“COOL, TIGHT AND FUNNY. VERY FUNNY” | ARTIST SPOTLIGHT ON KING HENRY

I am sat quietly drinking the last of my pint in a semi-empty Camden bar and I am about to call it a night. It is only early, but it is snowing outside and I could be at home, tucked up with a tea. A band have started playing and I have to cross the room to make my way to the exit. I get up to go and I am halfway across the room before being halted by those words that can change the entire dynamic of an evening, “I want everyone to come to the front!”.

I would learn that I had just heard King Henry for the first time, the quasi-alter ego of the polite and well-spoken Henry King, whose funk band had just fired up their wah-wah pedals and dusted off their bongos. This moment could have gone either way: a few more strides and I would be out, disco and funk rarely register on my musical radar, but the tall, long-haired frontman wearing a striped button-up shirt, undone to the chest, had attracted the crowd’s (and my) attention immediately.

The band are cool, tight, and funny. Very funny. My respect for musicians who can create catchy songs is only trumped by people who can make me laugh, anyone that can do both has my undivided attention. Despite the modest crowd, you would think you were watching Freddie Mercury play Wembley. By the end of the set, he is wearing sunglasses, and not much else, his shirt having been thrown to the baying crowd as a thank you for their support. I was completely hooked.

Fast forward to now (April), and I have been back to see King Henry perform at nearly every gig they have played since. They primarily stick to London, but they are signed to a model label based out of Paris, who finance their online output. The crowd has swelled in size week-on-week and curiosity has by now gotten the better of me, and I must find out more about this unlikely band that have captured my attention more than any other this year. Over a Zoom call, Henry tells me he lives in a South London flat with bandmate Matt Lane (producer and bass player). They have no neighbours, giving them the creative freedom to write and record until the early hours.

Henry grew up on a diet of his dad’s jazz records and his sister’s dance recitals, “I was brought up around sisters who were doing theatre and singing all the time. I must have just sat on the sidelines and soaked it all up because I never did it myself at the time, but I thought, hey, that’s great. Now it is my turn to do it.” He cites Paul Desmond, the American jazz saxophonist, as an early influence of his, prompting him to pick up the trumpet and record jazz music in his bedroom. “I asked Matt to listen to some of my tracks and on my birthday, he gave me a USB stick with all my tracks on it, mixed and mastered. It was so romantic.”

In many ways, the hedonistic backdrop of disco, and the wild improvisation inherent in the jazz scene, provide the perfect soundtrack to the impulsive and creative musing of the band’s songwriting. Henry tells me that their current release “Rosa” is an ode to an unrequited love for a jazz singer in Copenhagen, “she wore red lipstick, polka-dot dresses, sang jazz, and was missing a tooth. I thought, ‘this girl needs a song’”. The spirit of freedom runs through the band, “our music is the type of music that is just fun. It makes you smile, and I feel like any person from any part of the world would enjoy it” Matt tells me.

More than this however, there is a sweetness and a joy to King Henry’s music that is a rarity. There is clearly a sense of camaraderie and an optimism to their sound which seems borne out of the genuine friendship that the band is built on. If you want to hear what I mean, then you will have to attend one of their live shows to hear yet unreleased set closer “Spending Emotions”. On the few occasions I have seen it performed live people are hugging, kissing, and singing it back to the band. “I always knew that was a special song” Matt tells me, “It’s an earworm, it just has a special feeling to it”. It is an instantly infectious future hit that has the hook, “I’ve got all you need” which the crowd sings back to the band. I struggle to think of what more you could need from a band that offers this level of showmanship, emotion, and bonhomie so early on in their career.