Kosheen are the British trip hop, drum and bass and rock group that launched themselves in 1999.Their debut album Resist hit number eight in the UK and spawned singles Hide U, Catch and Hungry.Their second album Kokopelli had similar success reaching number seven. Having toured constantly the band have built up a large and faithful following.Now four years after the release of Kokopelli Kosheen are back with their new album Damage as well as a tour on the horizon.Lead singer Sian Evans took time out her busy promotion schedule to talk to me about the new album, and juggling Kosheen with the demands of motherhood.
Your second album was released in 2003 why has it taken so long to record a third?
Well we have been touring with the first two albums, and thoroughly enjoying that, touring all across Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia you know so it's kept us busy. But I think the main reason for the delay was we were taking our time. After the success of Resist there was a lot of pressure on us to recreate Resist and to have singles off it and hits, and we were on the road touring the whole time during the composition of Kokopelli and that had a massive influence on the type of music that we were making.
Why was the album date pushed back it was originally scheduled for a release last year?
Oh that has nothing to do with us that all to do with bureaucracy, record labels, and time scales and stuff that doesn't really concern me as a singer and song writer.
But as it goes it's perfect timing because we have arranged to do a tour now around the time of the release date in the UK so the UK tour will be supporting that release date.
It's been a little bit difficult have already bought it via internet webistes, which is a bit worrying, but it's all positive I mean our shows are great anfd the attendance at the shows is fantastic.
And how many show are you doing?
I think it's fourteen or fifteen date tour.
Why name the album Damage
It's another iconic statement really we are living in pretty exciting times ecologically, politically and there has been alot of changing, a lot of changes, and people's consciousness has changed along with it. I think that is the positive side of Damage, you know, when things get broken down it means that people need to rebuild, and reassess things so it's a positive step I think.
The album has been described as having darker lyrics than previous records would you agree with this?
We have always been pretty dark with those deep dark undertones, but I don't see darkness as being a negative aspect I think the deeper you go the darker it gets it's a depth rather than a shadowy darkness.Why is overkill the first sigle?
That again you good pick a number out of a hat with this album as there are a lot of singles on it. It was discussed amongst us all, and the record company, and that was the one that kind of sprung out as a good radio roller. But lets hope that that entices people into the album. With Kosheen, I have always imagined Kosheen, to be an album act you don't get the full effect of what we are doing unless you get into the album.Where did you shoot the video?
Oh! Buenos Aires it was beautiful. The guys were in Australia DJing and they just look we get this amazing director Marcus Stenburg, we made friends at a gig a few years ago, and he has always been interested in, kind, of putting visuals to the music, which is great because he is fantastic at it.
He is more of a film maker than anything else so they feel of the video is kind of filmy, it has a film effect to it. And he said right we have got a limited budget where can we go that's going to be able to do that? And he went South America, and I went OK!!Yep I'm there. We went over to Buenos Aires and I spent three weeks there.
We did two videos back to back which was tiring but we had the financial constraints so we had to get it all done but the crew were fantastic and everyone was great, yeah I thinks it has turned out great.
Marcus Stenburg is a genius immediately when we first met he connected with me, and we kind of became firm friends, and then he just wanted to be involved, which is handly because he's usually very expensive and he wasn't for us he was great.
How do you juggle being in Kosheen and being a mother?
Well it was harder when my son was younger because we did tend to miss out, quite a lot, on just together time, weekends and we moved around alot as well and he was juggling different schools. But he has had a great time really, if he's honest. Often when he's down in the dumps I get the oh! rock and roll kid you ruined my life, actually to be helicoptered into Glastonbury, at the age of eleven, and to be able to go backstage everywhere is quite a luxury really. He has been doing some festivals on his own recently and I think he's realised what it's like on the other side of the fence.
Do you take him on tour or did you take him on tour in the past?
When he was younger yeah I did I we would pack him up and he would come off on the tour bus, and he though it was amazing, because it is a great life for a boy on tour it's not such a great life for a woman. I get withdrawal symptoms, I don't get to talk to my friends very often, I'm surrounded by guys and the stink on the bus sometimes is beyond can you imagine twelve blokes having drunk lots of beer and their smelly socks.
In fact I've got a funny story about Mitch, the drummer, who decided to wash his underpants and his socks in the sink on the tour bus, which is really nice, and we were stationary at the time so he hung them out of the skylight and decided to go for a sleep and the bus started and all his underpants and socks went flying off down the autobarn, I think it was. So he was knickerless for the whole of the tour. It's fun I think now, more than in the beginning, the guys kind of see me as a, I don't know, a big, little siser, sometimes I'm a mum, sometimes they mother me it's kind of a family feeling I get with them, it's a very warm relationship we have.
Have you ever considered a solo career?
I have, many times, we have been tied up with Kosheen and we have been very busy and, thankfully so, it's been very successful couple of albums for us. But I have been kind of recently, we are out of our publishing contract now that lets us do a little bit more, and I have been writing with a guy I used to sing with about twenty yeras ago, isn't that mad, twenty years have passed and both of us have been going round the music block, he has had clubs and organised musical festivals and I've been playing at festivals. And we bumped into each other and the our friendship was still really there and when we started to write songs together it was absolutely beautiful. It's relief from Kosheen really, not that I don't enjoy Kosheen I adore it it's my heart and soul, but it's nice to go back to acoustic music, for me, it's nice to have that as well.
How does being on your own differ from being in Kosheen is it a scary experience to go from a tight group of people to all by yourself?
No, no I don't feel as if I'm all by myself you see it's me, and Simon and it's music and I would never feel isolated in music I'm not a great talker but I will stand up and sing in front of anybody that has always been my party trick, my love, the love of my life really.
And what inspires you to write?
Everything I mean I only have to look at my son adn what he's going through, he's in the other room so I'd better be quiet, he just been through his first heartbreak situation. Observations of people and as a human we have got these limited emotions, I guess, and we have all been through every single one of them, at least once, and to be able to watch him and reflect what it was like for me the first time my heart got broken. It's anthropology really it's the study of human beings writing songs, it's just lovely, but you can also get away with murder cos you can say what you like in a song.
What have you seen to be the benefits of your MySpace page?
I don' really go on it! I'm not really techo Sian I'm very anqlogue girl. I have only recently started recieving tunes from the guys, they have been giving me little workshops with my laptop that I've got which I think I'm so cool with, they have been showing me how to recieve music without having to go to the studio and record stuff on to it. I'm getting into that. I'm not great at emailing I'm not very good at keeping in touch it's lovely to see the response and it's great that people can have instant access to what you are doing. Sometimes it's great other times people know exactly where I am, you know, my mother can just look on the MySpace 'Oh! you are in Prague are you today, I thought you said you were somewhere else.'
The benefit really is the access people can have to you right away, and know what you are doing and where you are going to be and give their feedback, which is really important to us. The only chance, before this system, was to be a shows and feel the energy of the crowd now you can write ups and feed back over the internet which is lovely.
The new album Damage is released 10 September.
Helen Earnshaw FemaleFirst