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North London’s favourite sailor Kid Harpoon is back on the road again. With a Second EP and an album in the offing Gigwise hooks up with him to talk childhood memories, The Mystery Jets and his master plan to resurrect Phil Spector’s career.
Things started out simply enough for Kid Harpoon aka Tom Hull, who got an early taste for the stage in his hometown of Medway, Kent. He recalls: “I started playing guitar aged 9 or 10 doing gigs at junior school. I was always playing, then I joined a few bands and moved to London and things spiralled upwards”. Playing Bob Dylan and Tom Petty covers to his bemused teachers, he says, “I did it so early I didn’t know what the songs were about. There’s this song by Tom Petty about smoking weed, with the line: ‘Let’s get to the point lets roll another joint’”.
Following regular spots in Nambucca and other London haunts he was snapped up to play ex-Libertine Carl Barat's Club night. Guest spots on The Kooks videos and support slots for The Holloways and The Wombats quickly established Kid Harpoon’s cult fanbase. “I guess its cult in the sense that I’ve not released lots of stuff,” he says. “I’ve been touring and getting out there. Having really got in front of people, meeting people, playing my songs and building up this following, I can feel it spreading”.
His enthusiasm is shared as an increasing numbers of fans are being drawn to the softly spoken man known for his wildly energetic live performances. The Second EP shows a softer side on the soulful pleas of ‘In The Dark’, “there’s a glimmer of hope”, compared to the stripped down stomp of First EP’s ‘Milkmaid’.
Mostly seen as a one-man outfit, Kid Harpoon plays many of his gigs alongside The Powers That Be, with an ever-changing line up and a slew of guest musicians drawn along for the ride. Though his own sound is important Tom seems happy to be part of a band. “My idea of Kid Harpoon and The Powers That Be is one thing I love is being a song-writer,” he says. “I don’t want to dictate to people in the band. Like the guitars (on the record) were written by the people that played it with me”.
Friendships with bands like The Kooks, who he tours with in April and The Mystery Jets have boosted him into the public eye. Will from The Mystery Jets famously dueted with Kid Harpoon at the BBC Electric Proms last year. So how did their friendship come about? “We always used to play together and we just recorded some songs in Nottingham. We thought about touring with them as my backing band so they could interpret the songs the way they want.”
His mother was a local storyteller and he lends his love of poetry to much of his song writing ideas. He explains: “I really like visual ideas. Poems that I read have really strong images. Listening to songs you only get snapshots.”
He adds: “I like songs with more emotions like passion or anger. Singing songs when you’re meant to be really fucking angry. I love putting passion and energy into it. Bruce Springsteen writes songs like that.”
Tom is a devoted Leonard Cohen fan, reimagining the bleak tale of power and corruption of ‘First We Take Manhattan’ into a tangled mess of guitars and abrasive vocals that creates one of the highlights of his live shows.
With a new album (as yet untitled) due out in April, Gigwise poses the awkward question of who Kid Harpoon would most like to work with. The answer is slightly unexpected.
He states: “Phil Spector. I would love to do an album with him. The last thing he did was the Starsailor album and it wasn’t put out. Some guy in Starsailor was dating his daughter. Or Bonny Prince Billy, I would love to co-write with him, I think his lyrics are great”.
Finally with some help from the guys yelling in the back of the van we assemble a dream team line-up: “Bonny Prince Billy doing the music, Phil Spector producing and Tom Waits on backing vocals. That would be pretty good”.
Kid Harpoon has so far resisted becoming part of a scene, despite often being mentioned in the same breath as Laura Marling, Noah and The Whale and Emmy The Great.
He says: “I think their all great scenes. It’s really great having this folky community in the middle of London. I just don’t think of myself as part of that scene, it’s not really my thing. They play together and sing together. My sound is a lot more aggressive”.
Currently Tom is a ‘massive fan’ of the new MGMT album and Vampire Weekend and looking forward to Glastonbury as his hero Leonard Cohen will be there. But for now he is content living the life he loves. “For me I love what I do. I love making albums and making music. There’s no pressure on me to sell records,” he says. “Nick Cave and Tom Waits have matured really well, evolving as musicians. I spent so long getting this record out hopefully I can start on the second album soon”.
Tom has maintained a love of writing since he was young, and having already had a short story published hopes it will continue into the future. “I find it quite hard to know how to approach it. I’d like to dedicate a full year to it. It’s definitely something I’d like to do in the future,” he explains.
And so we come full circle, back to the man who inspires him the most, and whose influence is apparent on the dark tale of passionate murder ‘Riverside’. “Leonard Cohen took a year to write a song. He is first and foremost a written poet until he was 30 when he started making music,” Tom says. “That grounding as writer informs the way Kid Harpoon writes. Only we have the musicians in the background and do all of it at the same time”.
Gigwise later joined Kid Harpoon and The Powers That Be in Nottingham, supported by Peggy Sue and The Pirates. Things got off to a flying start as they rattled off a short energetic set. It got a bit hairy later on with some shenanigans involving a crap van door and some rather lairy lesbians. He’s writing a blog about it all apparently, should make for interesting reading.
