Interview with The Quicksilver Kings: ‘Songwriting is like filling in a jigsaw’

Hull-based band acoustic trio The Quicksilver Kings are putting the finishing touches to a new 18-track album, which will likely be released later this year.

Initially, they had planned to release it this summer but have pushed it back due to the pandemic. The group, which weaves elements of country, folk, blues and pop over vintage rootsy songwriting, consists of Keith Hagger (vocals), Jamie Smith (guitar) and Steve Brodie (guitar).

‘We recorded the whole album over two days,’ Hagger said. ‘This one has violins and drums as well. There’s a beautiful track, ‘Autumn while you were sleeping’ by Jamie. Initially, it was just going to be called ‘Autumn’ but then it just sounded as if it was about nature. My mum loves the film ‘While You Were Sleeping’, so we added that in! It works much better, it makes you wonder what the story is. Jamie’s written a beautiful melody, it blows me away.’

The album title has still to be decided on, although the current working titles are either The Price of an Education or Less is More. Hagger’s favourite song on the album is ‘Clockwork Toy’, a song about ‘being a matchstick man stuck in the system, which is something people can relate to’. ‘It’s folky, it reminds me of ‘Working Class Hero’ (by John Lennon). Our friend Jill plays the violin on it and her bit in the middle sounds like the music to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It’s brilliant!’

Their first album, Back Is The Way Forward, was released in 2018 and is a seductive blend of blues, folk and country, helped in no small part to Keith’s gritty, melodic voice, with a 1960’s Americana vibe. Many of the songs are also rooted in the band’s own experiences or conversations. One such song is ‘Out the Window’, which talks about bottling up feelings and not looking back.

‘That came from a conversation with Jamie that we’d never seen our dads cry,’ Hagger explained. ‘The next day, Jamie came to me with half the song and I wrote the rest. When you think about emotions and what they do you. The problem of bottling them up has always been there, people just didn’t use to talk about it but it’s not good for you. Toxins, trauma and thoughts, they can make you ill.’

With heartfelt lyrics such as ‘these feelings would not go away, my dad told me real men never cry’, the song taps into the angst caused by suppressing your emotions.

However, one of Hagger’s favourite songs, ‘Dirty Dresses and Sexy Skirts’ pre-dates the album and was released as a single in 2015. ‘I love that this song sounds retro, as if it’s from the 70’s,’ he said The ‘sexy little songbird’ in the song, Julie, who dresses up as a French maid and a nurse is actually based on a woman called Julie.

‘Yeah, there’s a real Julie,’ he laughed. ‘What happened was that I’d started to write it as ‘Stacy’ for my girlfriend at the time but we broke up. There was a woman at work called Julie who’d bought a sexy nurse outfit for her boyfriend and that gave me the idea for the rest of the song. Julie works better!’

It’s a catchy, upbeat track with lyrics such as ‘you make me suck my thumb, make me lovestruck dumb, make me feel like a hurricane’ and ‘look into your eyes, do I realise, I get hypnotised with your smile and your petty lies’ and ‘teasing all the while as you tantalise, stoking up the fire you’re the devil posing in disguise, pushing me under your thumb, where I want to stay’.

Hagger famously used to keep his lyrics in an old Adidas shoebox, although his niece has since nabbed the box. ‘I like doing it the old-fashioned way, writing on bits of paper,’ he said. ‘I was going to throw something away this morning but then I saw that there were some lyrics on it!’

Amazingly, for someone with such a distinctive voice, Hagger didn’t always believe he could sing. ‘When I was younger, I used to sing along to The Everly Brothers and my dad would shout up the stairs and say “Shut up, you can’t sing!”‘

Songwriting for the group can go down in many different ways: ‘I might sing a song into my phone and send it to Jamie. He’ll do the same. Sometimes, we’ll have a songwriting sessions with friends. Or Jamie might write a chorus. It makes you feel like you’re a team and that it grows organically. It’s like filling in a jigsaw.’

Hagger has really missed playing to an audience in lockdown. ‘It’s the energy from the audience. You can be tired and go on stage and they give you such a buzz. You get to see which songs work live and which ones don’t. You see these middle aged men in the audience singing all the words. You can see their lips moving and I almost forget the words looking at them!’

The band has been inspired by an eclectic bunch of musicians. Hagger and Smith are big fans of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan as well as newer acts such as The Fratellis and Oasis. ‘The great thing about Steve is that he listens to stuff that we didn’t know like Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe. Often these singers are better guitarists than the famous people, you know?’

He knew from the off the night he met Smith that they would work well together: ‘The night we met, we stayed up all night talking, going back and forth. We knew we’d work well together, so I asked him to join the band! We write songs with other people, too, but I work better with Jamie and he with me. We bounce off each other and get each other, which is rare.’

And creativity comes in all guises. ‘My mum would take the curtains and I’d come home from school and they’d be a cushion. That’s how all creativity works really, isn’t it? You can learn in lots of ways, too. I learned more from John Lennon and Bob Dylan than any fucking teacher.’

(Photo: Stewart Baxter. Keith is on far left.)