BASSed in Kent - Alabaster Orphans (Monday 24th July 2023)
This week Roni Glasthal is joined in the studio by Alabaster Orphans.
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TVTranscript
00:00 [music]
00:15 Hello and welcome to "Basin and Kent."
00:17 I'm Ronnie and I'll be chatting all things music
00:19 with artists from all across the county.
00:21 They'll be performing live right here in the KMTV studio.
00:24 This week I'm joined by Alabaster Orphans from Whistable,
00:27 whose music is described as a wealth, dual, male harmonies
00:31 influenced by everything.
00:34 Welcome, guys. Thanks for being here.
00:36 Hello.
00:37 Hello.
00:38 So start off by telling us a little bit more about your music,
00:41 the wide range of influences you have that helps you create it.
00:45 Yeah, I suppose that sort of is a question about how we met as well.
00:48 Yeah, that's a good point.
00:50 I wrote an article for a local Kent magazine about a guy called Kevin Ayers,
00:55 and he's like kind of this obscure kind of psychedelic--
01:00 60s minstrel kind of--he should have got famous,
01:03 but he kept evading sort of fame.
01:05 Yeah.
01:06 So I read this article and I kind of got in contact with Oliver
01:09 thinking he was going to be over 80, and that would have been kind of fine,
01:12 but sort of messaged him and also called Oliver,
01:15 which is kind of weird as well, but he was kind of close to my kind of age.
01:18 So we sort of just started jamming, and it was--we were on the beach once,
01:22 we were playing kind of the Everly Brothers,
01:25 and we kind of ended up doing sort of Pixie stuff,
01:27 and then sort of like--it was really hard to kind of know where to settle,
01:30 but it was just so exciting.
01:31 So it was like, "Oh, let's do this kind of number,"
01:33 and we were just kind of like, you know, kind of do it,
01:35 and it was just the most kind of excitement I've had
01:38 sort of playing with another person.
01:40 It was really, really--
01:41 Yeah, it was really cool.
01:42 So on the influence kind of thing, it's just Bob Dylan and Sid Barrett,
01:47 every--my incredible string band, kind of--we like, you know,
01:51 so crooners as well, like Frank Sinatra and stuff,
01:54 so it's like just good music, I think.
01:57 So it really is a wide range.
01:58 Yeah.
01:59 Broad mix.
02:00 Yeah, pretty wide, yeah, yeah.
02:02 So tell us a bit about the first song you have for us today.
02:04 Ooh, okay.
02:06 I think I kind of originally wrote it kind of a stream of consciousness,
02:09 and it was a bit of a kind of just a folk number,
02:12 and then I think at the time I was listening to a lot of kind of '60s concept albums
02:16 like The Who and kind of Tommy and stuff like that,
02:19 so I wanted to kind of put it into this kind of concept album kind of thing
02:22 as in like the intro song, but we haven't done that yet,
02:25 and we don't know whether it will kind of be for that, but it's--
02:28 I don't know, I think it kind of hints at sort of--
02:30 I won't necessarily kind of say what, but it kind of hints at sort of
02:34 a lot of kind of heavy things that kind of probably happened in--
02:36 when I was kind of maybe growing up, sort of 16,
02:39 sort of maybe kind of 10 years of age, but kind of hints at them, you know.
02:42 [playing in bright folk-rock rhythm]
02:45 ♪ ♪
02:51 ♪ Cast up in the dark age ♪
02:55 ♪ Cold November moon ♪
02:58 ♪ Sucking isolation ♪
03:02 ♪ Shadows stalk the room ♪
03:07 ♪ ♪
03:13 ♪ Born into sanctioned slavery ♪
03:16 ♪ Where a brother clock in the hall ♪
03:19 ♪ Dispersive thread and riots of red ♪
03:23 ♪ Sirens' clarion call ♪
03:28 ♪ ♪
03:33 ♪ Christ's child came too early ♪
03:37 ♪ For an undeveloped braid ♪
03:40 ♪ Broke the hinges of hierarchy ♪
03:44 ♪ Above the bed of shame ♪
03:49 ♪ ♪
03:56 ♪ Prince of dazzling darkness ♪
04:00 ♪ ♪
04:03 ♪ Page boy kissed the bride ♪
04:08 ♪ ♪
04:14 ♪ ♪
04:21 ♪ As too young when the towers had fallen ♪
04:25 ♪ No place to scream in the night ♪
04:29 ♪ Without being killed is the problem ♪
04:32 ♪ Without being forged for the fight ♪
04:38 ♪ ♪
04:43 ♪ Sentinel streets are now watching ♪
04:46 ♪ Streetspan blood to the screens ♪
04:50 ♪ Slavery dressed as sanctuary ♪
04:54 ♪ Selling us deepening dreams ♪
05:00 ♪ ♪
05:06 ♪ Prince of dazzling darkness ♪
05:10 ♪ ♪
05:13 ♪ Page boy kissed the bride ♪
05:18 ♪ ♪
05:26 ♪ ♪
05:33 ♪ ♪
05:40 ♪ ♪
05:45 ♪ ♪
05:50 ♪ ♪
05:55 ♪ ♪
06:00 ♪ ♪
06:05 ♪ ♪
06:12 ♪ Primal scream of the sanctuary ♪
06:16 ♪ Moans through the pillars of pleasure ♪
06:20 ♪ Spoons like a theater's tomb awning ♪
06:24 ♪ Rise on a measure for measure ♪
06:30 ♪ ♪
06:32 - Yeah, I hear, like, such a range of influences,
06:35 so I see what you mean. - It's cool, yeah.
06:37 - Yeah? - Yeah.
06:38 - So you told us a little bit about, like,
06:40 how you started, you know, doing music together.
06:42 So tell us more about what you're currently doing.
06:45 I hear there's an album in the works?
06:47 - Yeah, we've already decided, like, at the moment,
06:49 we're kind of collating originals, aren't we,
06:51 and trying to get a feel. - Yeah, we're just focusing on--
06:54 - Sorry not to rush it, you know,
06:55 'cause a debut album's quite an important thing,
06:57 so you don't want it to be full of, you know, rubbish.
07:00 - I was kind of saying yesterday, I think,
07:02 at first I felt the need to kind of justify
07:04 kind of, like, what we were doing,
07:05 'cause people are like, "What are you doing?
07:06 "You're gigging here. What are you getting up to?"
07:08 And I think it took me a lot, kind of, at least,
07:11 to kind of say, well, let it kind of cook over,
07:13 even if it takes two years or kind of, like, one year,
07:15 then sort of at the end of it, on the other side, you know,
07:18 hopefully have something
07:19 that at least we'll be happy with, you know,
07:21 'cause obviously you can't, you know,
07:22 can't sort of please everyone else,
07:24 so it's kind of, yeah, a bit like that, really.
07:26 - Your next song for us today, tell us a bit about that.
07:29 - Yeah, so "Sunday Afternoon,"
07:32 bit of kind of story about it.
07:35 Yeah, I was sitting in my garden,
07:37 and I was going through quite a bad sort of depression,
07:40 and I think it's important to write about that kind of thing.
07:42 I think it's very important.
07:43 I think the best art sort of comes
07:45 from that kind of experience.
07:47 And so I just sort of wrote what I was seeing around me,
07:50 and, yeah, just kind of, it is what it is.
07:53 I don't really know, just...
07:55 [guitar plays]
07:58 ♪ Grass is green ♪
08:02 ♪ Bare feet ♪
08:06 ♪ A small dog chewing my shoe ♪
08:13 ♪ Tired eyes ♪
08:17 ♪ Blue skies ♪
08:21 ♪ As far as you can see ♪
08:27 ♪ Nothing to do on a quiet Sunday afternoon ♪
08:33 ♪ Playing on this shoe ♪
08:38 ♪ Ooh ♪
08:43 ♪ Gentle breeze ♪
08:46 ♪ Sent by the sea ♪
08:51 ♪ Blowing through the air ♪
08:56 ♪ Ooh ♪
08:58 ♪ Glass with ice ♪
09:02 ♪ Tired eyes ♪
09:06 ♪ A magpie finds the hedge ♪
09:12 ♪ Nothing to do on a quiet Sunday afternoon ♪
09:17 ♪ Playing on this shoe ♪
09:23 ♪ Ooh ♪
09:28 ♪ ♪
09:43 ♪ Old trees stretch years to the clouds ♪
09:50 ♪ Growing shadows on the ground ♪
09:57 ♪ Sun comes up, I finally see ♪
10:04 ♪ Loving life inside this tree ♪
10:09 ♪ Ooh ♪
10:12 ♪ Ooh, la-da-da-da-da ♪
10:18 [HUMMING]
10:21 [HUMMING]
10:24 [HUMMING]
10:28 [HUMMING]
10:31 [HUMMING]
10:38 [HUMMING]
10:56 [HUMMING]
10:59 [HUMMING]
11:24 Sun goes down.
11:27 Stars come out.
11:28 Don't forget your shoes.
11:34 Hello, and welcome back to Based in Kent.
11:47 I'm joined by Alabaster Orphans from Whitstable.
11:50 Thanks for being here, guys.
11:51 Thank you.
11:51 Thanks for having us.
11:52 So we're actually going to go straight
11:53 into your next song, because it's a bit of a different one.
11:55 It's an instrumental.
11:56 It is, yeah.
11:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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14:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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15:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:31 Wow, OK, that was a beautiful song.
15:33 Thank you.
15:34 So the next thing that we're going to do
15:35 is our quickfire question round.
15:37 OK.
15:37 A timer is going to come up on the monitor between us.
15:39 It'll start counting down once I've
15:40 asked the first question.
15:41 OK, right, stressful, OK.
15:42 We're just going to get through as many of them as we can.
15:44 Right.
15:44 No pressure, very easy questions.
15:46 OK.
15:46 OK.
15:47 Yeah?
15:47 Yeah.
15:48 So what is your favorite venue you have played?
15:51 Oh, blimey.
15:52 We like all of them.
15:53 Next question.
15:56 OK.
15:57 The first song you can remember learning.
16:01 Oh, "Diving Toys" is all right.
16:03 That's probably mine.
16:04 Yeah, Bob Dylan, "Diving Toys" is all right.
16:06 "Times They Are Changing."
16:07 Yeah.
16:07 Yeah.
16:07 All right.
16:08 Dylan something, Dylan.
16:09 Dylan, both Dylan.
16:09 Dylan, Dylan, yeah.
16:10 And your dream venue to play.
16:12 Oh, heaven.
16:15 OK, yeah, that's an artistic answer.
16:17 Heaven.
16:18 I wasn't trying to be pretentious.
16:19 Just came out.
16:20 So anyway, OK, go on then.
16:21 Yeah, all right.
16:22 As long as you're honest.
16:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:24 Best place for music inspiration.
16:27 Oh, blimey.
16:29 For me, it'd be a Van Morrison concert or a John Cale concert.
16:33 That's a good answer.
16:34 Yeah.
16:35 OK.
16:36 With Oliver on there.
16:37 Describe your music in three words.
16:39 Can we do one each?
16:40 Cathedral.
16:45 Heart.
16:48 Symbolism.
16:53 Symbolism.
16:54 All right.
16:55 Symbolism.
16:55 Yeah.
16:55 Interesting word.
16:56 Symbolism.
16:57 Yeah, OK.
16:58 Best piece of advice you've ever been given.
17:01 Oh, you go.
17:03 Don't know.
17:05 Just do what you love.
17:07 And if you do something with passion, then you do it well.
17:11 Conviction.
17:12 Just sort of like keep your integrity possible.
17:14 Yeah.
17:16 And three artists you would love to work with.
17:18 OK, one each.
17:19 Yeah, OK.
17:20 I won't say names, so it might be a bit grumpy.
17:23 Probably John Cale again, from Velvet Underground.
17:26 Yeah.
17:27 Yeah.
17:27 Go on, you go.
17:28 Dylan before he dies, I think.
17:29 Bob Dylan.
17:30 And if you currently agree on one.
17:33 Can they be alive?
17:34 Yeah.
17:34 No, but probably because they can be alive.
17:36 Stupid question.
17:37 Anybody.
17:38 For me, 13th Floor Elevators.
17:41 OK, yeah.
17:41 Yeah.
17:42 I'll go with that too.
17:42 Yeah.
17:43 All right.
17:44 Yeah.
17:45 And the best gig you've ever been to.
17:48 Oh, wow.
17:50 Oh, wow, OK.
17:51 Oh, we've run out of time, unfortunately.
17:52 So onto your final song of the day.
17:54 Tell us a bit about it.
17:55 Yeah, Robyn.
17:55 I don't know.
17:57 I think I wrote it before I met Oliver,
17:59 and I kind of like the melody.
18:00 So I think we kind of decided to work on it some more.
18:04 I don't know what it's about.
18:05 I mean, it's kind of quite symbolic.
18:07 [MUSIC - ROBYN, "THE BEST GIG"]
18:08 [GUITAR PLAYING]
18:13 [GUITAR PLAYING]
18:16 Oh, lonely Robyn, your feet tread hallowed ground.
18:41 Oh, blighted Robyn, the summer has stolen your crown.
19:07 Through the bleakest winter, you
19:18 are the virgin soldier of the sky.
19:28 With your red breast ablazing, you
19:39 taught the weeping willow how to cry.
19:50 Across the ocean, you will sail, dream beneath our waiting moon.
20:00 Through the winter, you'll prevail, dream in the dream
20:07 that came too soon.
20:11 [GUITAR PLAYING]
20:15 Fast you run from the desert sun.
20:31 Hard it is to face, so take him down,
20:45 take poor man's crown, and rise, rise resounding grave.
21:12 The outhouse, jungle ruin, pagan divertee,
21:32 horn of stone and of silver moon,
21:42 will you meet your eternity?
21:56 [VOCALIZING]
21:59 [VOCALIZING]
22:27 Your crown is wailing cherub mist.
22:40 Your throne, young child's grave, young Leon,
22:57 others somewhere else, who on this day, his soul will sing.
23:16 Across the ocean, you will sail, dream beneath our waiting moon.
23:28 Through the winter, you'll prevail, dream in the dream
23:35 that came too soon.
23:42 [GUITAR PLAYING]
23:45 [FOOTSTEPS]
23:49 [GUITAR PLAYING]
23:52 [FOOTSTEPS]
23:55 (upbeat music)
23:58 (upbeat music)