Kenny Anderson stage name King Creosote achieved renown for being the man who set up a record label in his living room. Fifteen years on, Jack McKeown finds Fence Records is still going strong, representing around 15 artists and now has an ‘office’ in a run-down tenement building in Cellardyke.
Over the years Kenny had fun coming up with inventive and off-the-wall names for his albums and bands.
His album Bombshell was originally to be called Israeli Handspan “after the name of the sailor in a book,” but was changed for fear it could be misread as comment on the situation in the Middle East.
Originally from St Andrews, Kenny (43) went to Madras College.
“I did music at Madras,” he said. “But back then it was all about classical or orchestral music. I was into Adam and the Ants, the Jam, and Two Tone.
“I look at the guys I went to school with now and they’ve all got big houses and cars, and here I am still getting around the East Neuk by bike, but I’m quite happy with where I am.”
Kenny’s dad Billy was an accordion player and his brothers Ian and Gordon are also musicians who have collaborated with Kenny on albums, and they’ve performed numerous live shows together.
He went to Edinburgh University in 1989 where he studied electronics and electrical engineering.Busking around EuropeAfter finishing university, Kenny and his friend Bruce Bell busked their way around Europe.
“We were making good money and just kept travelling and playing in Germany, France, Holland. Then we returned to Scotland for the winter.”
They returned to Europe the following summer for another busking tour, but by the end Kenny was beginning to long for change.
He returned to Scotland and began touring up and down the east coast. He played at Glastonbury in 1992 and opened the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen.
He then got an agent and made an album, the 39 Stephs but again, ennui set in.
“I’d been touring the east coast for a few years by this point, and I was still doing the same shows to the same crowds.”
In a bid to shake the feeling he took to Europe again then spent a winter back in St Andrews before forming the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra.
“KT Tunstall was with us for a while. She was just a young girl, but even back then I could tell she was destined for great things.
“She was charismatic and had an amazing energy. Everyone in the room stopped talking when she walked in.”
Kenny set up Fence Records from his living room in 1995. “I got myself a four-track then later an eight-track and started making albums,” he said.Illegal downloadingLike many non-chart-topping musicians, he’s angry at the state of the record industry and young people’s preference for illegally downloading music.
“I’ve had people come up to me at gigs and say ‘I illegally downloaded all your albums, but I liked them so much I bought a ticket to see you’. As if that makes up for getting all the music I’ve worked so hard on for free.”
He added, “All you’re going to end up with is a musical landscape of X Factor winners and other mass-produced bands. Traditional singer-songwriters are going to die out.
“People don’t get to know music as well any more, either. I used to save up, buy an album and listen to that album to death. I knew every word of every song.
“Now people download music faster than they can listen to it.”
King Creosote will be headlining the first night of The Big Tent Festival in Falkland on July 23-25. For further information and tickets visit www.bigtentfestival.co.uk or telephone 01337 858838.
Photo used under Creative Commons Licence, courtesy of Flickr user dinkydarko.