Biography

Introduction

Kenny Anderson, known primarily by his stage name King Creosote, is an independent singer-songwriter from Fife, Scotland. To date, Anderson has released over forty albums, with his latest, Flick the Vs, released on April 20, 2009.

Regarding his stage name, Anderson states:

I used to make records with a band called Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra, but always had to record a lot of my songs on my own. I wanted to put out these recordings on my own label Fence, so then I needed something to go on the fence. That’s the creosote part. I wrote down king creosote, and immediately liked the juxtaposition of the regal and the carcinogenic.

Anderson is also a member of Scottish supergroup The Burns Unit.

Anderson's brothers are also musicians: Ian "Een" Anderson (known as Pip Dylan) and Gordon Anderson (Lone Pigeon) - who is lead singer and main songwriter with The Aliens. Collaborations between the three often occur at live shows and on album releases.

Musical career

In 1995, local Fife musician Kenny Anderson launched his own label, Fence, and began recording albums under the name King Creosote:

I had a band and we did all the things you know you do with a band and you trial it and take advice and do shows, then you lose money and the band gets hacked off then the band breaks up and it just got to a point where I just questioned why I was doing it in the first place. In a way, it seemed like the fun had gone out of it. A lot of the songs I was writing were written for the band & things became big things, I just got to a point where, I thought the band were hating every song I was writing for whatever reason, some people were like oh no I don't want to play that, that's too this or that's too that. It just got to a point where the band broke up and I thought, well, you know what I just want to get back into recording again and doing it on my own, I don't have to watch the clock I'm not in a studio anymore more, and at the time I got one of the really early stand alone CD Burners and that was like a revelation because it meant I could make CD's so I'd have a DAT tape as a master then burn albums one at a time and do artwork.

Today, Anderson runs Fence Records alongside Johnny Lynch.

To this end, KC Rules OK was re-released in 2006 with different versions of some songs, and a version of the album called "Chorlton and the Wh'earlies" recorded with The Earlies was available with some purchases. Bombshell was released with an additional disc, a DVD film of King Creosote and friends on tour.

In a June 2008 interview on BBC Radio 6music, mistakenly introduced as "King Creole", he told Tom Robinson that he'd like to play a festival every weekend this Summer and then return home for the weekdays.

In the 2007 film Hallam Foe two of his songs, The Someone Else and King Bubbles in Sand, were featured.

Discography

Queen Of Brush County (FNC 01, 1998)
Rain Weekend (FNC 02, 1998)
Inner Crail To Outer Space (FNC 03, 1998)
Or Is It? (FNC 04, 1998)
Gink Scootere (FNC 05, 1998)
1999: An Endless Round Of Balls (Parties And Social Events) (FNC 06, 1999)
Wednesday (FNC 07, 1999)
Jacques De Fence (FNC JDF, 1999)
I Am 9 (FNC 09, 1999)
Planet Eggz (FNC 10, 1999)
Or Was It? (FNC 11, 2000)
12 O'Clock On The Dot (FNC 12, 2000)
Stinks (FNC 13, 2000)
G (FNC 14, 2001)
Radge Weekend Starts Here (FNC 15, 2001)
King Creosote Says "Buy The Bazouki Hair Oil" (FNC 16, 2001)
Disclaimer (FNC 17, 2001)
Squeezebox Set (FNC 18 to 22, 2002) - 5 album boxset containing:-
Fair Dubhs
Favourite Girl
Whelk Of Arse
More Afraid Of Plastic
Losing It On The Gyles (very limited [1])
Now (Nearly 36) (PF A01, 2003)
Psalm Clerk (FNC 23, 2003)
Ideal Rumpus Room Guide (PF B03, 2003)
Sea Glass (FNC 24, 2004)
Three Nuns" (PF B10, 2004)
Kenny And Beth's Musikal Boat Rides (FNC K&B, also Domino Recording Co, 2003)
Red On Green (FNC 26, 2004)
Kompanion Cet +1 (PF C06, 2004)
Rocket D.I.Y. (FNC 27, also Domino Recording Co, 2005)
Loose tea on his Wynd (2004)
Vintage Quays (FNC 29, 2004)
KC Rules OK (Names/679, 2005)
Harbour the Hillfolk (2005)
demos (2005)
Yellow On Red (FNC 31, 2005)
Isle of Lo Fi (FNC 32, 2006)
Waltzer (FNC 33, 2006)
Bombshell (Names/679, 2007)
Dumps vol.1 (2007) (limited run for 2007 purchasers of the latest release of the aforementioned Squeezebox set)
They Flock Like Vulcans to See Old Jupiter Eyes on His Home Craters (FNC 34, 2008)
Flick the Vs (Domino/Fence, 2009)

Other recordings

(2005) He recorded a cover of Jeff Buckley's "Grace" for the tribute album Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley

(2006) He recorded an original song about the biblical plague of frogs, called "Relate The Tale" for the Artangel /4AD project "Plague Songs"

He remixed Badly Drawn Boy's "Nothing's going to change your mind" for the single release (highest chart position in the UK #38)

He recorded a version of the song Nothing Compares 2 U originally written by Prince

(2007) He recorded an original song "Where and When" with music by King Creosote and lyrics written by Scottish novellist Laura Hird. This was for the album "Ballads of the Book" a collection of collaborations between Scottish musicians and novellists & poets.

(2008) He recorded a version of Malcolm Middleton's "Choir" which appeared on the b-side of the 7" single version of "Blue Plastic Bags". This was something of a reciprocal deal, with Middleton having covered King Creosote's "Margerita Red" on his 2008 album, "Sleight of Heart" [2]