Kaptain Black Interview

Kris Williams, Baz Hall and Nav Verghese fresh from performing on XFM Radio explain the story behind Kaptain black.

R13:Introduce yourselves...
KW:Hello my name is Kris. I guitar and sing for a band called Kaptain black.
BH:Hello my name is Baz and I play bass and that's about it.
NV:I'm Nav, I play the drums, percussion and I sing.
BH:Oh, I sing as well.
KW:I can play drums as well but not as good as Nav.
BH:He does a mean 16 beat.

R13:So you were The Foofs and now you're Kaptain black, why the name change?
KW:Fantastic Super Foofs, then The Foofs, then Kaptain black. Fantastic Super Foofs was just too long.
BH:And a bit wrong.
KW:Foof in Wales means vagina so people aren't going to take you on if you're called the vaginas.
NV:It's actually from France.
KW:The old singles used to be quite pop. We were let down by some labels, then we gave ourselves a new name because we liked it and then there was more interest again. So it gave us a chance to get the album out.

R13:You've been compared to the likes of Nirvana, The Vines and Mclusky but how do you describe your music?
KW:Mclusky are good friends of ours. Band were quite a bit of an influence. But Nav's like 80's.
NV:Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet.
KW:It's what makes it pop. If you come up with a dirty riff it goes through the Nav filter and comes out more listenable and a bit more pop. But I'd like to say it's accessible, we make verses quieter then big choruses. It's a mix of blues, punk and country, we always call it Blunktry. There's not much rock in it and we like to keep punky choruses.
BH:I think the main word to describe our music is raw because whenever we go in the studio we always try to keep it live. A bit messy like missed notes and everything.
KW:Just make it interesting.

R13:What would most surprise people about you?
NV:Baz has got a vagina.
KW:Baz is a transsexual. We call it Kitty...Nav is a doctor, that's pretty fucking impressive.
NV:Surgeon.
KW:I think the biggest thing is that Robin Williams the actor has got us on his I-Pod.
BH:That's pretty crazy.
KW:I got an email from him saying he loved it and in just three lines 'cos he's so cool.

R13:What's the most morally wrong thing you've done?
KW:Nav?
NV:You can't really put this in an interview...I had a threesome with a girl who fucked Paul Weller.
KW:That was it and she smashed your Mum's two thousand dollar vase.
NV:We were only 17. My Mum comes down stairs and sees her beloved son naked with his best friend and a naked woman. My Mum's a strict catholic so obviously she saw the lighter side of it.
KW:I don't feel too bad about that girl because she screwed Paul Weller. I stole a pack of Quavers from Subway no more than four days ago but I went back the next day and paid for it.
BH:Stealing muffin tops from service stations. You order a coffee and when they turn around you take the top off the muffin.

R13:Your album was recorded long ago but it was only released recently. What happened there then?
NV:It was recorded Christmas 2002 while we were still The Foofs.
KW:V2 wanted to release it and then they signed other bands. We couldn't get an album release because nobody wanted to do it. Then we changed our name and over that period we wrote a lot of new songs. When we went back into the studio we were doing it all live and it was dirtier and just bigger I guess.
BH:Basically when the record company pulled out we weren't 100% happy with the album.
KW:And we didn't want it to come out on a shitty label that wouldn't do any work for you and now we're here and this is what's happening now. This is going well, we are looking good.

R13:If a band asked to cover one of your songs who would you want it to be and which one of your songs?
NV:Do you get to fuck the singer of the band? Then I'd choose The Corrs.
BH:Which song would they cover?[To R13] What your favourite song? Straight back at you madam.
NV:Just say the third one, then you'll get out of it.
KW:Bloc Party maybe...
NV:Why would you get the Bloc Party, why not The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or The Jam? I'd have The Jam.
BH:Bloc Party.
KW:I'd have the Lemonheads, the old three piece and I'd like them to cover 'I always knew we'd fuck'.

R13:Who would you recommend to go see live?
BH:The Bloc Party. We saw them and I wasn't overly impressed with them but as I was walking away from the gig I thought actually...
NV:The Killers were terrible.
KW:Rubbish. The Futureheads were good.
NV:The Kaiser Chiefs were shite live.
KW:The Shizer Chiefs. 'Look at us, look at us, we're funny, we play instruments as well'.
NV:The best gig I ever went to...1992 Reading...Nirvana.
BH:You told me that someone tried to wake you up when Nirvana was playing, so you didn't actually see them.
NV:I didn't see all of it.
BH:So the whole transsexual shit mate, back in your face!

R13:Are there any venues or festivals that you aspire to play?
KW:Reading. Radio One?
NV:I always had dreams of MTV Unplugged.
KW:I don't think they do it anymore.
BH:I aspire to play really small places. No seriously, I'd rather play the Barfly with loads of people really into it than play a stadium.
KW:A small venue has loads of energy.
R13:But can't you see yourselves in front of a huge crowd that are all singing your songs back to you?
KW:Well yeah, Brixton Academy, but nothing too big and always inside.
BH:When I've seen bands in the past on the Reading main stage when it's really windy all you can here is loads of sound, then no sound.

R13:What's next for Kaptain black?
KW:Write some more stuff.
BH:Take over the world. No, it's just really humble from my point of view. Just more people to hear our music and small gigs. When people come up and say it was great, that means everything to me. Just small things, I don't want to aspire to...the Great Wall of China.
KW:We've got no money and our manager doesn't really do enough but I'd rather it spread through word of mouth.

A review of Kaptain black's debut album 'In Fertility' can be found here