Working behind a bar in a venue sometimes means having to sit through naff bands playing to douchebags pissed up on Tuborg. But it most certainly has its perks, for example when I got to witness Nottingham’s best new band KAPPA GAMMA’s headline set last June. I caught up with them to try and make sense of the abstract.

Hello Kappa Gamma. How’s Nottingham treated you this summer? What did you get up to?

We spent a lot of this summer cooped up in our favourite dark spaces writing music and recording sounds. Ransacking old buildings in search of ghosts has also taken up a fair share of our time.

Ghosts? Is Kappa Gamma superstitious?

More than one of us is not superstitious. Those of us who do adhere to superstition outnumber the ‘other’ contingent by three-to-one. If there are four ghosts remaining, how many Kappas go into the same number of Gammas? The answer is easier than you think.

Erm, well we digress. To anyone who hasn’t heard you guys before, what sort of sound can they expect to hear (without using the abstract, please)?

Not abstract? Our sound at its heart resembles the aural transmission of us playing on guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and very occasionally a violin all together. Oh, whilst ululating, let’s not forget.

Your single ‘Just Another’ is awesome. It’s coming out on Vinyl with help from Destination Moon, is it not? Who are they and how did that come about?

Well hey thanks very much there John. J-ball. Our debut single was a split release which came out over the summer on our beloved Denizen Recordings, headed by Pete Fletcher, and Destination Moon which is a Rolo Tomassi imprint-label headed by James Spence. James saw us play Rock City last year with Dog Is Dead and we were lucky enough that he was interested in doing a release with us. The single looks super-rad on half-clear, half-black 7″ vinyl and are a bloody steal at under four quid!

What’s the follow up to the single? An EP/album?

Over the coming months we’re searching high (and low, obviously) for the missing jigsaw pieces of our first EP. It’s all pretty much there and will be out in October/November. But we’re saving a few bits for the album which we’ll be hobbling together in a mad way over winter.

I’ve heard through the grapevine about a spool film music video. Does it have a story yet?

Yes, the grapevine oft returns wonders in fruity truths. We’re working on a video with Nottingham’s answer to the Coen brothers: Tom and John Turrel. We’ve had a lot of discussions, cigarettes and mini-adventures concluding in what we think will be an awesome video for our song Akira (which looks like it’s going to be on the album). Filming starts next week.

Thanks Kappa Gamma, we’ll be seeing you support the great Johnny Foreigner in October. Just don’t open any umbrellas inside or break any mirrors, yeah?

Yes, we ask anyone coming to our shows not to bring pocket mirrors or step ladders or anything else which might incur bad luck. If it rains, please, just get wet. Julian’s broken several mirrors in Adrian and Max’s house – who are still trying to shake of his bad ju-ju. In aid of this, on Sundays, Saf and Tom go round door-to-door doing the dishes for free. “Karma isn’t interchangeable with Superstition”, I said. They wrinkled their noses at me giving me the impression that they secretly liked it and that, close up, their noses looked like sand dunes.

Nottingham heads can see Kappa Gamma support Johnny Foreigner at the Chameleon 20th October.

https://www.facebook.com/kappagammamusic

Words by John Bell

This entry was tagged as Kappa Gamma, Mint Magazine, Nottingham.