Virtual Interview #2: Kashmere







Hello!! So you remember last Wednesday I spoke to Sid from LOAstate via my first Instagram Live Virtual Interview? Well this week we're speaking to Mr Joey Newey, Frontman of Stockport based band Kashmere! same principal and similar questions as last week but this is just a case of getting to know the band more than anything else!!

If you are in a band and would like a virtual interview then please let me know :)

I hope you enjoy :)


1 Q: What inspired you to start the band Kashmere?


A: We'd literally come from being in metal bands and we kind of thought to ourselves "What can we do?" You know the metal band had just quit and we've always loved other music and genres and we watched Arctic Monkeys headlining Glastonbury in 2013 we watched that from one of our friend's houses and that was a bit of a turning moment for us we just said, fuck it that's what we should be doing and that's how we started Kashmere. We all switched around like I used to always be a drummer and thought I'd give it a go a singing, Andy was a bassist and then a guitarist and ended being a drummer so yeah we all switched it around a bit.


2 Q: What is the origin of the name Kashmere? Because I know it as a place with a different spelling (Kashmir) but is there any meaning behind that?


A: Haha yeah like Windemere and shit like that, I wish there was a really good story behind it, I mean we should probably try and make a good story about it, But I don't know if you've ever started a band before but when it comes to choosing a name it's always the cringiest part of starting a band and we had all of these dead cheesy names and I just thought "oh how about Kashmere?" and at the time we were making quite desert rock kind of music and it just sort of fitted and we called it that and we all liked it and then started hating it and now I really really like it and think it's a dead strong name and glad that we chose it, I like names that are all one word you know it is what it is and it's bold, But yeah I do wish we had a better story because I literally just thought of it one day and stuck with it.


3 Q: What sort of music genres are the band inspired by right now?


A: At the moment i'm not too sure but i'll tell you what, after doing Crystals with LOAstate it made me start listening to a lot of 2000s rap and hip hop again which I've always liked but kind of haven't listened to for years and after we did that single I thought i'd go back and give it a go so I've been listening to that again and sort of like modern stuff such as The Weeknd but a lot of our music style came from things like a lot of 80s bands but we never wanted to be pigeonholed into being in one of these bands that sound too much like the 80s too much so I think we've got elements of everything in there which makes it a bit different if that makes sense.


4 Q: What kind of themes do you aim at your lyrics?

A: I'm going to be honest I've always struggled with lyrics, I think I've found writing lyrics easier when I wasn't having people telling me how I should be writing them if that makes sense, a lot of the lyrics make sense to me and if it makes sense to you then great but a lot of it it's not written for anyone to kind of understand I guess but people have understood it which is amazing but I always write songs and just spit out whatever words I have at the time and it feels like gibberish when I'm writing the song originally but then six months down the line it begins to make sense and kind of see what I was talking about.


5 Q: Is there any venues/festivals you dream of playing in the future?

A: It doesn't matter what venue it is really, we just want to be growing as a band, When it comes to festivals and stuff like that I was talking about this earlier because we haven't played many outdoor festivals because there's a difference when you're playing outdoor just something feels different about it you know the atmosphere's cool and it's dead nice so it'd be nice to do that again soon or next year or whenever things get back to normal, but you know we have to earn it and put the work in, get songs written and actually earn our place at these things if that makes sense.

6 Q: As a band what are your proudest moments?

A: There's been a few bite yourself moments where we've sorta been like "fuck!" It'll to take a lot to top going to China and I think the thing we were mostly proud of about going to China and the fact we went there with no manager and no record label, nothing you know we were literally just a band who'd done it ourselves from day one and at that point we had no backing and we just managed to pull off a tour in China which for us is just a "How the fuck have we done that?" moment. Also got a tour in Germany last year with Some Sprouts which was something special and we were really proud of that and we were also proud to have been invited to Southwest by Southwest this year and obviously it didn't end up happen but it is a real achievement to have been asked.

7 Q: Is there anything iconic about Kashmere or anything that represents you especially to the audience?

A: I think Charlie and I were talking about this recently and I think that one of the things that represent us as a band and out of anything is probably more of an attitude sort of thing in a respect trying to keep it real we've never bullshitted about anything such as selling out a venue just sort of the fact that we've tried to do this ourselves until things we felt weren't going well was when we were told not to be ourselves so I think it speaks volume really. 

8 Q: Is there any sort of style/look that represents you as a band?

A:We all care about our looks as a band, Charlie especially when he joined the band in 2016 he brought a lot of that to the band because prior to the band we dressed very straight up indie rock and Charlie came in and you know Charlie's a very stylish guy so when he joined it sort of brought us all into it I guess.

9 Q: If you were to describe Kashmere in 3 words what would they be?

A: Fucking Cool Bastards, Nah I'm only joking that sounds well big headed, that's a hard question! Mad, Fucking Mad Bastards that'll have to be it!

10 Q: Is there any interesting facts you'd like to tell me about Kashmere?

A: There's something cool about Make Love the single that comes out on Friday obviously because I wrote that back in 2015 and that song has been played by two different guitarists and two different bass players in the whole time of Kashmere, feels pretty weird that we're finally releasing it and kinda weird that different people have played it with us live before you know what I mean, Other than that when it comes to fun facts, Three of us were born in the same hospital I think, Dunno not sure we have any fun facts we're not that fun!

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