ITS FINALLY HERE! THE NEW ALBUM FROM KYSHERA IS OUT AUTUMN 2012 EVERYWHERE! AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER SOON!

A : The meaning of the bands name hasn’t been born yet. You’ll know when it is.

Q : How would you describe your sound?

A : I use the term Konic to describe our sound because the word doesn’t mean anything, I just made it up. I like to think that what we do is at least a little bit unique to ourselves, so why not have our own word for our sound. The good thing about the word Konic not actually meaning anything as well is that we’re at liberty to put out whatever the hell kind of music we feel like, without having to always be ‘alternative’ or ‘progressive’ or ‘hardcore’ or whatever. It’s like a blanket term to describe anything & everything we do, whether that style is consistent or not. I cant guarantee that any song or album we do is ever going to sound like the last one & surely thats a good thing?

Q : Whats with the orange boiler suits?

A : Ah man, unfortunately most people totally missed the point. Some people think that we we’re trying to be pointlessly provocative & some people just thought we we’re trying to say ‘oooh look how scary we are, we’re escaped convicts’ ha ha, like some kind of cheesy Cradle of Filth type thing. The real point to it was that I was trying to say that firstly, our image isn’t important – you cant even see our faces cos we’ve got bags over them ha ha & by using imagery that many people associate with injustice & inhumanity (Guantanamo Bay incase you still haven’t got it!) in a band promo shot, I was hoping to make the juxtaposition that there’s more important things going on in the world than the superficial image concerns of a band. The other point I was trying to make was that everything this band stands for (like substance, depth, longevity etc) is almost SO out of touch with modern culture as to be culturally blasphemous, so I was using that imagery metaphorically to say that we are cultural terrorists.

Q : Why have you got the word ‘Guilty’ on your Guitar?

A : I’m just being honest. I AM guilty, we’re all guilty – of whatever it might be but at the very least, everyone in the western world is guilty of massive hypocrisy in terms of our values, beliefs & lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that though, being inadequate is pretty much build into our design as a species – I think being aware of our inadequacy & limitations as humans is healthy.

Q : Whats your views of filesharing?

A : I wrote a blog about this here > http://kyshera.com/site/2010/10/11/p2p-power-2the-people/

Q : Who are you’re musical influences?

A : Collectively? Ooooh, this could get long…Frank Zappa, Melt Banana, Radiohead, Soundgarden, Jaco Pastorius, RATM, Eric Dolphy, Allan Holdsworth, Pink Floyd, Squarepusher, Metallica, Megadeth, Immortal Technique, Manic Street Preachers, Dave Brubeck, Stravinsky, Satie, Bjork, Ravel, Kiss, Debussy, The Beatles, Victor Wooten, Roger Waters, Nirvana, Queen, White Noise, Jeff Buckley, Alice in Chains, Kate Bush, Massive Attack, Smashing Pumpkins, Stevie Wonder, Beach Boys, Shellac, Dead Prez, Prince, Ivo Papasov, Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan, Bulgarian Womens Choir, The Doors, Wildhearts, Penderecki, Tod Dockstader, 5uu’s…I dont know! Lots more probably!

Q : You have the chance to make the ultimate band, who would you have? They can be past or present…

A : Ha ha, imagine a rotating line-up of all of the above in different combinations every time. Man, there’s a lifetime’s worth of inspiration just imagining that!

Q : Who did you vote for in the last general election?

A : I didn’t vote for anyone. I have absolutely no faith in our political structure as a whole (and faith is literally what you need!) so I don’t see the point in voting for anyone within that structure until the structure itself is changed. The corruption of our Parliament is in the design of the system so it is totally irrelevant which puppet gets manouvered into power – and anyone working on any production team for any reality TV show can tell you how to swing a public vote the way you want it to go. It’s not cynicism, it’s the truth – holding on to the idea that voting makes any significant difference to anything at all might make people ‘feel’ good & it might give them a belief system to feel a part of, but it’s wrong. That’s also why I don’t protest – in order to protest you have to still have, deep down, a belief in your ‘leaders’ – a belief that if we all just shout loud enough, they’ll listen & do as we ask. It’s like a collective ‘inferiority complex’, where we don’t feel that we’re ‘allowed’ to just do something for ourselves, we have to ask permission from our ‘betters’. I don’t have any faith at all in the way that our whole political system is constructed & therefore I don’t have any faith in the people that advance to the top of that corrupt system, so voting for them or protesting to them to listen, just seems naive to me. All real social advance has come from large scale public ACTION & until we drop the ‘inferiority complex’ & this blind faith in our ‘leaders’, nothing will ever change for societies’ better. THAT is the truth.

Q : Your lyrics are very political, where do you stand politically?

A : My basic view is that you get the world you accept. Thats why we don’t use the band to overtly support specific causes even though our lyrics are mostly political – because its not about ‘us’ promoting a certain idealogy or whatever, for me whats important is what the majority of people are willing to accept, as that is what creates all of our reality, whether we like that reality or not. So from that perspective, the most important thing in any society is access to proper information & thats why the mainstream media is the biggest enemy to a real democracy. Therefore, I try & use whatever platform we may have as a band, not to tell people ‘what’ I think they should think but to atleast try & get viewpoints out that don’t ever get heard in the mainstream media so that people can hear both sides & make their own mind up. As for where I stand personally, I’m a believer in democracy, real democracy where the decisions in society are made by those that those decisions affect. I believe in freedom of speech (for EVERYONE – even hippies & the BNP) & I believe in public action. I’ve got no idea what label that puts me under.

Q : What are you reading right now?

A : I’m reading ‘The Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan for the 2nd time. An absolutely life changing book, read it!

The band say’s :

“It’s brand new & completely free, download it & share, share, share it!”

Enjoy!

Moment’s Silence – By James Kennedy 2010

In this moment’s silence
As the war is raging
Are we remembering
Or just forgetting something more

As the ones for whom they died
Follow in their footsteps
If they could have seen us now
Would they have turned their aim around instead

Paper flowers for sentiments as feeble
Anthems short as our memory
Coffins buried with our broken promise
That the lives they gave us were not in vain ‘cos ‘never again’…

In this moment’s silence
We should be raging
How many times must we
See this drama before we see the truth

That the ‘heroes’ for the flag
As ‘martyrs’ for religion
Are just sacrificial Lambs
For another man’s prize

Paper flowers for sentiments as feeble
Anthems short as our memory
Coffins buried with our broken promise
That the lives they gave us were not in vain ‘cos ‘never again’…

Despite the horror stories, guilt treatment & threats, there still exists a large global network of shadowy cultural traitors that continue to indulge in & proliferate this cultural & economic menace & supposed threat to our national security. They are called music lovers & musicians. I guiltily fall into both camps & as a lover of music & a creator of it I am completely in favour of filesharing. As an avid listener of many types of music, filesharing has enabled me to discover many incredible artists that I never knew existed & I have, as a result, actually bought more music than ever before. As an independant artist, filesharing has introduced my band Kyshera to tens of 1000’s of people around the world through a digital ‘word of mouth’, without me having to do anything. With the Internet, no longer does the world only get to hear that music that the mainstream media & PR industry are paid to promote by their big record company owners. No longer do we have to rely on chain record stores that are on the life support of big distributers, again owned by record companies, to get access to music. The ‘music world’ has been dominated & controlled by the ‘music industry’ for far too long with its stranglehold on supplying only the music that conforms to its sales formula. The industry’s current crisis is entirely of its own doing, as genuine music lovers have had to look elsewhere for new, original & different music. ‘Music’ is doing just fine, there’s more of it than ever, it is only the ‘industry’ that is suffering.

So, how has the industry reacted to this change? By pursuing ever more aggressively, the very same course of action that started its demise in the 1st place. Not mentioning the completely unrealistic & unenforceable measures we are seeing in terms of ‘digital copy protection’ & court cases etc, the industry has now put its sole focus into only promoting quick, cheap, mass market, disposable music that they are guaranteed to make a quick, short term profit on before moving onto the next act – thereby, eliminating any chance of signing a new, innovative or pioneering artist. To promote a genuinely original artist involves risk, time, money & good faith & this is why there is such a saturation of these short lived, XFactor style manufactured ‘artists’ on the market at the moment; its the industry going for the quick, easy buck to try & save themselves from drowning. The music industry isn’t, never has & never will be interested in music, its only purpose is to make money, so if its more profitable to flood the world with these cheap, throw away acts that have no talent or passion & will be dropped & forgotten within a year, then thats what we’re all going to get. This reaction from the industry to a mess that they only made for themselves has only served to create more & more distance between genuine musicians & music lovers on the one hand & the industry in the other – it has also probably encouraged the growth of filesharing as people are ever desperately crying out for something different & they know that they will have to look elsewhere to what the Radio, retail & record company monopoly has to offer.

There is obviously a logical limitation on how far filesharing can go though. Musicians need to eat & buy the equipment that makes the music possible in the first place & if they never make any money from their art, they will inevitably either starve or have to surrender to some job at a bank or something. I’m not in favour of full scale musical freeloading. Music is loved by everyone, it enriches all of our lives & it should be supported. My personal policy is – if I like something, I will buy it, especially if its by an independant or new artist. The only way that decent, genuine music is ever going to survive amongst the flood of this heavily marketed, disposable, pop rubbish that the industry is peddling ever faster, is if WE support it. Once the industry then realises where people’s musical allegiance really lies, it will be forced to change. Sadly, there are a lot of people who are full scale musical freeloaders & these people are just as guilty as the record industry of destroying the chances for good quality, genuine, original music to survive. These people place no ‘value’ on the music they enjoy & have no respect for the artists that create it. They are selfishly out to get as much as they can for themselves without ever giving anything in return & these people, along with the record industry, are the problem.

However, why should the rest of us be denied the ability to discover new music, to discuss & share music with others & to create a platform for new or independant artists to reach larger audiences just because some people abuse the sysytem? Some people will always abuse any system & ‘big businesses’ are normally the first in line. As with any form of change, we have to take the ‘rough with the smooth’ & with this, we have to accept that filesharing is here to stay & that while some people take advantage of it, it has indirectly created a kind of musical ‘people power’. Music fans now have a direct influence over the style & quality of music that exists in their lives. We now have a choice – we can download pretty much anything we want, check it out properly & if we like it, we can buy it & directly support the artist & enable them to continue. No need for record companies, distribution or big chain stores, WE now have the power to determine the quality of music that survives in our culture, we just need to start using it. This I think, is probably closer to the record industries real concerns about filesharing. The idea that they could no longer be needed, that the world doesnt have to just accept what they decide we want to hear, that we can pay far less of our money for an album bought directly from the artist, that they might soon lose their stranglehold over Radio, distribution & retailing scares the hell out of the industry & its about time it did.

The process of music production & consumption has drastically changed & it could be used to completely remove the archaic grip of the industry & generate a massive flood of new music for everyone but it is up to US to make it happen. We need to stop now merely just ‘enjoying’ the free sharing of music & start actively supporting the artists that create it. We’re all too used to the idea of music now being some free, ‘valueless’ little gimmick that can be downloaded at the simple click of a button, that we are not seeing the full picture of whats at stake. Filesharing is a great way to discover new music, but lets not kill off new music in the process. ‘Share, buy & share again’. I think its really that simple & it could have a profound affect on the future of music with the fans & the artists working together for the benefit of everyone. So dont be a skanky, freeloading, music killing little demon – download till your hearts content but then put your money where your mouth is & if you like an artist, buy their f**king music! Music will triumph, XFactor will die & then we’ll all be happy.

Q : You use mannequins a lot in your live performances, lyrics and on artwork. What does this symbolize?

A : I use Mannequins as a metaphor for the idea that all of us are ‘blank canvasses’ that are ‘dressed up’ by our culture to be what we become. Some of us are more blatantly open to being ‘dressed up’ than others & are more than happy to completely change their identity in order to fit in exactly the same way as a shop window mannequin will change every season. And just as the purpose of Mannequins is to advertise other peoples products or ideas, so are we.

Q : How do you write? Where does each song originate from? Is there a set way that each tune comes to you or is each one an individual and unique process?

A : Hmmmm, tricky one. Some songs come complete, all in one go, either in my head (like Superstar & Shelf Life) or while I’m playing the Guitar or Piano (Lust, Element, Coalition). Others are put together over weeks or months, a piece at a time as the ideas come (Terrorists, Kill the Messenger etc) – with these songs I can always kind of ‘visualise’ the overall feel & energy that I want but I dont have any specifics, so I just potch around until I hit on it. I tend to think in terms of albums aswell, so one song will suggest the next, if that makes sense! 99% of the time, the lyrics are written after the song has been ‘demo’d’ first with scratch lyrics.

Q : What will you put down first when the idea has arisen for a new track?

A : Whatever it is that has come first. A lot of my songs start as really dodgy midi files, where I’ll hear something in my head & program it in quickly on a cheesy midi piano or something so that I dont forget it! Imagaine that, Terrorists on a cheesy midi piano, trust me, it exists, maybe one day I’ll dig it out ha ha.

Q : So, whats your problem with Emo?

A : I dont have any particular problem with Emo in itself & I sometimes wish i’d never written that fucking blog! I still get bitchy mail about it today ha ha. The reason I wrote what I did about Emo was because at that time, Emo was the ‘in thing’ & the blog was, really, about trends & scenes of all kinds – so I was just using Emo as the current example. Funnily enough, Emo is dead now & everyones moved on, which has kinda proved my point, dont ya think? Ya fickle fuckers

Q : How long until the liberal lefty hippies realise that just because Obama is a man of colour, does not mean that he represents hope for the disenfranchised of the world?

A : How long? I guess, when they realise that nothing has changed. The wealthy & the powerful couldnt give a shit about race, colour, gender, religious or cultural divisions amongst us, these are all things that are used by them to separate & thus control us all by keeping us fighting amongst ourselves. These are not things that figure AT ALL in their dealings. Obama could well have the best intentions in the world but he is only a mere President, which in the world of actual power is the equivalant of a temporary tea boy at a small town comittee meeting.

Q : James , why dont you do Guitar solo’s?

A : I get asked that all the time! It’s not that ‘I dont do Guitar solos’, there’s just been no need so far with the music that’s been written. For me, the music is about the ’sum of the parts’, not about everyone being a hero & if the song aint calling out for Guitar solo, then why chuck one in? Its like a painter throwing some purple into a landscape just ‘cos they feel obliged to. If a song was calling out for a solo, I’d put one in. Ive been playing Guitar for long enough now & I’ve been through the whole sweep picking, shredding phase & come out the other end. Also, I’ve made a massive effort over the last few years to try & ‘undo’ my learning – because when most people play a solo, their fingers are doing the playing, not their soul. The muscle memory in the fingers just runs through the same old scales & licks, most of which were probably copied from someone else anyway & its not genuine, self expressive playing so whats the point? I’m not gonna reel off a pile of blues licks that were being played fucking decades ago or play really fast & go ‘ooh, look what a good athlete I am’ because none of that has anything to do with genuine, heartfelt music, which is what I’m interested in. Everything I do is genuine & sincere, I dont stop until Ive acheived what I hear in my head & if thats just 2 chords going over & over, then so be it – or if its a crazy, dissonant extravaganza with a million different tempo’s & time signs, then so be it aswell, my only mission is to create what I hear in my head honestly & accurately. So, in short, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of Guitar solo’s to come but you wont find me just going ‘widdly widdly wee’ just for the sake of it!

Q : Where did the ill advised penchant for skinny jeans and chelsea boots in current men’s fashion originate?

A : About 5 decades ago I think! We dont need to create anything new anymore, we just recycle things from our grandads generation & call it ‘being ironic’ or ‘quirky’ or something.

Q : God & Jesus are mentioned a lot in your songs, are you a believer?

A : Awesome question, I’m glad you asked! Firstly, I am not a ‘believer’ in anything, I try & base my decisions about things on ‘informed probabilty’. I think that blind faith & all religions are evil & I am certainly NOT a follower of any of them. ‘God’ is mentioned in my songs as metaphor for an all seeing, all powerful & all controlling entity – which depending on the song could be big business or culture or whatever.

Q : Most embarrassing moment on stage?

A : Ha ha probably when I went to jump on the drum riser at this massive festival gig & missed, going face first into the drum kit instead! I didnt feel any pain but I did feel like a twat. We finished the rest of the gig & when I came off stage, there was a full medic team waiting to stitch me up – apparantly my face was covered in blood for nearly all of the gig & I hadn’t had a clue the entire time! The adrenaline must have killed the pain ‘cos my head was fucking banging the next day, but it also meant that I was pumping out more blood than normal so I must have looked like a right crazy bastard ha ha.

Q : Best gig so far?

A : Probably that one ha ha

Kyshera – a Manifesto!

How the f**k did we get here?! What happened? It feels like we’re stuck in a time loop, like when the CD sticks & keeps playing that same nano-second of music over & over…& over & over. I guess that must just be the way we like it. Safe, familiar, no suprises, no challenges. We live in the age of mass conformity, where absolutely everything has to fit snugly into an easily identifiable little label, scene or fashion. It gives us a sense of belonging until we realise that its actually completely empty & then we all move, en mass, onto the next quick fix. A generation bombarded with constant advertising seems to have ‘internalised’ the values of the advert, where nothing has to actually be ‘real’ anymore, it just needs to feel good to pretend for a bit. The names may change, the hair-do’s may change but everything in our culture is, when you look at it, the same old shit rebranded. Like a reconstituted shit burger endlessly served up with a new garnish & of course, a new hair-do.

Is it just me or is this cultural guantanamo driving you completely out of your f**king mind aswell? I want to live in a world where I can defy categorisation, where I can be a person & not a label, where being unique, unpredictable, challenging & most of all, REAL, is celebrated. Where expressing the ’self’ in whatever the hell way you feel like, is encouraged & where being a copy cat clone of somoeone elses identity, band, philosphy or whatever is ignored as being insincere, lathargic & culturally offensive. Imagine a society in which it was genuinely ‘cool’ to be different, where it is noble to challenge & question ‘normality’ & where we dont all have to have our lifestyle, tastes & ideas dictated by the fear of ‘what other people will think’. A society like that would produce a hell of a lot more to be proud of than we can at the moment, I guarantee it.

We, Kyshera, aim to embody that spirit by being completely ‘uncool’, by never being part of any ’scene’, by being unpredictable, by questioning the world we live in & by having no obligation to anyone or anything other than the free expression of whatever the hell we like, when we like. We feel that these are values that can make our culture a more fertile, progressive & interesing place again & we invite you to join us in our quest. We dont have an ‘image’ (because we are musicians, not poster boys) & we make no promises that anything we do will ever sound like the last thing we did. We are part of no scene, we dont follow ‘leaders’ & we dont have faith in ‘icons’ – loners, freaks, geeks, outcasts, individuals & all those who aren’t scared to be themselves in this world of bland, disposable conformity, YOU are our ‘iKons’ & it is with you that we associate. iKons of the world unite – together but not as one! We consider being rejected by popular culture, the highest honour & we are proud to be in the company of the most interesting, intelligent & unique group of people there are – you, this cultures REAL icons, the iKons.

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