Kaki’s crazy party

While it was rather early on a Monday morning here in Australia when the Star called Kaki King for a chat, in Brooklyn it was a Sunday night, and King was at a friend’s place having a party.

I’m at my friend Alana’s house. We have a puppy, some other friends, some granola, a Thai menu, and we’re having a good time, said the sassy guitarist turned singer-songwriter.

I realised that I hate doing interviews, because I do them alone and I get sad and have to answer the same questions over and over. Now I’ve decided to make it as chaotic as possible. Welcome to the crazy interview party in Brooklyn! she teased.

She wasn’t wrong -” during the call, various friends commandeered the phone to cheekily enquire about life Down Under, and at one stage, the Star may have even chatted to the aforementioned puppy.

Partying aside, King’s career has blossomed in Australia lately, with five visits to our shores in the past two years. She’s returning this month for an extensive tour, taking in many regional areas.

Who doesn’t like coming to Australia? In two years of coming and playing, I’ve been able to create an audience and a fan base that would take more like six years to create in the States. It’s because Australians are serious about their music, she said.

King has a long list of celebrity admirers, including Tegan and Sara and the Foo Fighters, both of whom she’s played with. It was also recently revealed she’s been working with superproducer Timbaland on an as-yet-undecided project.

However, throughout her career, she’s been dogged by sexist -˜compliments’ from male industry types that she -˜plays well for a girl’.

It is outdated, but I’m in a boys club when I walk into a studio. I do get this -˜I have to prove myself’ attitude. Rolling Stone did a list of the 100 best guitarists of all time, and the only woman on it was Joan Jett, she sighed.

I don’t know. I try and live in an oblivious bubble, away from all that.

King said she made a special effort to connect with her fans, many of whom admire her for her openness about being gay.

I try to be accessible -” I always come out after the shows and hang with people. I do get people saying -˜thank you for being out’. I think it’s because there are a lot of artists who aren’t out, who are afraid for their careers.

Considering her out status, King said she was surprisingly bereft of female groupies on tour.
Oddly enough, I was so inundated with these cute-boy guitar-nerd fans for the first years of my career, I couldn’t even get a date. I went out and pierced my lip, just to be like, -˜Hello! Waving the flag here!’

Despite all this, King rejects any suggestion that she’s a gay role model.

Honestly, I want to say that I do, but I don’t. I was young and gay too, and I never flocked to gay music because the artists were gay. I realise how very important it is for young gay people to just have someone to look at, but I do think that if you go to a concert because the artist’s gay, it’s pretty superficial.

I don’t think my personal life or my gay life is interesting. I think my work, what I put my blood, sweat and tears into, is interesting. Being gay is easy -” anyone can do it.

info: Kaki King is touring Australia until March 8, including shows at WOMADelaide.
Details: www.kakiking.com