CLASH MAGAZINE PRESENTS: ‘NEXT WAVE’ PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY

archy marshall has been out record

shopping in South London. Speaking

about his purchases, the one that

seems to please him the most is the

soundtrack to Watership Down, the

classic 1978 animated film that tells the

dark, moving and violent tale of a warren of

rabbits fleeing their home, with a few gruesome

battles along the way.

“‘Bright Eyes’,” Marshall slowly drawls with

warm humour, referring to Art Garfunkel’s

wistful folk lullaby that became the film’s

theme. “That’s what I’m feeling now.”

For someone who frequently looks

like a rabbit caught in the headlights in

his press shots (albeit a rabbit dressed by

Burberry), Marshall’s choice of record

purchase is a fitting one. And if you want

to drive the metaphor a notch further,

you could say that the mix of innocence

and worldly smarts displayed by the furry

protagonists in Watership Down is also

very much present in Archy Marshall,

manifested in his King Krule moniker - a

name which has been bubbling on various

excited music industry lips since mid-2011.

But first take a step back even further

to 2010. Marshall was known as Zoo Kid

and had been gradually posting his raw,

urban ballads onto his Bandcamp page,

collectively titling them ‘U.F.O.W.A.V.E’,

before leftfield indie label House Anxiety

released ‘Out Getting Ribs’, with ‘Has This

Hit’ as a B-side, two of the stand-out tracks

from the collection.

It did the trick. The fuzzy emotiveness

of ‘Out Getting Ribs’ perfectly showcased

Marshall’s powerful, overly rugged voice,

spitting deeply personal reflections over

rough, treble-y guitar riffs, arousing a fair

bit of astonishment that this was all coming

from a sixteen-year-old.

Fast-forward two years to late 2012.

Marshall has changed his musical alias to

King Krule and has just released another

burning, stripped-down single with a

jangled punk ethos, ‘Rock Bottom’, from his

self-titled EP on Rinse, the label of former

pirate radio station Rinse FM, a pioneering

force in grime, dubstep and other dark

sounds of the electronic underground. It’s

an initially surprising pairing, even for him.

“They originally approached me, and I

was quite taken back by it,” says Marshall.

But he was also no stranger to pirate radio.

“I chose ‘Rock Bottom’ to release on Rinse

because the weekend when I wrote it,

me and my friend were listening to [the

station] quite a lot. There was a good

continuity to it.”

Releasing on Rinse isn’t exactly going

to harm his credentials, either - not that

he needs a boost in that area. It’s fair to

say that Marshall has been (rightly) hyped

over the last two years, but it’s been of a

positive nature, with people expecting

him to accomplish big things rather than

demanding it.

As you may have gathered by now,

Archy Marshall isn’t your average

young singer-songwriter. Perhaps it’s

not surprising in someone who cites

progressive mid-Twentieth Century poet

W. H. Auden as a lyrical inspiration, but

Marshall wrings more emotion out of every

gruff, jagged lyrical passage in ‘Out Getting

Ribs’ than can possibly be healthy, making

for a quietly outstanding song.

But music is more a cathartic exercise

for Marshall than the channelling of an

extroverted personality. “I’m quite… dry,”

he claims. “That’s why I use my music, I

use that as the emotional side of myself. I

don’t like to get wrapped up in exposing

too much emotion.”

Writing music to expel emotion is one

thing. Writing affecting, uncompromising

songs that join the dots you never saw

between post-punk, dub, noir-ish new

wave and jazz, however, is quite another.

But this is no empty homage to various hip

genres, nor a revivalist at work. It’s simply

Marshall’s natural sound, a melting pot of

dynamic and varied musical trajectories,

thanks partly to his parents soundtracking

his childhood with everything from Fela

Kuti to ska bands - check the King Krule

Rinse FM podcast for a fascinating glimpse

into Marshall’s myriad passions, covering

everything from New York No Wave to

oddball synth-pop to freak-funk jazz to

rootsy reggae.

Marshall describes his own resulting

sound in a charmingly lo-fi way: “I call it a

very big jumble. I call it quite modern, in

the way that it is taking a bit of everything

that’s happened before, and putting it in

one thing.”

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t o R R e n t I a LR e I G n

BALLADEERING

KING KRULEOF

WORDS: TRISTAN PARKER

PHOTOGRAPHY: RORY VAN MILLINGEN

FASHION: JAYSON HINDLEY

ONES TO WATCH - CHAPTER 4: ROYALTY

THIS CHAPTER FOCUSES ON A REGALLY MONIKERED

INTROVERT; OUR FAVOURITE FORMER KID.THE GRITTY

CLASH_81_sethi.indd 105

26/11/2012 23:43

THE PROLIFIC CLASH ‘ONE’S TO WATCH’ HAS A PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF PLUCKING OUT THE BEST NAMES IN NEW MUSIC, AND FROM ACROSS THE GENRE BOARD, LONG BEFORE OTHERS.

IT’S SOMETHING THAT WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON. ARTISTS WE’VE LEAPT ON BEFORE THE REST INCLUDE:

• KING KRULE• ALT J• ALUNAGEORGE• CHVRCHES• HAIM• JAKE BUGG• JAMES BLAKE• LAURA MVULA

‘NEXT WAVE’:A NEW FACE FOR 2014

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IN 2014, WE’RE RE-BRANDING OUR ‘ONES TO WATCH’ TAG TO SOMETHING WE CAN TRULY OWN – THIS REINCARNATION IS TO BE NAMED ‘NEXT WAVE’, AND WE’RE LOOKING FOR A PARTNER TO WORK WITH US ON A SERIES OF FOUR EVENTS TO PROMOTE THE STARS OF 2014.

TO CELEBRATE WE INTEND TO LAUNCH FEBRUARY 2014 AND ‘NEXT WAVE’ WILL TAKE UP RESIDENCY AT HACKNEYS BRAND NEW VENUE, ‘OSLO’, OWNED BY RENOWNED GIG PROMOTERS DHP, WHERE WE’LL BE SEPARATING TALENT FROM HYPE AND FILTERING ORIGINALITY OVER TREND.

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• MISPERS• THE HICS• ROSIE LOWE• JUNGLE• DAN CROLL• SOUTHERN• INDIANA• CHARLOTTE OC

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EACH THURSDAY WE WILL SHOWCASE 2 BRAND NEW ACTS IN FRONT OF A CAPACITY 300 CROWD. ARTISTS WE’RE IN CONVERSATIONS WITH INCLUDE:

THE EVENTS WILL BE FREE TO ATTEND AND A MIX OF INDUSTRY AND COMPETITION WINNERS. THE EVENTS WILL BE PRODUCED IN CONJUNCTION WITH PUBLIC WORLDWIDE AND DELIVERED TO THE HIGHEST PRODUCTION STANDARDS

WE’RE LOOKING FOR A PARTNER OR PARTNERS IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE WORD, NOT JUST FOR BADGING, WE BELIEVE THAT OUR GUESTS WILL EXPECT THE VERY HIGHEST QUALITY BRAND EXPERIENCE AND AS SUCH WE WOULD LIKE TO OFFER THE RIGHT BRAND THE FOLLOWING OPPORTUNITIES:

• BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NAMING OF THE EVENT

• ASSOCIATION IN KEY PRE-EVENT MESSAGING

• SHARING OF ALL VIDEO CONTENT FROM THE EVENT

• EXCLUSIVE BACKSTAGE INTERVIEWS

• BRANDING ON A BESPOKE NEXT WAVE AREA ON CLASHMUSIC.COM

• COMPETITION OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE TICKETS AWAY THROUGH YOUR NETWORKS

• FULL MAGAZINE COVERAGE AND SUPPORT

• OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR BRAND TO INVITE BRAND SUPPORTERS

• OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THE NEXT WAVE APP. TO LAUNCH IN JANUARY (OUR APP. WON THE BEST MUSIC APP. AT THE DIGITAL MAGAZINE AWARDS ABOUT 10 MINUTES AGO!!)

• FULL MEDIA PARTNERSHIP

BRAND OPPORTUNITIES

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WE WILL BE FILMING CONTENT AT THESE EVENTS AND DEVELOPING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR AMPLIFICATION, WE WILL DO THIS IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CHOSEN BRAND PARTNERS.

SOCIAL MEDIA AMPLIFICATION

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THANK YOUHQ194 HERCULES ROADLONDON SE1 7LD

CLIENT DIRECTORMATT GOODWINMATTG@CLASHMUSIC.COMT. +44(0)207 628 2312M. +44(0)780 874 0729

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