Kaki King : Goddess of Guitar

The music industry has long been dominated by boys, and guitarists, particularly, are mostly men. On-stage they reek of rebellion with impressive guitar riffs, and show off their cool credentials with monikers such as Edge or Slash. Name a few great female guitarists that play virtuosic, sexy, memorable music. PJ Harvey. Ummm. No, me neither.

But that’s about to change. Guitarist and singer/songwriter Kaki King creates beautiful, rhythmic, original music with her virtuosic mastery of the acoustic guitar.
She’s been described by Foo Fighter’s  Dave Grohl as “ one of his favourite guitarists in the whole f****** world,” ( she toured with the band and guests on their latest album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace)  was the only female on Rolling Stone magazine’s “ New Gods of Guitar,” and recently appeared on our very own measure of musical integrity Later… with Jools Holland.

This guitar goddess – whose distinctive fret-slapping, thumping , percussive style has been hailed as post-rock and left-field indie ( read ‘so different  we can’t  categorise’) -   is now poised for even bigger things with her fourth and most accessible album Dreaming of Revenge. This follows on from Until We Felt Red, her album released last year on the back of  hyperbole-heavy hype and which spawned a clutch of rave reviews with critics and fans falling over themselves to praise this new ‘unorthodox’   ‘cult heroine.’

But the native New Yorker remains down-to-earth about all the enthusiasm, and reckons that: “Convention has been broken long before me, I’m just following in the wake of some really fantastic guitar players and musicians.”
What does she think about being a stand-out female guitarist in a  pretty sexist industry:
“ There are female guitarists but they are also great singers as well: Bonnie Raitt, Shawn Colvin, PJ Harvey, to name a few.  So their guitar playing probably gets overshadowed by their voices and ability to write incredible songs.
People have been asking the question ( whether the music industry is sexist )  for years.  It’s definitely a boy’s club for sure.  But look at some of the biggest acts in music right now—Madonna, Missy Elliott, Amy Winehouse.  Those are three different women from different genres with different fan bases, and yet they are really at the top of their scene.”
True, and there’s also a clutch of new female vocalists including Duffy, Adele and Kate Nash who haven’t felt the need to push their bodies or the rock ‘n’ roll cliché to its limits. Yet.

Kaki agrees, though,  that excess is almost part of being a rock star and  she laughingly says of her tour with Foo Fighters:
“ I was drunk the entire time.  I’m still getting over the rock hangover.”
How did she get involved with the band?
“Dave Grohl spends way too much time on Youtube.  He found a video of me looping my guitar and then playing drums and kind of freaked about it.  We spent a lot of time sending each other funny emails and at some stage he told me to come and hang at their studio in LA.  We played a guitar duet together called Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners and it ended up on their latest album.”

Kaki is from a musical family. She started playing aged five ( she also plays drums ) and her sister is a choral singer.
She wrote her first song aged 11 -   an instrumental called Landscapes -  for her graduation day.
“ It had four chords and it was awesome,” she says.
Where does she find her inspiration now”?
“Depression and puppies.”
How long does it take to write a song?
“It always depends.  If I’m depressed, I can write a song very quickly.  If there are puppies around I get very distracted and it takes me much longer.”
She may well  find her attention diverted as she breaks the animal-loving UK. But how does this audience compare with the US?
“UK audiences are more likely to scream about what Guinness does to your digestive tract while you’re taking a sip onstage.”
We’re the health freaks?!
So what next for this talented, original, unorthodox trail-blazer?
“A trip to an Indian restaurant.”
An unconventional one, of course.

Loma-Ann Bonner

Dreaming Of Revenge  is released on  30th June (Cooking Vinyl/Velour) and the single  Pull Me Out Alive is available to download on 16th June.
Kaki plays forthcoming UK dates:  30th June, Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich ;  2nd July, Cellar Room , Portsmouth;  3rd July, Duke of York, Brighton; 4th July, Glee Club, Birmingham; 6th July, UK Wireless Festival, London.

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