Black Kids

How Black Kids Made It Big in Europe and Then Took Over America?
by Charley Lee
photos by Skylar Reeves

How does it happen? How does a band no one's ever heard of go from playing sparsely crowded dive bars to being on everyone's Best of 2007 lists? How does a band go from a MySpace presence of 329 for months, to close to 4,000 in the span of a month?

A few months ago, most people in the U.S. probably didn't know who this band was, but by now you may have come across the blogs and seen the small articles in Pitchfork and Rolling Stone about a band called Black Kids whose live shows are dance-tastic and whose lead singer exudes a fun, slightly smutty coyness. It’s just starting to happen.

The Jacksonville quintet has been making waves and gaining accolades from top U.K. magazines, blogs and radio stations for months. So how is it that a band so lauded and acclaimed over there is also so virtually unknown Stateside? The Americans have once again lost the race. In addition to "discovering" bands like The White Stripes and the Pixies, the U.K. has now laid claim to Black Kids. The band represents the latest in a long line of bands that hit the big time in Europe and then have to wait for the hometown team to catch up. Luckily for Black Kids, it working.

Black Kids spent most of their time band-hopping and throwing back margaritas before finally coming together in 2006. Reggie Youngblood, lead singer and guitarist, laments, "Well, I've been playing in various bands with either Kevin Snow [drums] or Owen Holmes [bass] for years, but mostly with Kevin. This band is the first time Owen and Kevin have played together, and it's the first band Ali Youngblood [keyboards and vocals] and Dawn Watley [keyboards and vocals] have ever been in. We wanted it to be blatantly pop, to become the quintessential party band. Sadly, we are never invited to parties."

Now that the band was operational and all the parts established, next up was getting their songs heard. The obvious first place to go was MySpace, which turned out to be the band’s first and last attempt at self-promotion. Despite many bands' success with MySpace, Black Kids did not fare as well.

"It helped to an extent," Youngblood recalls. "But we've had those songs up for quite awhile, but nobody cared. We had to physically go somewhere [Athens' Popfest] to make others aware of those songs."

Though playing Popfest helped, it wasn't until a man named Stephen Merchant (writer for Extras, The Office) came across their sound by way of the internet and played them on his BBC 6 radio show that things took an upward swing.

English shoreline and U.K. publications like NME and The Guardian began to contact the Black Kids for interviews. Without a label, no press agent, and without having played any kind of national tour, Black Kids were riding high on the crest of publicity.
But back in the States, Black Kids still weren't comfortable committing to a tour. "Owen, Kevin, and I have played our fair share of shit shows on shit tours, playing to four people," Youngblood says. "We told ourselves we wouldn't and couldn't do that again; instead we would stay at home, focus on writing good songs and hope that something, anything would happen to bypass that miserable process."

Black Kids took the time to stay at home and hone their craft, eventually recording the songs for The Wizard of Ahhhs, which came out in the fall. An exuberant EP of spunky pop melodies, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, lo-fi guitar fuzz, and enough hooks to choke a horse, internet bloggers on both sides of the pond would label the EP as one of the best debuts of the year, despite being just an EP.

"Well, the EP was originally recorded as an LP with four other tracks, and it was recorded in our good friend Jesse Mangum's apartment. He's an absurd audiophile, his concept of sound and music is very cerebral," Youngblood says. "We put those songs up haphazardly. Eight were recorded total in that session. The other four will most likely be on our proper debut."

Borrowing a little from bands like My Bloody Valentine, The Go! Team, The Smiths and retro '80s dance pop, The Wizard of Ahhhs is really an exercise in music appreciation.
"I think 'Hurricane Jane' and 'Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)' are our current faves," says Youngblood. "They somewhat encompass all the elements we love in pop, musically and conceptually: hooks, nostalgia, arrogance mixed with pity, dynamic possessive choruses." Youngblood also jokes that there aren't enormous back stories to the songs. "We could name all our songs 'Reggie's Inability to Trick Girls Into Loving Him Part I, Part II,' etc."

After the EP was released, word of the band spread like wildfire throughout Britain and, this time, America. Agents and managers became interested in what the bloggers and fans had to say about Black Kids. Soon after, Quest Management added them to their roster, which includes Bjork and Arcade Fire. It was one of Quest's own bands - Bloc Party - that forwarded Black Kids' MySpace page to them as a suggested new band. "We didn't really [do anything]," Youngblood says. "They approached us, via the internet. The internet's the culprit!"

"The beauty of all this is that we've taken no initiative whatsoever," Youngblood says. "We don't have a promotions team; we couldn't afford it. Others, bloggers, have taken it upon themselves to get the word out on the street, and on the news."

It certainly seemed as though Black Kids were ready to take on the world, or at least the Western Hemisphere, and a tour seemed like the next logical move to pursue.
"It seemed like that's where the biggest response had been, overwhelmingly positive. It would happen over there first," Youngblood says. The band's new management team grabbed the reins, and found Black Kids a British agency to book six shows in London.
Not surprisingly, with the amount of hyberbolic chatter that has been coming from the U.K., Youngblood and the band have started to notice a backlash building here in America. There's always the fear of not being as appreciated at home as abroad, the fear of being over played before you begin, and the fear that maybe there's no substance behind the hype.

"Definitely, the backlash has already happened," he says. "I think someone coined it as 'frontlash,' on account of the fact that we haven't done shit, really," says Youngblood. "The hype is a bit much. If there were a knob that would allow me to adjust the rate of hype-acceleration, which I think right now is on '10,' I would so take it down to 'six' or even 'five.' But on the flip side, this is probably the only way Black Kids could become a full time band — prior to this we could only get together once a week, for a couple of hours."

Perhaps it's also the U.K.'s recent tradition of overinflating a band, as was the case with The Strokes or The Vines, only to downplay the fact that the band is just starting out, and then tossing it into the love it-hype-it-discard-it pile.

"Yeah, people's expectations are absurdly high, but at the same time, we can't ask them to taper that — 'Hey, could you not have such big expectations? Just pretend we're your friends playing in another one of your town's local bands, and be happy if we get through the set. Kay?' We can't really ask that of people," Youngblood laments. "But smart people make the necessary adjustment, anyway. Christ, having said that, by the time this is printed, we're gonna be on point, for real."

Recently, the American press has picked up on Black Kids and it seems as though the cycle is starting all over. The band has legitimate management, press and booking. Publications like Pitchfork, The Village Voice and Spin have found the sound of Black Kids irresistible and it'll only be a matter of time before mainstream press starts writing stories about the new Best New Band You Haven't Heard of Till Now. USA Today and The New York Times have already heaped on praises after the band's hurricane of packed shows at October's CMJ Music Marathon. In the meantime, the ball has really started to roll for Black Kids, and they look to finish up some regional shows this month, before jetting across the pond for their U.K. tour. They hope to record a full-length LP in early 2008.

In the competitive world of music, Black Kids story seems like the stuff fairytales are made of, but when asked "How is it a band like yours has gotten so much by doing so little?" Youngblood had just this to say: "It's been said countless times, but it holds up; just write the best possible songs you can, quality, not quantity. Focus on your craft. Everything will come to you, as it has for us."

www.myspace.com/blackkidsrock