I am Kloot: Sky At Night
Words: Sophie Hart
A little while ago, I was lucky enough to speak to Peter Jobson, bass guitarist of the band “I am Kloot”, whilst promoting their new Album “the Sky at Night”. This is the first album to be released in Australia after the band’s continued success in the UK and Europe. Originally from Manchester, the band formed when lead singer John Bramwell met Jobson whilst they were working as night club promoters.
“John and I met in Manchester at a music venue called the “night and day”, we worked as concert promoters around, about 1995 in Manchester. This venue was a dance style café, venue of 250 capacity with a stage at one end. It was a proper night club. They used to have Jazz Funk bands on, which to be honest with you is really boring. So we kinda changed it. All of a sudden there were loads kids starting new bands because Oasis has just become incredibly popular. Everybody was picking up a guitar and starting a band. So we used to get all these new bands to come and play. It was one of the few places in Manchester where new bands could perform. And um, so that’s how John and I met. We all played music before and it was a very social scene, all the bands around at that time, Elbow, the Doves, you name it they were all drinking in this place all getting to know each other. So we did that for about 5 years, got to know the ins and outs of what it was like to be a band touring. And when we got the sacked, we decided to put a band together and that was I am Kloot.”
The three piece band is made up of Peter Jobson (bass), John Bramwell (singer, guitarist) and Andy Hargreaves (drums). Until recently, their released albums were dictated by their ability to tour. Prolific performers, the band travelled around Europe, America and parts of Asia, wanting to perform all songs as they were recorded, and so historically they have shied away from using other artists on their LP’s. The latest offering, ‘the Sky at Night’ is very different to their previous 8 albums.
“We have always thought that when we record an LP how we can play it live, how it will sound just us. For this one we focused more on the production. There are loads of musicians that have been bought in, strings, saxophone… it was the first time that we had really settled down and wanted to make it a recording. It’s also the first time we sat down and thought about what we wanted to do before we recorded it”
As the interview went on, Jobson explained that this is a marked change for the band. A change predominantly bought on by time. After years of touring endlessly and recording new work in tour breaks, the band took time out to consider this album, and the music they wanted to put on it. Causing changes to their lifestyle. “Johnny, who writes the songs, spent a long time not sleeping. Give him time with nothing to do, which is what you get after ten years of working hard. You can’t sleep.”
The album was born out of two years of sleepless, late nights causing this new direction in sound. The band always excited by music and absorbing music from others, has created a dark, reflective sound with help from long time friend, Guy Garvey from Elbow. Garvey is credited with producing the new album and helping the band to refine their sound through longer production times and layering with other artists and instruments that they haven’t historically worked with.
“Elbow and Kloot have always helped each other out. The first time in ten years they we’ve had time to record without any pressure from a label or record company. So we had nothing but time”
The outcome is a great album, the first released in Australia, but hopefully not the last. Jobson also mentioned the bands excitement at a possible upcoming tour to Australia.
“We want to tour everywhere we can. Our booking agent James is talking to Australian promoters. We’re defiantly going to come and play some concerts in Australia and we’re really excited cause we’ve been round [the world] but we’ve never been to Australia and we have a lot of great mates here… A lot of my friends have immigrated to Australia… we’re all buzzing our tits off about coming to Australia”
It’s an exciting time for I am Kloot, the album the Sky at Night is available across Australia now and well worth looking into.