Hello there. I’m Kid Carpet – the one-man-riot, anti-hero Pop Star
And I’ve made a second album!
I was ultra-chuffed to get to make one album, not everybody gets to do that, and now i’ve done a second one. Flippin RESULT!
It’s been really really difficult to do though. I jokingly called it my Tricky 2nd Album when i started to make it and tricky it certainly has been. I nearly quit a few times.
Most bands seem to go straight into the studio after promoting their 1st album to write and record their follow up. I wasn’t able to afford that luxury. I have to gig to stay alive and really should have sorted out some of those Working Tax Credits.
Also, you put everything into your (1st) album and so have nothing left, no experiences left to draw upon for that next album.
So I’ve been doing some living and loving and thinking and dreaming and good things and bad things and now here we are, 2 and a half years or one thousand days later………
CASIO ROYALE is born!
I set out to make a Pop album.
The first album, Ideas & Oh Dears, had a mix of badly recorded Disco Punk songs and 20 second weird interludes or ditties.
I wanted to keep the ditties off this one and concentrate on more developed music.
I got a bit fed up of being thought of as an exploiter of gimmicks. By using plastic toy guitars in my tunes i thought people would think – ah, you don’t need expensive shiny instruments to make a tune, you can do it with a spoon or whatever is lying around.
But they didn’t, of course, they thought – look at that twat.
So yeah, i’m using much more keyboards now. I’ve pretty much become a Casio collector.
I’ve always used the Casio SA-1 in my set and as i have a knack of being able to drop, throw and batter my instruments i’ve had to get a spare. So i checked on ebay…………. Man Alive! What used to cost me about £2.50 from British Heart Foundation now costs about fifty quid. It’s because of those damn circuit benders.
Lorenzo, my wind-powered organ (£2 from the charity shop opposite the Joiners Arms in Southampton, now closed) is all over one track and another is made entirely out of computer game sounds. I’ve discovered the Casio Chord and Arpeggio buttons on my keyboards, big time. I’ve got loads of guest singers and players on this one too. Lots of ladies. Granny doesn’t make it onto this album unfortunately. She’s ok though. I told her about being on the first album and she grinned in that “i don’t understand but i’m happy because you’re happy” kind of way that only grannies can.
There’re a lot of songs about failure on the new album – I told you, it’s been hard going and i try to write honestly about what i know. I want people to listen to my songs and say – I know what he’s on about.
I tried to engineer being number 1 at chrimbo last year. That didn’t work. Nor did my plan for winning The Eurovision Song Contest. I wanted to represent Lichtenstein or Slovenia, somewhere eastern bloc coz i wanted to win, right?
I even asked to represent the UK and heard nothing back. And lo and behold, representing the UK will be another faceless weak-assed puke bag of a song. and i was going to make a big anti war gay disco punch up out of it. i’m still considering going to Serbia in May and making a wild rumpus of one kind or another
Ali Chant at Toybox Studio in Bristol has helped me out with some arrangement stuff on the new album and the whole thing was mixed by Ben “Hillbilly” Hillier at Miloco Studio up London. It was there, as i was checking ebay for keyboards that i decided to search for Casio in the Fashion department. I thought i might find a nice T-shirt or something and sure enough, there was a Casio Royale shirt for sale. There wasn’t though, it was a spelling mistake.
So the album title was obvious to me but only after i’d been through a whole lot of other also rans including: The Weasel (as in pop goes the…), Crossroads Motel California, When I Grow Up I Wanna Be A Tramp, Cheap Champagne, Fake Tattoos, Dolphins Vs Sharks, I Wish I Could Do Wheelies, Second the Best, Losers Medal…..
I reckon i should write these songs as the titles are all ace. Ace Like Space.
It was my birthday this month. Kid Carpet is now 5 and its fitting that Casio Royale has a bit of a grown up attitude and sound because it’s time for the Carpet to go to big school. My investigations into growing up have enabled me to obtain my first County Court Judgement recently and i’m also proud of my first speeding ticket.
Kid Carpet is an anagram of my real name Ed Patrick. It’s really me but mixed up a bit.
I don’t listen to much music at home so i don’t really know what’s going on in the fashion pop music industry. I don’t really pay attention to all that trendy stuff. I’m not associated to any scene either. I feel quite isolated really but i always did as a kid so it’s not anything to worry about.
I’ve been called the Tommy Cooper of electronica but i feel more like a mixture of Mr Cooper, Frank Sinatra and Robbie Williams in an electro punk pop disguise.
A few of Tommy’s mistakes, a smattering of Sinatra’s solo artist singer man style and a nod to Robbie’s shapes, tattoos and footballing methods.
I’ve met a few celebs along the way. Noel Gallagher told me i was a shit DJ (which i am) and i couldn’t get him out of my head for ages… “you’re shit you are” says Noel….shit…
Bez said to me “you got the wherds man, the fookin wherds”. I saw Bjork dancing while i was playing a tiny show in Reykjavik, i made Howard Marks a cuppa tea backstage (milk, 1 sugar), Lilly Allen said “are you Kid Carpet?” and Frank Sidebottom is much scarier without his head on. Joe out of Adam and Joe interviewed me for research into a new character for a script they’re working on with Simon Pegg.
Weird? Sure. Welcome to Carpetworld.
I love being the support band on tour with big proper famous bands. I’m the support for The Presidents of The United States of America this spring/summer. I’m going to tour Europe! Can you imagine? Carpet in Berlin and Paris??? It’s gonna be So Much Fun. I’ll be doing some headline touring too and loads of festivals are booking me up all the time. The album will get some international releases and i’m well looking forward to touring in India, China and Japan.
I did a mini pop concept album with class 2a from Ashton Gate primary school in Bristol. I was like a pop music teacher for a few weeks and we made songs about the book Where The Wild Things Are. It was so funny. I got them to write poems and then gave them a bunch of tiny keyboards and said – who wants to take their poem and make a pop song? You should’ve seen they’re faces. Happy kids.
I ran a radio show for a while too – The Carpet Megastore. We broadcast on the internet from Trinity community centre in Easton, Bristol. It was half amazing, half crap, much like the radio i’ve got on at home right now. I made a theme tune out of Hanson, Nirvana, an American TV advert and Casio keyboards
I Dont Want To Fall In Love With You will be the first single off the new Carpet album and will be out in may. I think its a great name for a love song. It’s a bit Flaming Lips meets The Cure in Carpet pop heaven. A chap called Wrongboy is making the pop video, it’s gonna be a very interesting pop video. If you’ve not seen my other vids you should check ’em out, especially Carrier Bag, that’s my favourite.
I got asked to do a cover version of a particular track for the theme song for a feature film. So i did them a really rubbish demo and they loved it. Ever since then i’ve heard nowt out of the movie folks. I’ve finished this super-dooper version of the track and it’s gonna go out as a double A side on the I Dont Want To Fall In Love With You single. So if you ever see a film called Tom Jones’ Cock. My track is called Help Yourself.
Casio Royale is due for release on the 9th of June. Last time i did an album launch in my local multi-storey carpark while a carboot sale was going on. They’ve since pulled it down to make way for….a multi-storey carpark!!! I better put my album launch brainstorming hat on….
I’ll be trying to develop the Kid Carpet Troubled Folk unplugged-ish music project, sorting out ‘real flying’ (on wires like that Bon Jovi video) and putting plans together for Album 3
I don’t want to be rich, i just want to be happy and keep from going mental.
And i’ll keep on rockin the house because you Can’t Stop The Pop.
Thanks for reading all the way down to here.
Take care out there and stay cool.
love from Kid Carpet
