Q: Where did the band name come from?
J: It’s a name I’d had written down for a while. I think I just woke up one morning with it in my head. It just seems to suit what we do. And karma is cool, isn’t it? Good or bad, it’ll be back to bite you on your ass. Watch what you do, ‘cos it’s watching you. There’s no escape. And it looks good on a t-shirt.
Q: What would you say is your primary musical influence?
J: As a band, we all bring our own influences to the Karma sound. On paper, it maybe shouldn’t work, but it does, so we don’t question it too much. Personally, I’m driven by melody, which probably stems from listening to my parent’s record collection when I was growing up. I didn’t know it at the time, but those records were shaping my taste in music and appreciation for good songwriting. I’m always drawn to the melody, regardless of the style of music. I’ll listen to the heaviest band if there’s a melody in there.
Q: Your vocal is very distinct — any inspirations for your style?
I don’t consciously try to sound like anyone, I just open my mouth and it’s there. A lot of people tell me I remind them of this singer or that singer, but I try not to let that influence me really, I stay focused on doing what I do. I’m well aware my voice splits opinions, folks really like it, or they don’t. It’s not going to change anytime soon, it’s just me. As long as people can tell I mean every word I sing and put my heart and soul into singing it, then that’s good enough for me.
Q: “Homesick for our Future Destinations” feels like an evolution of your sound, is the next album closer to this new sound?
We never intentionally repeat ourselves; we’re always looking for ways to push ourselves as songwriters. It would have been very easy to sit back and just re-write our previous album, but you owe it to your listeners, and to yourself as writers, not to do that. I think there has to be a sense of growth within a band with each new release, or things can quite easily become predictable. We’ll be releasing a series of brand new digital-only singles over the coming months, something that we’ve not done before, with an amazing special guest; an ‘honorary 5th member’ of IKIC. We have the one and only Peter Holsapple onboard for three of the new songs. I’m sure your readers don’t need me to tell them who Peter is, but he was a member of legendary, The dB’s and played with REM on their huge Green world tour, as well as playing on their multi-platinum album, Out Of Time. He’s also played and recorded with Hootie & the Blowfish for over 25 years. To say we’re excited for folks to hear these new songs is an understatement!
Q: What’s your songwriting process like?
Most start with a guitar idea from either Martyn (Bewick, guitars) or Mikey (Barraclough, bass) They’ll send me a load of ideas over; I’ll write to the ones that grab me. I’ll add melody and lyrics, then we’ll get together in the rehearsal studio with Danny (Krash, drums) and knock them into shape. We can tell pretty early on in the process if an idea’s going to work or not. And we have no map or blueprint as such, we allow the songs to go wherever they need to.
Q: For example, How did the song “She Sept With The Radio on” come together?
That would have come from an initial guitar idea. I remember having a few lyrics, and we just hammered it out in the studio. It came together pretty fast that one. We knew we were onto something after a couple of run-throughs. It’s then just a case of fine-tuning the arrangement. Some songs instantly jump out as singles, that was one of those.