King Krule gave a bunch of great interviews around the release of his 2017 opus The Ooz (we should know – we published one), but there’s something particularly special about being able to hear a conversation as well as read it, especially one with Archy Marshall himself, who is a meandering thinker who always has a surprising point of view or anecdote. So, in that spirit, we would like to highly recommend the above, Marshall’s appearance on producer Star Slinger’s Drunken Slinger Podcast last month.
The premise, basically, is that it’s a drunk interview, thus there are a number of bizarre moments (which are even better because Marshall and Star Singer go way back, and therefore have a lot to talk about). But there is perhaps no greater peak than the following exchange about the man, the myth, the legend, Akon:
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Archy Marshall: “I heard that he wrote Sonic’s theme tune”
Star Slinger: “Sonic?”
Archy Marshall: “Yes, the hedgehog.”
The two also reminisce about an early King Krule show in Paris (Marshall recalls how great the food was. Star Slinger adds: “I remember so much cheese being there.”), and Marshall’s alter-ego Pimp Shrimp, which briefly made a return in 2016. On that topic: “I heard some other dude done the same name. But actually I got a phobia of shrimp… But I like looking at them. I feel their pain, they’re the insects of the sea.”
Elsewhere, they dove into Marshall’s artistic influences (the first King Krule record, Out Getting Ribs, is titled after a note made by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat): he noted that a girl in the bar the podcast was being recorded him told him earlier, “I always like artists for their tragedy.” On that point, he mused, “When I was younger, I thought the same thing. But I wanted to tell her, like “yo, we’re in a different age right now, and positivity is important. And even though I grew up and I loved tragedy and I loved the fact that they died for their art and they were so fucked up for their shit […] Out Getting Ribs, I was obsessed with tragedy.”
This, of course, in typical King Krule style – the abstract and the insightful paired with the banal – is followed by:
Star Slinger: “Do you buy ribs?”
Archy Marshall: “I don’t tend to eat with my hands that much.”
You can, and almost definitely should, just hear the whole thing above.
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