Ok, so I haven’t been around in a while, and I’m a bad person because of it… rest assured that there are secret plans bubbling over here at k-anderson-headquarters (sounds glamorous, right?), but I thought I’d drop you all a line in the meantime to say hello and share a video with you all…  this has kept me smiling all morning… and, considering my latest ep is called ‘foxes ep’, it’s even on-topic! Are you proud of me? I am…

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Hope you are all well…. I’ll be in touch with more news soon!

I wrote the song 'Foxes' sometime in the last two years. I wrote it about London; about how, despite being surrounded by 7 million or so folks, it's so easy to feel alone here. Not new territory, I know, but comparing my experience to the scavenging foxes I come across every night when I walk the streets really resonated with me…

I played the song for my flatmates. I usually do this before playing a song live – it's a good way of gauging whether a song is worthy or not… I get the feedback without looking like a prat in front of a room full of strangers… anyway, in this instance, their response wasn't great. They didn't really get it, and I plodded back to my room slightly deflated. When I write songs I usually have some idea about how people are going to react to them. Or, at the very least, I have an opinion on them myself… I loved the song so much, and I couldn't understand why they didn't.

It got played a few times live, but no-one showed any particular interest in it, and I thought perhaps I was the only person who actually liked it. Being a self-indulgent singer-songwriter I thought I'd record it anyway…. Only, it wasn't that easy. Rene, the producer I work with, and I just couldn't seem to get it right in the studio. We sped it up, we slowed it down, we turned it into a spaghetti western tune, we gramophoned everything… we…. we…. got a bit exhausted and bored by it… it just took ages and ages to get something that we were both reasonably happy with…. So, by that time, of course, I was absolutely sick of the song and didn't really mind if I never heard it again… after it was mastered to put on the 'foxes' ep I didn't listen to it for at least six months…

But then the song got singled out by Tuna the Day, and a few reviewers commented that it was the strongest track on the ep. I scratched my head, got my ep out, and listened to the song again. For the first time I could hear the song as the recording it was, and not focus on where I thought my voice wasn't all that great, or where I stuffed up the guitar part… and, well, I was a bit chuffed. It's a damn good song, and it's a damn good recording…

So, why am I squawking about this all of a sudden? Well, I've just found out that 'foxes' has been singled out again… this time by the podcast 'it's a frog's life'. so, if you haven't yet bought the ep and want to hear it, have a squizz at the website, http://itsafrogslife. net/podcast … the song is on episode 69, and is played about halfway through.

Let me know what you think.

In other news, I got up stupidly early on Saturday in order to trek to North Wembley for the Angels Costume Sale. I was hoping that I could find a fox costume, as I have a few ideas for the album cover, but I had no such luck. I did find this bunny head, though… I kinda had to share it with you…

k

A few more reviews of the 'foxes ep'….. one is quite complimentary, and the other is really rather not… but, well, the review is kind of badly written, and is a bit more concerned with throwing mud than actually forming an argument, so I'm not too bothered… tell me what you think…...

Penny Black Music

K Anderson: Foxes EP

Reviewed By: Anthony Middleton
Label: Anderson Records
Format: CDS

From the opening, stumbling syncopated beats of 'High Horse', this short offering from singer songwriter K Anderson is an arresting change from the usual troop of troubadours armed with an acoustic guitar and lot of problems to air.

Sporting a gravely, hoarse voice, Australian-raised, London-based Anderson seems happy to genre hop, with 'I'm Done, I'm Done, I'm Done' and 'High Horse' both employing sparse keyboards loops and drones. The former, a wounded song about being trapped and feeling so homesick-he actually misses Hackney-is nearly funky in its beat. 'High Horse' is a deceptively simple, though methodically well structured affair, where Anderson claims he "wouldn't write a song about you".

While on the face of it the best crafted song, 'Same Kind of Grim', is on more straightforward singer songwriter acoustic territory. Perhaps catchier than the other songs on the EP, it is also the most unadventurous. 'Foxes' on the other hand, is a slow bluesy contemplation of the similarities of anonymous human life in the city with that of an urban fox. "Part of the gift of growing older is that you don't believe in anything anymore," gives an idea of the tone going on here. While acoustic guitar driven, a few electronic effects are used to give a sure sense of atmosphere and this is the most effective number.

The final song, 'Teethmarks', is nearly a cappella, though with something sounding like bottles being struck as accompaniment. In truth, it ends up sounding more like a demo than an innovation.

Alt Sounds

K's voice is incredible. Acoustic songs always get points with me automatically, I must admit. And as the acoustic-ness of it all continues into the next track I'm blown away by upbeat take on a sad situation because "it's not going anywhere". 'Same Kind Of Grim' takes self-pity and turns it on its head.

Foxes is the second EP from K Anderson, recorded in a basement studio in Clapton. Each track gives us something a little different creating a dynamic style of his own. Ending with an incredibly original, 'Teeth Marks' seems the perfect way to close the record. Playing what sounds to me (I could be totally wrong but think of similar sounding things...) like a cow bell, he sings about what he does for a girl. The track, only 1:20 long sounds like it takes a bit of inspiration of Shoreditch-ey music with its experimental sound, combined with his gritty vocals it sounds really good. Impressed.

Written By: Pennie V

I was a fat kid. Unfortunately I don't have photographic evidence to hand to share with you, so you'll have to take my word for it. I was one of those kids with a pudding bowl haircut and an oversized sweat-shirt to hide his tummy, sneaking in a fist full of sweet whilst watching 'Neighbours'….

I lost a lot of weight when I was a teenager, though, and that's when it started… the comparisons to Kevin Bacon…. No matter where I went or what I was doing there was always someone who had to point out that I kind of looked like the Bacon. I couldn't see it myself, but smiled and kind-of agreed whenever the comparison was made…

The comparisons stopped when I went through my phase of dying my hair any colour I could get my hands on…. Blue, red, orange, green, purple…. I guess it was harder to spot under the spiky mess sitting on top of my head….

I've been back to my natural colour for about three years (it was costing too much money and taking up too much time to dye it) and I've had it fairly short until recently… Last night I was visited by a familiar statement from my past when someone I was talking to after my gig (at the lovely World's End in Finsbury Park) mentioned that I looked like Kevin Bacon, and that she was waiting for me to break into a Footloose type dance throughout my set…. Again, I don't see it, but unless there is a worldwide conspiracy to make me paranoid there must be something there…

What do you think????

Here is Kevin –

Here is me –

Or is that the other way around?

More importantly, who do people think YOU look like???