This past Tuesday we had the great opportunity to sit down with Kelvin Jones before his first ever gig in Zurich. Kelvin, a young british musician has been on a promo run for a few days and stopped in Zurich to play at Kinski.
Since some of you might have seen, there will be some juicy details about his secret male celebrity crush. So keep reading if you want to know more…
So, for people who don’t know you, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Pop, Blues – maybe… „Maybe“ being my 3rd word! There’s definitely Pop and maybe a hint of Blues…
That sounds about right – I’ve got a sneak peak of the album and found it really refreshing music.
Oh really? That’s good… It’s always a challenge to make music that doesn’t sound like everyone else.
So you’ve been on the road for a couple days now, playing your songs and doing some radio shows. Do have a favorite moment so far?
YES! So this is the moment where I pretty much nearly cried on stage. It was at a show in Germany and it was infront of like 2000 people. At the end of my song „Call You Home“ I had the people take out their phones, turn their lights on and sing along – super cheesy stuff but it was beautiful. When you see 2000 people singing along to a song I remember playing infront of 5 drunk people at a pub not too long ago is pretty awesome. A beautiful moment. It looked insane from up on stage. That’s the cool part about being up there. I get to see everyone’s faces, their smiles and reactions. And I’ve noticed there’s this look everyone gets in their eyes when they connect to the song – this is great!
I’ve read that your favorite venue is Jones Beach, how come?
It’s more like a „dream“ venue, I’ve never been there but I’ve seen pictures – and it has nothing to do with my name *laughs* – and it just looks soooo cool. So yeah, I hope that in like 50 yrs time hopefully I’ll get to go play there. It’s like the holy grail for me.
Really? So it’s not like the Royal Albert Hall or the O2 etc.?
You know, that’s it… Those places are everyone’s holy grails, everyone wants to play there. But there are just some places I’ve heard the sound wasn’t too good, like they’re used for music but weren’t really built for music – you know what I mean. Those places don’t bother me that much. I mean, I wouldn’t say no to playing there for sure.
It seems to be different for every songwriter, but for you, what’s first, music or lyrics?
Definitely music – 100%, every time. I’m like the opposite of Bob Dylan. For a while I didn’t even care about the lyrics at all, until I talked to a friend and asked her if she even listens to the lyrics. She said: Yeah of course, it’s super important to me. So yeah, I was like sh*t , maybe I should look at some of my lyrics. Then I started exploring more… But for me it’s always the music first, it’s too difficult for me to get a melody to certain words. In fact, with Call You Home it was exactly that way, I was playing the guitar and then the lyrics just came to me.
For many songwriters it’s the lyrics first though, right?
Oh yeah, like the Ben Howard’s and others, their lyrics wouldn’t even need music to them, their pretty much poetry the way they are. For me it’s not so much poetry, but for example, one of my favorite songs I’ve written on my album, Closer, the chorus goes: We could be closer if you wanted to. It’s not a poem, it’s pretty straigt forward, the way you’d talk to someone. To me that’s the best.
We talked about the greatest moment on the road so far, but has there been a „low“ moment at all?
The worst moment is the time now, like not right now. Let me explain… There are different phases. You pick up the guitar, write a song. You’re in control 100%, i fit goes wrong – it’s your fault, and that’s ok. Because if goes great, that’s on you too. You make an album, that’s also on you, you can mess it up, you can make it great. You get to play a show, it’s also down to you. But when you need the song to work on radios, suddenly fort he first time in a long time, it’s out of your hands. I spend 90% of my time hoping and worrying about chart positions and hoping my songs connect with people. So this is probably the challenging part, to not be too nervous basically.
OK, so here’s a tricky question for you. After all these interviews, is there a question you would love to answer, but no one has ever asked you?
Oh that is a tricky one. I mean, I’m sure there is, there has to be something. If there’s one thing, I try to get across in every interview or to anyone who’s listening, it’s always the fact why I am doing this. There’s so much going on in music now a days, the thing, when I was making my album, I always thought that, unless I need to put it out there, there’s no reason to put it out there. I don’t want it to be just another thing, like, aw that was nice and then it’s over… So for me putting out music is like a return to connecting with things. There’s a bunch of good music out there in the charts and I have nothing against it at all – but it’s all music made for a certain mood, for going out etc. But don’t listen to my stuff when you’re about to go out because that wouldn’t make any sense at all *laughs* But there’s something different, something that happens when you listen to a song that speaks to you – it’s different. And that’s why I’m doing this, hoping that people can get that „different“ feeling and connect with a song.
Check out Kelvin Jones’ video to „Call You Home“:
OK, so those were actually all our questions, but we do always have a fun little part at the end, where we begin a sentence which you then have to finish. Are you ready?
Yeah sure, go ahead!
If I wouldn’t be a musician, I’d have a job as…
…I wouldn’t have a job. I’d have a failing career at something else. I would be trying to be a designer or a clown or anything that’s not a normal 9-5 job.
If I was a girl, my male celebrity crush would be…
… this is easy, let me think. Ok not too easy… But I think I can appreciate who’s good looking… uuh… hmm… *2minutes later* OK, I’ll go for a musician Oh wait, not hat would be weird, what if I ever meet them. No let’s go for an actor. Chris… Wait what’s his name. Who’s the guy on Star Trek? Chris something… (Kelvin turns around and asks his Tourmanager who weirdly enough says, William Shattner – of course he didn’t know what we were talking about :D). Well, that’s the guy, you know who, right? Him, or Liam Hemsworth! They can fight over me… 😀 (we later found out he meant Chris Pine)
Right before I go to sleep, I think about…
… Right now – chart positions. I have to explain – it’s not that I’m worried that I need a Nr.1 song, but I need a good position to get the chance to do another album – which I really really want to do.
I’ll always come back to Zurich because…
… it looks like a more beautiful Germany, and I really like Germany
Cool, you probably just scored a lot of points with many Swiss people with that last answer J Also, this was basically it. Thanks so much for taking some time to sit with us and answering our questions.
Thank you! I had a lot of fun!
Well, that was it… I have to tell you, this was a great interview. For those of you who know me, I get super nervous when talking to famous people, so these interviews are pretty nerve wrecking for me at times. But this one was different. It was fun and Kelvin seems to be a great person, very down to earth and fun to be around. You should really give him a listen – it’s very refreshing to listen to his music. His first album „Stop The Moment“ is coming out October 16th. So be excited – I’ve got to listen to it already and really like it!
The show later that day was great too. Even though the crowd was rather small (the venue was tiny…), I’m sure Kelvin touched many if not all the people in the audience. I always find it incredible that there are people out there, that can quiet down a room full of people with their voice and a guitar. So do youselves a favor, when Kelvin Jones comes back on tour, go see him!
Follow Me