and I was going in and just trying to, you know, literally just trying to understand what the hell was going on, and it’s so helpful, but when I graduated, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I graduated [and] my professor, he said, ‘all right Andy, I want you now to forget everything you’ve ever learned’, and he said he wouldn’t say that to anyone. He said that to me because of the way I played.

But I like to think about music, not in a hippie way, but as a language, you know? Like when we’re talking right now and I’m throwing a sentence, maybe my grammar isn’t perfect, maybe I’m missing a letter and a word, my tongue is swerving that way or whatever. I think about music that way, that when we play, we’re having a conversation based on chords and harmony. And like, you know, when I’m talking, I’m not thinking A, B, C, D, I’m just talking. I try and think about music the same way. 

I get it now why my professor said that to me. That is such an important journey as a musician is to reach that point where the instrument that you play I wouldn’t be able to do that on a piano. I could do it with my ears, like vocals I mean, and just my guitar. But to turn an instrument into your ears, that takes a lot of dedication. That’s something that, again, with luck I accidentally discovered by playing with great musicians. So I would say studying music was really helpful, but playing with really good musicians helped me a lot more because I had to up my game and I had to put my big boy pants on, you know? 

NK: Yeah, and where did you study the guitar? 

AK: So I studied in Tech Music School, which it’s here in London, which is now called BIMM. It’s a bigger institute, but back then it was, it’s quite a nice university. I did jazz there, did contemporary music. I did theory. I learned how to read music for the first time in my life. You know, I definitely don’t read music for, you know, rock and roll gigs, but like I said, it gave me tools to teach myself and that was so important. Like right now, anything I hear, I know I can learn it because I know music and guitar are not difficult. 

You know, we make things difficult for ourselves. As a matter of fact, someone that could play guitar for a week, if they work on their psychology more than they’re playing, they can play exactly like me. That’s how important psychology is in playing an instrument, more than the actual technique, the idea of not being scared to make mistakes, that’s such a scary thing for musicians. But once people understand that mistakes are what makes…like Miles Davis used to say something before, he’d say play with space, you know, and he says play with space, that means play with empty sound, you know, like play, you know, leave a gap, cause a gap could be a sound. And a mistake, could be a sound [so] no, nothing is a mistake. It’s not a mistake unless you decide it’s a mistake. 

NK: So tell me how the Stalkers came about. 

AK: Wow. So, that’s really interesting too. So like I said, I ran into Doyley and Ginge, I walked in and like,’ today guys, I’m looking for a double bass player cause I want to start a band here. And I saw that you guys have physically on show a double bass and all that cool stuff’. After an hour, he said, ‘yeah, I’ve got a bass player for you’ and he found Bruno on the phone. And what was going on is that the band was already formed. It was Mark and Bruno and Ricky Sardi. You know, Ricky is Dave’s son, you know? You know, Dave from the Ricochets? Ricky is Dave’s son and they basically, at that time, were looking for a guitar player. And when I told Ginger, ‘I’m looking for a bass player called Bruno’, and he said, ‘hey, we’re looking for a guitar player’. 

I thought, ‘okay, I might as well join until I find a bass player’. You know, to just get, understand what that scene is, physically. Like I said, I heard about it and I was like, all right. So to me, it was just rockabilly and rock and roll and certain things that can hold that, just pumped up a bit. That was it to me. But the genre, I didn’t know that it’s such a cool, long genre man. Like I said, the closest I thought was neo rockabilly was the Blue Cats, you know, stuff like that. But I wanted to see what was the story there. And I started playing with the guys. And yeah, some stuff happened: unfortunately, Ricky left. And then we became a trio. We’ve stayed a trio ever since. . 

NK: And do you remember your first gig?

AK: Yeah. Of course I remember. Funny as fuck, you won’t believe it yourself. My first gig was in Nottingham in a place called the Angels opening up for Mad Sin. You know what I mean? That’s funny, right?

Yeah, that was my first gig. And it was great fun. And I remember meeting the guys. Meeting the whole band, Mad Sin back then. I think Matt was still playing guitar and just met the guys and everyone was very nice. 

I think, oh, it was Kitty’s birthday. So I met Kitty and Sally.  I met all the people, I met the whole gang. And I was like, all right, those, I don’t care what people say. Those psychobillies are a cool bunch. Yeah, I just thought it was so cool. You know, I’ve always been a bit of an outsider. I’ve always done my own thing. I never really was able to join a groove or become something.  I’ve always struggled with that in my life. Ever since I moved here, the psychobilly scene or rockabilly, whatever scene that has been around me has been so warm and welcoming. And, you know, that really helped me grow as an artist. It really makes a difference. 

NK: Had you been in bands in the US? 

AK: Yeah, but I had more of a darker thing back home. I, you know, really struggled. Things weren’t that good, you know? So it was almost the States for me was, was a trouble, a trouble making place. You know, it was a place that dragged me into trouble, and I mean, not being able to move forward, but you know, it was the environment. Like the environment itself was not as warm and welcoming. I was ‘the kid’, you know? Like here I am [still] the kid, you know? But everyonew, was so nice. But there I was the kid and I was the kid, you know? And it was not easy, 

NK: Yeah, can you tell me how ‘Splatter House’ came about? 

AK: Oh, wow. So Splatter House is actually really cool. When we first started the band, [they] used to come over to my place and we wrote the entire album in two weeks and a half. You know, all the great albums are just done. Like I wrote it in my studio apartment, man. I wasn’t used to all this fucking, like you gotta be quiet, London shit. And so we had to go to the toilet [to record], the fucking toilet was so small. And it’s all I could afford, and we were sitting me and him, my double bass – I still have those recordings on my phone – and we were just jamming tunes.We wrote the album in two weeks and a half in my toilet. And then we hit the studio, with Doyley, man. 

You know, that’s the cool thing about Doyley, man. He’s such a fucking funny, great geezer. But he’s also a genius, when it comes to music. I remember coming in…you know, as an artist, your songs are so special to you.  I remember we played those songs. ‘Yeah, that’s great’, ‘That’s all right’, ‘blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’, ‘Yeah, what the fuck is that, man? I’m not recording that!’ I go, ‘hey man, well: why? Yeah, I like that song!’ He’s like, ‘nah, nah, nah, nah. Right, new one!’. And you know that, new one became one of our best songs on ‘Splatter House’, so…

I love the album.’Splatter House’ was an album that was written with a lot of different ideas. I think it’s so important to be open for everyone’s ideas, if that’s how you make an album and not create a sound that everyone’s used to. Like, just a quick one, like songs like….What’s that song that starts with the bass? Shit man, I can’t even remember song titles. And it’s one of our songs! Wait a minute. Uh, ‘Shocked’. 

You know, I had an idea for ‘Shocked’ when I wrote like the verse and the chorus, and Bruno just came up with a really cool bass part. Like, that completely changed the idea of my chords for the verse and the chorus. Just because I came up with the chords doesn’t mean I wrote it. There was such a huge influence from Bruno [in] just one lick. So, you know, I think that is why ‘Splatter House’ was one of our funnest and greatest albums because when we were younger, man, we had all the time in the world to sit in a fucking toilet for two weeks and write songs. Now the world is so different. Everything is so fast. The more you own, the harder you fucking work. It’s the opposite of when I was young, playing music, I didn’t own anything.  I was fucking, as I said, recording in a toilet. Now that we’re older, we have things and we pay bills and shit. That takes over the whole artist. I think that’s why most bands have their greatest albums when they’re younger.

But at this moment, we’re doing, like I said, a lot more. So we’re doing our new album: super, super excited. To me, that’s like our best album. Like all the songs on there: I’m just completely blown away about how good they are. It’s done in a similar way to ‘Splatter House’ where we’re really taking away the whole,’ oh, let’s write an album expectation’. When we wrote that first album, there was no expectation. That new album that’s coming out is the same way.

NK: Can you tell me about some of the songs on ‘Splatter House’?  I want the motivation and how we came together. 

AK: Where they came from? Like the ideas? So all our albums are like under one theme. We treat the band, almost like a scrapbook of what we are. And, you know, like we all live, life is fucking sometimes good, sometimes bad. Life is…life hurts, life feels alright. Life can fuck you for a while, and we try and do that in our music. In a way we do it with our hobbies. We’re huge fans of all that sci-fi stuff and horror movies, huge, huge fans. Whenever we’re hanging out [it’s] like twelve year-olds. A lot of that stuff is actually really beautiful art, because it’s metaphors to what’s going on in our daily lives. We use the same idea. So, all the influences that come into our music are literal and metaphoric too: literal, which means a story, and also metaphoric to what could be going on with one of us in the band or a close friend of ours or in the world. Usually there’s an influence to where a song comes from, whether it’s happy or sad or funny. The album is quite different. There’s so many different songs on the album, because as humans we have so many different emotions. Just because we’re a psychobilly band doesn’t mean every song we play has to be dark. We’ve also got loads of humour, and humour can be dark, you know. Those are the ideas of the song come from that. We’re huge, huge fans of all that cool stuff that we all love, and so the songs are metaphoric. 

I don’t want to give too much away because then it steals the song. But, you know, that song ‘The Devil’s Kick’…that’s the classic story, isn’t it? Racing with the devil, it’s the struggle that we all have.

NK: And tell me about ‘Rockin’ Stef Marchi’. 

AK: Oh, man. What a beautiful guy, you know. You know, I’m a fucking huge fan. He’s always coming down to Camden because he was recording with Phil. I think they were maybe doing an album at that time. If I remember correctly, yes. Yes, they were. It’s Skitzo. You know, Skitzo, the band. Yeah. Skitzo, were there, and so I used to be there all the time and we got to know the guys. The reason why I love all those, like I said, not so heavy a band, but more like the neo rockabilly band and classic bands, because I feel like they had to work so much more to be original on their guitar playing. Those guys didn’t have an influence to influence them to play that way. They had, yeah, they had an influence, but that was like Johnny Burnette and stuff like that. It wasn’t…all those older bands didn’t have psychobilly to get an influence from. I think that’s where I feel, and not to be like a music novel or whatever. I feel like maybe psychobilly might have lost a little bit of its character because us as the younger generation of psychobilly should be seeking more outside influence to psychobilly rather than just psychobilly.

You know what I mean? Because all the bands that we learned from didn’t listen to psychobilly because there was no psychobilly. You know, so I think one of the things that I love when I meet the older guys and they fucking like talk their ears out, is that, is like, hey man, what were you listening to? Because to me, it’s so interesting, man. You know,, what the fuck were they listening to? You know what I mean? 

This shit blows my mind. And when I, when I’m a fan of a band, I like to go past, I like to listen what those people listen to, whether it’s a rock band or jazz band or, and that’s how I find my sound within those influences that I love And that’s what I love, is finding people that are your heroes, heroes we’re listening to and understanding those guys. 

NK: Yeah, okay…back to the question. The ‘Rockin’ Stef Marchi’ song. Who sang it? 

AK: Oh, that’s the Skitzo guitar player. 

NK: Yes. Yes. Yeah, I thought he sang it. Mac, Tony McVey. 

AK: Yeah, and he wrote the song, man. He’s a fucking amazing soul. You know, so he wrote the song and he sang it and he played guitar. I played like just played like backing guitar and left the track with him. What a great tune, right? So when they were coming down, me and him were jamming all the time when we were hanging out… man, we were hanging out. We’re very, very good friends, and he had those amazing songs that he didn’t want to release or anything. I was like, ‘dude, come on. Why don’t you do one song with us? ‘And he had written that one for ‘Stef Marchi’, you know, with the gang and stuff in the scene. We thought it would be so cool to put it on because it talked about the scene from his perspective. To me, that’s fucking cool. And he’s such a beautiful soul, man. And his son is such a talented musician, too. Have you met him? 

NK: Yes, Danny!

Yeah, yeah, amazing. 

NK: Yeah, he’s got an amazing voice.

AK: Like everything, and even performance. A couple of times I’d met him at a gig that we were playing, I’m like, ‘man, jump up on stage’ and he just jumps up, man! He’s… what an entertainer, man!. He steals the show. He’s got the moves, he’s got the voice, he’s got the looks, he’s got the snares, baby. So yeah, very talented family. Definitely a very beautiful family. I mean, the whole Skitzo guys, Joel, everyone, just so.. Like I said, the UK,…those guys might look hard as fuck, man, but they’re the sweetest souls in the world. Fucking Mark [Carew] from the [Long Tall] Texans, you know. 

NK: So how did[your time in] Mad Sin come about? 

AK: Oh, wow. That’s a very interesting story, that one. So we’re not getting too much into detail. Me and Koefte [deVille], had played together in KDV. I was on tour with the band maybe like years later. I just finished my tour. I was walking to the airport and I hear a call at 8am in the morning. From Koefte and he’s like, ‘dude, we have a big problem. We need you on guitar’. I was like, ‘what the fuck do you need me to need me on guitar?’ And he was, ‘Ramon’s got in trouble and can’t play and the guys said they have a tour’, and they were already in trouble with the agencies. There was no way for them to pull out and Ramon got in trouble on the day that they were playing the tour. Like one day before! They called me up and he’s like ‘dude, you gotta get the fucking…we need you, we need you on guitar’. And next thing I know…

You gotta remember, like I said man, I don’t know those Mad Sin songs. I love Mad Sin. They’re a great fucking band, but it wasn’t my music growing up, so I wasn’t familiar with it. I had to learn all those songs I’ve never heard before in one day and Koefte had to play drums, because KO was also unavailable. So they lost the drummer and the guitar player. I had to come in for the tour, play guitar and Koefte had to play drums and sing. I learned the songs in the bus, man. Mannie [Anzaldo] was playing rhythm guitar, and I remember I had like twelve or thirteen hours to learn twenty three songs. I’ve never heard them before. , I was doing that and I was standing up cause I had to do all the fucking moves, you know. In 12 hours from there, I was playing the first gig with them. And it was fucking great. 

NK: Where was it? 

AK: Ah shit, I can’t remember. Maybe Switzerland? It might be either Switzerland or Austria. That’s a good guess honestly. But it’s definitely either Switzerland or Austria. . 

NK: How long did you play with the band for? 

AK: Maybe like nine or ten years though? Jesus. Yeah man. Of course there’s problems with every band, but we never had a big problems. You know, I never had a big problem with any of the guys. Like any other band I play, you know. 

NK: Yeah, can you tell me a bit about your project with Phil Polecat? 

AK: Oh yeah, so this is my personal favourite project and Phil’s too. This is kind of our baby where we get to really play the music that we love that no one else does. It’s basically a mix of a lot of things because, you know, the cool thing about Phil is [that] first of all, [he’s]a music legend, you know. I studied music, but he’ll teach me shit about jazz and he’s never even studied fucking music! He has unbelievable ears, unbelievable musician. He’s also a rocker and a punk. How me and Phil fell into each other’s orbit is because we either play with rockers, straight out rockers, straight out punks, or straight-out jazz guys. You never get someone that’s like all that because it’s quite weird to be a fan of jazz and rock and roll and punk and stuff like that. It’s not a normal thing, but there is a scene for that kind of rocky, jazz-ish sound. 

I’ve never met anyone that has that other than Phil. We play everything that we love which is like Western swing jazz, country, rockabilly-ish, you know, like jump blues, like Latin-ish, rocky kind of sixties music, surf music. We do everything with that project and we’re also busy that it takes us away from it. We’re at it again this year. I ran through a lot of personal problems and I’m coming back like very, very strong. 

So a lot of it, like going off track, had to do with me…a lot of those bands… and I’m actually lucky that those guys stood like by me while I walked through those fuckups. Now I’m back strong so I’m really like doing everything times ten. So, this is another project that I’m really super, super excited about. It’s going to be happening like…getting hard this year. We have a couple of album compilations in mind and we’re going to be playing live, we’re going to go down to Europe, we’re going to fucking do all the all-out jazz band, and I think that’s something I’m really excited for musically, because I really get to play what I love, which is still rock, like rockin’, but it’s very – I hate the word because it really doesn’t describe it – ‘jazz influenced’, but jazz does not describe it. That’s why I don’t like using that one. 

NK: Are you going to be recording? 

AK: Yes, yes, we are. We’ve already got like, like eight, nine songs recorded on, I would say, many recordings that we did. We haven’t really published yet, but we do have some recordings and what we’re going to do, because again, we’re fans of a lot of things. We’re going to do compilations of limited edition singles, where we tackle a sound. For example, one would be like that, sixties Bond Tuxedo sound, and then two months later – and that’ll be a limited run with some cool art design – and we’ll write like four songs based on that theme, and then we’ll do like a proper Cowboy Western Swing compilation of four songs, then we’ll do maybe like a dark Latin-ish kind of sound, so we’ll do it in like compilations to where there are pieces, but our live set will be a mix of all those things together, you know. 

NK: Are there any vocals or is it instrumental? 

AK: Yeah, well, I’ll tell you something honestly, so next there is vocals, it’s vocals and instrumental, so I sing and play guitar, and next gig in London, I’m going to send you a text so you can come down. I sing and I play guitar in that project, and Phil sings too, and Tim [Hillsdon] sings too, so the three of us actually sing, like three of us sing songs, and three of us play. You gotta check it, but this is the only band that I’ve ever played in, [and] I’m like ‘wow!’ I get off stage and I’m blown away, I’m like ‘what the fuck just happened?’ It’s just one of the most fun experiences I can describe about playing, and it being super improvised and perfect, the way it is, is just sometimes mind blowing. The guys are amazing, like they really are the best two musicians I’ve played with in my entire life, and it brings out of me things I’ve never heard before. With a band like that, and this is the beautiful and the weird [thing], when we play those songs, they can never ever sound the same, because there’s a form to the song, but everything around it is improvised, so whether it’s that part that runs there, it’s just that we’re listening out to each other, and we’re playing based on that, and that’s what creates the beauty of like the goosebumps, the feels and all that stuff. It’s almost like a team work thing. With this album, this would be like maybe take four, five or six, or two or one, but there’s no way if you come to the gig that I would play the exact version that you’re listening to. I would, maybe, play something even better, but it would be always improvised – in the sense of not improvised, where I’m just hitting any note – improvised means what kind of note choices I’m choosing in a song, or what kind of colour do I want to put down to a chord, do I want it to sound like mysterious or dark, or what am I going to do with the vocal and talk of it, why did I do that, and everything is different, every time we play those songs.

Our band has two names, unfortunately, because we booked them gigs with one name, then we remembered that we have another name, and it just went all over the place, and we joke around with it. Our band is called Spacebop, but we’re also known as Destination Moon, okay, so sometimes we’ll play gigs, going, uh, Spacebop, no, Destination Moon, playing as Spacebop, but yeah, that’s the band, that’s the type of music that we play. If we play them to you live, every time it would be different, and that’s the beautiful thing about it, but it takes, again, musicians like Tim and Phil, to be able to pull things like that off. I find it a weakness to stick too much to yourself: collaborating with musicians is the only way to get better at what you do, that’s literally the only way. There’s no way in hell you get better, unless you play with other people, to choose the right people, then you’re always gonna get better. I consider my practice is playing with guys like that. I’ve always played with amazing drummers: luckily I played with Tim, I played with Craig [Eriksson]. That’s how I learned to play in good time, because the drummers I played with, I practiced with, are like a metronome, you know, and time and feel, all that stuff, is so important. 

NK : Can you also tell me a bit about Banane Metalik? 

AK: Wow, amazing people! Again, the world has been very kind to put me in a position to know the sweet people like that. I’m just very lucky, and they were looking for a guitar player, because they wanted to start the band again. I don’t know, [but] they had some problems before with their other player, I don’t know what happened or what was going on, but me and Cedric, we’ve always been talking. We’ve always been friends, and ten years ago I remember we were talking about, ‘hey, we’re gonna do like a gothic country album band together, like a band that will play this gothic country music, like a side project’. We were super excited, but sometimes we got to pay the bills, so both of us had all the other projects that we were in, like we had to commit to that, so we never got to do that.

Ten years later, yeah, he was looking for a guitar player, and he emailed me and called me. I can’t remember what happened, one or the other, and said, ‘would I like to join the guys?’ Of course, to me, I love the guys, they’re amazing people. I love the music, I love the scene, I love the fucking gore. I’m a huge fan, it’s what I do for fun, so I was just super excited. I said yes, and I went over there… man, as soon as we all hung out together, it was like we’d known each other for twenty years. We were laughing, we were having fun, we were playing songs, it was just a proper… that they’re so sweet. Again, they made me feel so welcome: that’s luck, man, because not everyone in this world is sweet, and I’m very humbled and lucky. My luck, is puts me around sweet people like that, because they are [sweet] and that’s what brings the best out of you. It was quite a shock because it came out of the blue. I really enjoy playing those songs and being on stage with the guys, and learning to put on that makeup…man, the first time I put it [on]…. it was a fucking… it was a comedy. I put it on, it looked like I lost my mind, it was like a five-year-old, because I’ve never put makeup on in my life! 

NK: How many gigs have you played with them? 

AK: Three or two, yeah, either three or two. 

NK: And is there recording on the horizon? 

AK: Yes, so right now we’re writing a new album, and we’re releasing a new album. I’m really excited about that too, and like I said, I’m really excited because from the beginning they pulled me into the writing process, so I’m already writing with the guys. I I think it’s so cool, man, there’s a recording on the horizon, 100%, there’s a recording with all my bands right now. I feel like life takes us on a journey, ups and downs, and especially as an artist, you, unfortunately, become very sensitive, and things make you.. small things make you really happy [or] bring you really down, and when horrible things happen… Jesus fucking Christ! It could be a difficult one and it affects your entire music and everything. To try and fall back in love with what you used to do with music and all that, it requires the people around you to understand that and to pull you and motivate you and push you to do that. All the bands I play with, all of them are motivating me and pushing me and bringing the best out of me, so I feel, for the first time in a long time [that] I’m in a really good place, and I’m just quite excited for all the bands I’m playing with and all the recordings are coming out.

NK: Now, could you tell me what the first CD you ever bought was? 

AK: Oh, wow, that’s a good one. It’s something really, like really odd, it was a Dead Kennedys album. It was a live album, and I really loved the cover. That’s maybe why I bought it, see. I try and be honest on my musical journey and that’s why I stay away from CDs. Sometimes I’ll buy a record because I like the cover. I want to buy that record, you know, and I remember my first record was like that. I remember that record having some sort of weird zombie thing going on. I think it was pressed in the eighties.

NK: Okay, now to finish off, could you pick your five desert island and discs? 

AK: My favourite, five CDs? Wow, okay, okay, that’s a cool one. All right, well, it’s gonna be not the most fun, maybe for people, but if I have to pick five of my favourite CDs. Yeah. Okay, so the first CD would be by a guy called George Barnes. 

NK: Right, I’m not familiar with him. 

AK: The album is called ‘Country Jazz’. Maybe not too many people are familiar with him. But he was, yeah, one of the coolest, biggest session guitar players. I mean, you should check them out when you’re gonna love his playing. He’s a huge influence on me. Jesus, I would say like he was a kid when he recorded that album. This album was recorded in 1957. When I hear it’s like such an evolutionary sound, like when people talk about like, oh, I’m excited, like [it] had distortion or who’s the first distortion player or [whatever]….this album is way more revolutionary. I think it’s a real crazy that a lot of the rock and roll guitar players are not familiar with someone like George Barnes, because he’s so influential, like more than any rockabilly or any like contemporary music relevant to that time, to ’57. 

NK: Yeah, okay. So, George Barnes is number one, what’s number two? 

AK: Oh, shit, fuck it. Okay, let me throw something a little bit, a little bit commercial. Okay, number two. Well, I’m scared that people are going to judge me from my list. Okay, number two will be Frank Sinatra. Do you want the name of the album? Yeah. The name of the album is ‘Swinging Sessions’. That’s the name of the album. I love all those live albums. All my favourite albums are all live. 

NK: What’s number three? 

AK: Number three is an album by two players. Someone called Jimmy Bryant and the last few players called Speedy West. 

NK: Yeah, I’ve heard of those guys. 

AK: Oh, okay. So yeah. And the name of the album is ‘Two Guitars Country Style’. 

NK: Okay, great. Number four? 

AK: Number four. Okay. . I’ll give that one to Bad Brains. 

NK: The first album? 

AK: Yes. But I mean, to me, again: some revolutionary stuff.  

NK: And number five? 

AK Number five. Yes. I’ll have to fucking cheese it up, man. But that’s a shame. But yeah, it is the Folsom Prison live album. Yeah. Folsom Prison Johnny Cash man. That album has so much feel because feel is just so important in music. The delivery of something is one of the most important things. Have you heard it? The album does it all, doesn’t it? 

NK: Yeah, it certainly does. 

AK: Because there’s something special about live and that’s what I mean about that thing. I was trying to say the playing with feel and improvising and yeah, 

Live is the only time you can really do that or get that. It does music sometimes an underservice to just play it the way it is, it’s always nice to have that little extra in the moment there.. 

NK: Well, thank you so much, Andy. 

AK: And Nick again, thank you so much. I mean, I don’t see myself very doing anything special. So it really means a lot that we’re doing that interview, man. It’s really cool. 

Nick Kemp

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