Itch

Kirsty Armitage

By the light of a solitary mobile phone, aboard a tour bus with no power in the alley behind The Garage, Glasgow, you find me with ‘Itch’ (former frontman of The King Blues) and his band mate, Josie Dobson, as we grab a quick five minutes to set the world to rights before his last performance on tour with Awolnation.

Thanks for taking the time to see me! So…how you are doing?!

I’m doing very well, thank you!

How was the tour for you?

The tour is going amazing. Tonight is the last night of tour…so, yeah! I’m hella excited!

Looking forward to the Glasgow crowd?

Glasgow’s always been real good to me; it’s always real fun to be here. I’m crazy – the crowd here goes crazy, so I’m hella excited to be here. And it’s the end of tour – the last night of the tour – it’s the town to party in!

That’s true! Glasgow can make or break you! How does this compare to previous tours you’ve been on with the King Blues?

It’s different! Obviously, when I was with the King Blues we were on tour for nine years really, so it was totally different – I’m out on my own, I’ve got a completely different band behind me. I feel rejuvenated. This is my passion now. This is what I want to do.

I haven’t toured in over a year. At the start of this tour I was like, “Do I even want to do this anymore or do I just want to be in the studio?” Then I got out on the stage on the first night and held the mic in my hand, felt that power again and knew this is what I should be doing.

Who influenced you to get into music, in the first place?

I was a Punk Rock kid, you know? That was my first love and what really got me started. When I was younger, when I was about 13, I was living in a squat with these punks – I’d never really heard it before – and they started playing Punk on this shitty little boom box, you know? It was just a shitty little place and they would play these tapes of music that were made before I was even born, but I could relate to it so much. At the time everyone was listening to Nirvana or Happy-hardcore, but that didn’t really speak to me. When I heard Punk Rock, I was like “they really speak to me, they’re telling my stories”.

Then through them, I got into Reggae and Hip-Hop and realised it’s all very similar. It’s all a kind of street music from angry kids; it’s from the ghetto. Whether it’s a white-ghetto, black ghetto, wherever in the world it is, that’s what it is. At the minute, I’m like a Punk Rocker attacking Hip-Hop, kind of like the Beastie Boys.

Who would you like to tour with next, now that you know this what you really want to do?

This tour’s been great. Especially Europe, because it’s a crowd that hasn’t really heard of me. The most rewarding gigs are the ones where no one knows you when you go on stage, but by the end they love you. So, I’m up for touring with anyone! I don’t really have a dream person I’d like to tour with right now.

What can we expect from you next?

I’ve just put out two EPs which can be downloaded for free from itchsmixes.com – that second EP just went out (Saturday 16^th Feb). I’ve got an album dropping in May/June and then follow that by doing Warped Tour in America and probably a couple of Festivals here at the end of the summer.

Warped Tour! Very nice! Finally…any words for your fans – old and new?

Just thank you! Genuinely thank you; for believing in me, for sticking by me. For checking out what I do. It’s an honour, so thanks.

Visit www.itchsmixes.com to download Itch’s two free EPs

Listen to Itch’s ‘London is Burning’ here

Facebook: Facebook/itchsmixes