Project Description
Interview with
KEVIN STARRS
(AKA “Uncle Acid)
From
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS
Interviewer: Laura Hughes
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Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, have always too bold and idiosyncratic to be easily pigeonholed, they emerged from an obscure corner of the labyrinthine English underground as shadowy purveyors of a new and overwhelmingly psychedelic take on the gruff and gritty rudiments of hard rock and turbo-blues, powered by the dark, lysergic heart of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s and drenched in woozily macabre imagery, and they are coming to Australia to take the Farmer and the Owl Festival by the balls, and amazing the crowds with psychotic energy. I got the chance to Talk to Kevin Starrs (AKA “Uncle Acid”) ahead of their arrival on our shores.
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What was your first introduction to music?
Through my parents, listening to The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, all of those sorts of classics, The Stones, The Kings. I remember growing up and listening to all that sort of stuff when I was younger, and that really started me off.
What songs or albums represented your childhood?
First Black Sabbath record, that really changed everything.
What artists influenced you musically when you first started playing?
Sabbath, The Beatles, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac. For me, it’s anything with melody, in particular harmony, I really like that sort of thing. Anything melodic I tend to gravitate towards that.
What was the gig you ever played as a band?
We played a couple of really bad gigs around Cambridge when we were just starting off as a three-piece, and they were just so terrible that I just said “never again, we’re not going to do this, we’re just going to be a studio band, and just release records this way”, so we put that to the side for a few years actually, it wasn’t until 2013 we played London, and that was the first shows from a long time, and that was the first show as a four-piece. That was a reboot for us 2013, we got our act together and figured out how we can do it live.
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Was that a learning curve for you as a band?
I think when we first started playing we just jumped into it, we thought we could just turn up and play, and that would be good enough, but it wasn’t really. So we took a couple of years off from playing live and worked on playing together as a band, singing harmonies, working out arrangements so we could play live. We really made sure that we were really on top of our game by the time we came back in 2013, we felt like we were more ready for it then.
What was the first festival you played as a band?
Roadburn in the Netherlands, that was 2013 as well. That’s a really big festival that they have every year there, that was the first time and the last time we ever played that. We’ve never been asked back, so maybe we didn’t leave such a good impression, but I think it was a good show.
You’re playing Farmer and the Owl very soon, are you excited?
Yeah, we’re looking forward to it, we’ve never played there before, so it should be a good show. We’re hoping to convert a few people to our music.
Do you prefer a mixed bill festival to play at? Or a festival that is more genre refined?
I enjoy both, but it’s always nice to play more of a mixed festival because it gives people a chance to see who would never bother to come, people who have never heard of us, who probably wouldn’t want to come and see a band as heavy as us, but because you’re there they will come and see you. It’s a good opportunity to make new fans.
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Being in a band, you’ve gone through many highs and lows throughout the years, what has been something that has really stood out to you?
When we toured with Black Sabbath, that was pretty eye-opening, we would all turn up for soundcheck, and Tony Iommi would be the first person on stage, tweaking his amps to make sure they sounded good in the room, and then he would be the last person off. He was so committed to getting the best possible guitar sound, even at his age, and how long they have been doing it, he still really cared about making sure that everything was as good as it could possibly be.
What was the most pivotal moment in your career?
Getting a record deal, that was the one that really set us off. We released a couple of records, on our own label, self-financed, and then Rise Above came in and offered us a deal to release our stuff on vinyl which is great. Since then it has really taken off, having that platform of an Independent Record Label put out your music that really helped us.
Do you think you wouldn’t be where you are now without that deal?
It’s hard to say really, it gave us a level of exposure that we weren’t getting at that point, it gave us a platform, and through that, we’ve met so many people, really good people that work with us. Who knows, but that was definitely a pivotal moment.
If you had to pick one song to encompass what your band is about, which one and why?
“Death’s Door” just because it has everything. It’s got the riff, it’s got the dark lyrics, it’s got the two-part harmonies, it’s got the guitar solos, it’s quite long, it’s quite fuzzy. It pretty much sums up everything that we’re about.
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Why should people come and see you set at Farmer and the Owl? What can you offer them?
We can offer them heaviness, aggression, chaos, harmonies, loads of fuzz. It’s just going to be a psychotic experience really for the audience.
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