King Cerulean

Who are King Cerulean? Where you’re from, how you met, how long have you been playing together etc.

Defining King Cerulean’s genre is really tricky. If you had to sum up our genre in one word it would be dance, but that would be doing our sound a disservice. The band has slowly grown over the last 5 years; all of us are ex-students from Cardiff. We’ve been building our sound over many years, and are now lucky enough to be an incredibly tight group of friends

Who came up with the band name and does it have a story or any meaning behind it?

King Cerulean emerged when a group of musicians accidentally blended a forbidden combination of blueberries, kale, and alien space goo into a smoothie. Upon drinking it, they were granted musical superpowers and a passion for cerulean hues. They declared themselves “King Cerulean” as a tribute to their cosmic smoothie source.

If you had to describe the band using just five words, what would they be? 

High octane, crazy, exciting fun

Who are your biggest influences musically?

Collectively, our musical influences are widely diverse. Our band founder draws lots of inspiration from funk, ska and pop; bands such as The Cat Empire and Ripe. The other members of the band have musical influences from a wide array of other musical genres, from rock musicians such as Queens of The Stone Age and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, all the way to house, Japanese pop and hip-hop. Our dramatically varied musical palettes are what give King Cerulean such a unique yet familiar sound.

What’s the band’s biggest claim to fame so far? 

We have several claims to fame that we’re incredibly proud of. Soon we’ll be playing the O2 in Islington which will arguably be our biggest gig to date, but previously we’ve also sold out the infamous Clwb iFor Bach 3 times and played Y Plas in the Cardiff Student Union

What’s your songwriting process?

Our songs are slightly selfish. We often write about issues or problems we’re experiencing at the time, and performing them live is like a unique form of therapy for us – we make sure however that all our tracks are exciting and fun to listen to, so although we may be talking about personal and upsetting topics, we’re dancing and laughing through them with the crowd.

If you could go on tour with any current band or artist, who would it be and why? 

The Cat Empire are probably our most notable musical influence, and to share a stage with them would be a dream come true

If you could put your dream team band together consisting of any musicians from the past or present who would the band members be? 

However lame it sounds, I don’t think we would. Our band is so personal and unique to us, that any alteration to the team dynamic would stop us from being us. Having said that gigging with Freddie Mercury at least once would be mind-blowing

How would you describe your live show to someone who has never seen you perform before? 

Our gigs are a place to leave the reality of how shit life can be sometimes at the door and let loose for an hour or two. We put so much heart and energy into our shows, but as soon as we walk on stage, we don’t care how we look and encourage our audience to feel the same. Nobody is at a KC gig to judge. We’re there to party and be stupid. Our show from start to end is created to be a space to go bananas and dance like a moron.

Do any of you have any pre-dog or post-gig rituals? If so, what and why?

Our band lead Tom used to. He used to have a red bull and a shot of tequila to wake him up and loosen him up – after an incident however where he drank half a bottle of tequila in an hour and a half, he doesn’t do that anymore

What would your ultimate rider be if you could have anything without being accused for being a diva? 

I don’t think we’d want one right now. If we did, it would be someone to just get us a drink before a show.

Tell us one thing your fans would be really shocked or surprised to hear or learn about the band

I honestly have no idea!

If people want to check you out online where’s the best place to go?

Check out our insta – that’s the best place to stay up to date with everything we’re doing:

@kingcerulean

Finally, what does the future hold for the band? 

More gigs and more music! We love playing and performing so much – the more gigs we can play and the more support we can get, the more we can do what we do!