Towards the end of our interview, Kenny Anderson, better known as King Creosote, stops and laughs as he asks: “I hope I’m not sounding like a grumpy old man?”
You can understand his worries, seeing as he has just spent the past half hour painting a gloomy picture of the music industry.
The singer, who brings his country and folk stylings to Oran Mor, Glasgow, tonight , is deeply concerned at the effect illegal downloads and the internet are having. His opinion goes against the current trend of making more music available online.
Kenny says: “I have a bad feeling about the whole thing – it’s something I don’t feel comfortable with.
“I am retiring from anything online, and digital music entirely.
I find people having laptops full of MP3s a shameful state of affairs.
“If you download 1000 songs, how can you value them? Fence (his record company) is going back to vinyl.
“I think there is a malaise at the moment – people see music as some sort of service you get when you get broadband and everything around music has been devalued as a result.”
His fears for the future aside, Kenny is genial company. He has become one of Scotland’s most respected songwriters, while his own record label, Fence, has become a haven for similarly talented individuals, such as James Yorkston and the Pictish Trail.
They have formed the core of the modern Scots folk scene, while Kenny has proved a dab hand at integrating other musical genres into his lengthy body of work.
He is enthusiastic about his return to Oran Mor, where he will be performing a solo show.
If nothing else, he appreciates his individual gigs because it lets him exchange some words with the crowd.
“You can go off and play whatever comes into your head when solo, whereas with a band you are quite constrained by what the band knows.” he says.
“When you play on your own, people are more likely to shout out requests, and you’ll get good banter too. Well, there will be some terrible banter too … ”
Tonight will see a career-spanning set, with the Fife-born 43-year-old picking out whatever he feels like playing from his back catalogue.
His latest project, however, is something very different.
Entitled My Nth Bit Of Strange In Umpteen Years, Kenny debuted the concept during this year’s Homegame, the festival his record label puts on every year in his home town of Anstruther.
Over several nights, to tiny crowds, he played his new album in its entirety. The twist was everyone there had to record the gig using a micro-cassette recorder or mobile phone.
Kenny does not intend to release the music commercially yet – although he is toying with properly recording the songs at some point – and instead left it up to his fans to share the bootlegged songs among themselves.
“It’s teasing people along to my live shows because if you miss one version of it, you have missed it entirely,” he explains.
“I would like to think small labels can survive by being more creative. We have tried to do various stunts that build in value to our albums and gigs.”
For a small label like Fence, such creativity is crucial to its continued survival, especially as the music industry currently melts down.
It is reverting to making its albums available only through vinyl, in the belief that fans of Fence acts will be willing to pay extra for a higher quality of product.
“We are looking to sell fewer units, but to people who are willing to buy items of higher value.
“It is a case of admitting that if you do not support us, we are gone. If you want Homegame to continue, we need support.
“The bands that have already done well, your Radioheads and the like, which have used the industry to get an audience, can give their music away all they like.
“That audience is big and will probably buy tickets to see them live. But I really despair for Fence acts, for new bands – how can they find the money to promote themselves?”
- King Creosote, Oran Mor, tonight, 7pm, £12.
