Interview: Black Kids

Black Kids won’t have escaped your notice, unless you’ve been in a paralytic coma. False advertising aside (they’re neither all black or kids – average age, 26), the quintet is the most interesting thing to come out of Jacksonville, Florida since, well, Lynyrd Skynrd.

Made up of former Sunday School chums Reggie Youngblood (guitar, vocals), bassist Owen Holmes, drummer Kevin Snow, Reggie’s sister Ali and her best friend Dawn Watley (both on keys and vocals), Black Kids have been hyped to the eyeballs. But the adulation has not been unwarranted. Their free downloadable EP Wizard of Ahhhs is an effulgent mix of upbeat indie rock and electro pop akin to The Cure, New Order and Psychedelic Furs. Their live performances, although not without their technical glitches, are raucously rocking with an added kitsch factor – one need only watch Ali and Dawn’s onstage dance swagger to hanker for 60s girl-groups of yore.

But that’s not to say the ‘kids’ are everyone’s little angels.

“We’re completely ignored where we’re from,” insists Reggie while younger sis Ali mimics his every word with comical verve. “An example of that is these two [pointing to Kevin and Owen]. They used to work for the local alternative magazine [Folio Weekly] which never mentioned us the entire time they worked there.”

“I think, where we’re from, there’s just limited demand for indie rock,” interjects Owen.

And yet, Black Kids’ take on the genre is highly charming and captivating, it’s a wonder they’ve managed to become everyone’s new favourite band except for in their hometown.

But when you’re peddling the words, “You are the girl / That I have been dreaming of / Ever since I was a little girl,” off the single ‘I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You’, it’s easy to understand how some could misinterpret Reggie’s sardonic, ironic, intelligent lyrics as just plain weird. Does Reginald have some gender issues?

“Well I’m a hermaphrodite,” he says joking. I think. “Basically, I was having a conversation with Kevin about a girl I was sweet on and I said that line, ‘She’s the girl I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little girl.’ Then he asked if it was a song and I said, ‘It is now’. Basically, I love Morrissey and the misery and the androgyny. I’m just mimicking all the songs that I love.”

But for all of Reggie’s melodrama and forlorn melancholia, it’s the others that create a paradoxical sanguine sound that makes Black Kids sound more like synth-pop bands and less like Gene, which would be bad.

“We have other songs that aren’t that upbeat,” protests Kevin.

“Yeah, we do have more abrasive songs,” adds Reggie.

It’s this dichotomy and approach to music-making that’s got labels all hysterical. As yet unsigned, the band will release their first 7” by themselves. Until then, you can see them play a string of UK dates this December.

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