MUSIC

‘The only limit to what I can do is me...’

In the lead up to Christmas, while the rest of us were messing about with tinsel, MK musician Cam Owden was stateside, touring with rising indie success Alfie Templeman.

Carlton-based Alfie has had a phenomenal rise to fame, and when he needed a bassist he remembered the fret-feeler he’d seen in local band Khasia – and made the connection.

“I tried to keep my distance from him, because it seemed like there were so many people trying to ride off his wave, but he got in touch and I thought I’d give it a go.

Now he is one of my best friends and we are getting to see the world together.”

Cam joined Alfie’s band in September of 2019, in a pre-covid world.

Soon after, the diary was emptied and the band forced to put their instruments down and put their feet up as the shutters were pulled on the live music industry.

Thankfully, 2021 proved to be kinder.

“Some of our first gigs were at Boardmasters, Reading and Leeds, and we released a record too. Seeing my name in the credits still hasn’t stopped being cool to me. It has been a dream of mine to hold a physical release I’ve worked on in my hands, so that record means an awful lot to me.

“More than anything though, the highlight is being able to hang out with my mates again. We all live apart and Alfie was shielding, so that first day back together was really special.”

Pic: @tatianawphotos

Pic: John Owden

The trip across the pond was a welcome chance to put their music before a new audience and enjoy work and play.

“The US has definitely been a learning experience,” Cam said, “Playing some of my bucket list venues like The Bowery Ballroom and The Roxy have been incredibly special, given that just last month I was still working a job at Starbucks.”

And he returned home with a memory bank brimming with great stuff.

“A highlight was driving down the West Coast; the scenery was beautiful, the soda cold and the music loud,” he reminisced, “Just road-tripping with my best mates and playing shows was blissful.”

The new year is looking busy too. “Very busy actually,” he promises, “New music, a lot of shows and hopefully a bit of time to be young. I think it’s important that we take the time to experience life while working hard.”

Then there’s the solo venture. KC Blackwater has so far delivered the EP Happy Smiling Faces.

“It’s the least doubt I’ve had over anything I’ve ever done,” he said, “It’s just natural and doesn’t feel at all forced... the only limit to what I can do is me.”

If his work with Alfie is indie and melodic, this solo rush makes for altogether heavier listening, and the single Fungi is more than a little bit good. It’s fresh and exciting, fraught and urgent.

It gives Cam a platform to have his say: “People can say anything and somehow their opinions carry the same weight as facts,” he observes, “I wanted to write a track about confronting someone on all the egregious things they’ve said, and make them feel as small and uncomfortable as they’ve made other people feel.”

Purple’s crime spree with MK filmmakers

In late 2021 Deep Purple released their latest studio album, Turning To Crime.

The hard rockin’ machine formed more than half a century ago, but this current opus is another first for the Ian Gillan fronted quintet; it’s a release of cover versions.

Artists given the Purple treatment include Little Feat, Cream, Ray Charles and Arthur Lee’s Love.

And when the band decided to release a video to back their delivery of Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well, they looked to Milton Keynesbased Chiba Film to come up with the goods.

“The music film for Oh Well was a gargantuan effort which saw us shooting with the band in Germany,” director Dan Gibling told Pulse, “The theme of the album got me thinking about all the best crime films I’ve ever seen, and we pulled influence from Tarantino through to Edgar Wright, also throwing in some likenesses of musicians the band has covered on the album, together with some of our favourite music videos of all time,” Dan said, explaining the concept for the work, which shows the band getting up to criminality.

“The film has been well received and is the first time the band has appeared in a video for years, looking dapper as elite criminal gangsters!”

Deep Purple’s current album, Turning to Crime (above) and Dan Gibling directing Deep Purple (right) Chiba were also engaged for Deep Purple’s cover of Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, originally by Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, which took the turn of an animation. “Luke, my partner at Chiba Film, came up with the concept of ‘the life of a boogie woogie piano’ and we wrote the story out together as the rise to stardom and then the fall from grace of the piano, finally left out in the gutter after succumbing to the rock n’ roll lifestyle, before being resurrected by Deep Purple and returned to its former glory. “We worked closely with the band’s manager to pack the illustrations full of secret messages and hidden features for Deep Purple fans, and Luke slaved over 79 hand drawn illustrations that skilled animator Simon Jeffery then made come to life.”

Dan and Luke also worked on a 40-minute documentary with Deep Purple which features on the DVD.

“We both used to play in rock bands and it was an honour to work for such a legendary rock band of this level,” Dan added.

> Turning To Crime by Deep Purple is out now through earMUSIC.

Sean kicks off new Villa playlist

Sean Grant has achieved a goal of marrying his passion for music with his passion for football, with the news that Aston Villa FC & Shoot Promotions have chosen to feature his band as a part of the first ever Aston Villa introducing playlist.

“Football was my first love – so much so that my first word was ‘ball,’ he told his social media followers.

As a youngster, he spent much of his time kicking a ball about, and even got scouted for Villa youth team, but in his teenage years a passion for music took over.

Sean’s grandad was from Birmingham and he too had a love of football and music: “He was a record collector and introduced me to music as an art form,” Sean said.

“He and my grandma bought me my first guitar at 12 which was probably the catalyst in me becoming a musician.

“I moved from Villa to Northampton as a player as my Dad was coaching there, then Kettering. By the time I reached adult football I stopped playing as I was touring and pursuing music full time having been signed to Fierce Panda records.”

But Sean’s fondness for the game, and Aston Villa in particular, never faded. In recent times he has started back playing grassroots football with MK-based OB City.

Sean’s Bodies of Christ single is set for a vinyl release next month, followed by an eight-date UK tour.

But for the moment he’s pretty happy with his playlist feature.

“I’m hoping Steven Gerrard has a little boogie to it!” he said.