Believe The Strypes

They say the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry and that’s something Waterford-based dance act King Kong Company know all too well. Cast your minds back to November last year, dear readers. At the time, they had booked a show at Dublin’s Academy to launch their debut album, but what was meant to be a triumph turned into a headache for all concerned, as band member Mark White explains.

“We had one track left to mix and then the album was finished. It was a track we had a lot of faith in and I was trying to think of ways we could do something a bit special with it. I’d been reading an interview with Neil McLellan (who has produced every Prodigy album since Music For The Jilted Generation) and I decided to mail him to see if he’d mix it for us and he did. Alan our guitarist prophetically said that if he does a really good job we’re fucked, as we’ll have to get him to do the rest of the record and that’s exactly what happened, causing the delay.”

Which takes us up to present day and the arrival of their self-titled debut. A hook laden and at times ferocious beast, the band’s blushes were spared by creating an opus every bit as formidable as their live show.
“You know when you buy a CD at a gig and then you listen to it at home and you think it sounds flat in comparison? Well, that’s the last thing we wanted to happen. We’ve generated a reputation for our live shows and we wanted to live up to it. Sitting around and waiting for it was frustrating, but because we love what we do, we were willing to put up with it. The feeling behind it was, yeah it might be seven months late, but if we produce something we can be proud of then that, to us, is how we quantify success. Anything after that is a bonus.”

One of those bonuses is the performance of the album in the indie album charts and it’s currently duking it out with heavyweights like Radiohead, Adele and, um, Mike Denver for the top spot.
“Fighting Mike Denver is going to be a fight we’re gonna lose!” laughs Mark.”The chart thing is surprising though and there are constantly moments where we end up pinching ourselves. We’re not a commercial band and we make bad business decisions. In fact if we had a business manager they’d be pulling their hair out.”

The album’s high chart position is a testament to King Kong Company’s loyal live following. Dubbed “lords of the summer festivals” by some, the band can always be relied upon to get the party started in style.
“I think that ‘lords of the summer festivals’ tag is a bit too ‘Michael Flatley’ though,” grins Mark. “We’ll have to start throwing that shape with the arm in the air next. We do enjoy a festival and when we get to combine playing with going to them, that’s quids in for us. We never manage to get the hang of going to bed at them though. Our problem is trying to rein in our enjoyment of the festival, and we’ve tried several different systems, but none have worked so far. Luckily for us, we’re booked for plenty more of them this summer, so hopefully we’ll figure something out.”