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Sean Bailey: “This is Sean Wilby and today we have a very special someone with us at Soul Radio… Kyle MacKenzie is here to answer some questions. Thank you so much for dropping by Kyle.”
Kyle MacKenzie: “Thanks for having me, Sean. Nice to be here.”
Sean: “Let me tell you, I haven’t been doing this for too long and you’re pretty much the first superstar I have sitting in front of me… so, I’m gonna try really hard not to be intimidated.”
Kyle: Kyle snorts. “Oh please, I’m not a superstar… what does ‘superstar’ even mean? I’m just a guy who sings and some people happen to like it.” Kyle shrugs.
Sean: “Yeah, a grammy nominated guy with two number one albums, a sell-out tour, three brit awards, two MTV awards, and like three million followers just on Instagram alone. I’d say you’re doing pretty well for a guy ‘who sings’.”
Kyle: “Well, that’s true, yeah. Lots of people know who I am and I absolutely can’t complain… but that’s not how I see myself, you know? My family would definitely kill me if I did so… I’m not allowed…” Kyle smiles.
Sean: “They keep your feet on the ground, then.”
Kyle: “Oh yeah, very much so,” Kyle nods, smiling.
Sean: “Okay, how are you doing? How is the UK treating you?”
Kyle: “I’m good. Yeah, I’m good. I’ve had… I don’t really know what I’ve done today. Oh yeah, I’ve had a suit fitting.”
Sean: “A suit fitting, what’s that for?” Sean raises his eyebrows.
Kyle: “I think… one of the award shows next year. I’m not sure if it’s Grammys or Brits.”
Sean: “It’s all just become a blur now.”
Kyle: “Well, yeah… I’m taking all of December off, so yeah, I don’t really know which one I’m going to yet so I just thought I’d get a suit for—”
Sean: “But you’re not really a suit person, are you?” Sean smiles.
Kyle: “No, but it’s velvet…” Kyle smiles.
Sean: “Oohh… I see…” Sean almost laughs.
Kyle: “Yeah, it’s cool…quite quirky…” Kyle licks his lips.
Sean: “Classy…” Sean nods.
Kyle: “Yeah, it’s quite quirky.” Kyle grins.
Sean: “It is quite cool that you are at these small venues… like you’ve been doing all these arena tours…”
Kyle: “Yeah, there… I’ve done a couple of these this week and they’ve actually been really, really fun.”
Sean: “Do you get nervous or not anymore?”
Kyle: “Not really, no. I kind of just enjoy it. I mean like it’s… yeah, I mean, you do interviews every day now… I’m sure you were nervous for your first few interviews, right? You know, you kind of… it’s your job, so you guess… and I’m sure every now and then you get nervous for an interview like I got nervous at Glastonbury last year but I think that’s how it should be… we’re not machines… but yeah, with the experience that you’ve got now, I doubt you were nervous for today and I’m not really nervous for the gig.”
Sean: “Why were you nervous about Glastonbury?”
Kyle: “Because when you play Wembley, everyone there has paid to see you and they’ve all bought your CDs and they know all the words to all the songs and they are fans, and they want to be entertained and they come to the gig and they are like ‘yeah we bought tickets and we want to see the show’, whereas Glastonbury… they bought Glastonbury tickets before they even knew you were playing—”
Sean: “Yeah,” Sean nods.
Kyle: “They don’t know the songs and they are kind of coming to see ‘Uhh, are you good or not?’ So, that’s why I got nervous… but then when I went out on the Glastonbury stage I was like realistically, like if you’re not really a fan of my music, you’re gonna go watch the other acts, so then kind of like… I got less nervous on the stage.”
Sean: “Yeah, and if I remember right -I wasn’t there but saw the footage- it did look insane. It looked like—”
Kyle: “It was—”
Sean: “The crowd was loving it—”
Kyle: “It was good but it was one of those I thought…” Kyle laughs softly. “One of those times when you think you’ve reached the pinnacle… and I thought in Glastonbury… I thought I’d walk on stage and I’d be like ‘I’ve made it, this is it and it’s weird because you kind of get the feeling of like there’s always more…” Kyle smiles, waving both arms.
Sean: “Yeah,” Sean nods.
Kyle: “It’s like… You can see why some bands are still going and putting three albums out on Apple and stuff like that and doing things they haven’t done because I feel like even at their level they all kind of feel like they haven’t quite done it—It’s a weird feeling.”
Sean: “And this year, your mate Sondre has been confirmed as the headliner—”
Kyle: “I think that’s great.”
Sean: “It’s cool—”
Kyle: “And anyone that’s complaining… All the people that are complaining about it—This is what I find with Glastonbury is that they’re never people who have tickets to the festival—”
Sean: “Right! People who like to moan,” Sean laughs.
Kyle: “Yeah, they’re just people who like to moan... And there’s so much to watch at Glastonbury that if you don’t want to go to watch Sondre… When I was on Glastonbury, 1977 were playing on the other stage, so if you didn’t like me, you could go and watch them… so if you don’t like Sondre, just go watch something else and I think it’s great that there’s always people moaning about festivals and saying like we’re not building new headliners and is always old acts but this is a great step forward towards you know… it’s a massive moment for UK grime music, a massive moment for young UK music as well and I think it’s so good that they’re building up a new headliner.”
Sean: “So, will you pop down and support him?”
Kyle: Kyle laughs. “I actually looked to the day and I’m in Germany.”
Sean: “Oh, come on…” Sean smiles.
Kyle: “I was about to email him being like I'm free if you need me… and then I was like, no, I’m in Germany… I would have done it if I wasn’t in Germany.”
Sean: “I know.” Sean nods, smiling. “Well, of course, I need to congratulate you for your first Golden Globe nomination.”
Kyle: “Thanks so much. The best song category is so strong this year… it’s surreal to think that our song made the cut, you know?”
Sean: “Please tell me how is it that ‘Void’ came to be? Like, had you met Paul Thomas Anderson before?”
Kyle: “No, not at all. Saying that it caught me by surprise would be the understatement of the year,” Kyle laughs. “I was in Chicago… in the middle of my last tour when I got a phone call and it was Paul himself. Somehow he got my number and he was like ‘I’m doing a movie and I’d like you to write a song for it if you can find the time…’ so obviously, I was like this guy is really asking me to do this? You can’t be serious?... I couldn’t believe this guy knew who I was, you know? Then he told me that Colin Farell and Amy Adams were already attached to the project and he explained what it was about and I mean, you could tell it was special...“
Sean: “Absolutely. Such a fantastic film. For those who haven’t seen it yet, ‘Skin and Scars’ is nominated for ten Golden Globes, including best actor, best actress, best movie, best director…”
Kyle: “Yeah, This movie means a lot to me. And Colin and Amy are just freaking amazing. They put all their hearts and souls into these roles and their performances affect you in a way that I can’t really put into words.”
Sean: “I cried. I have no problem admitting that.”
Kyle: “Me too. I’ve seen it three times and I’ve got emotional every time. Even my father cried and he’s not so easily affected… but these two just tear your heart apart and nobody can escape that. So I really hope they win because nobody deserves it as much as they do.”
Sean: “You know it’s already making a lot of fuss for the Oscars… everybody assumes that ‘Void’ will be nominated.”
Kyle: “Yeah, I’ve heard about it, of course. But you never know. I don’t like assuming anything. There have been a lot of good songs this year… so, we’ll see what happens.”
Sean: “Can you tell me how was the writing process? You said Paul called you before he started shooting the film… is that how it usually works with these original songs?”
Kyle: “To be honest, I don’t really know how it works. This is my first experience, so I can’t tell you how other directors work but I just can’t imagine writing a song without having seen the film first.”
Sean: “So, you could see it before anybody else did.”
Kyle: “I’m sure I wasn’t the first, it was probably the studio who did. But I… yeah, I saw the final cut just after they finished adding the soundtrack, so it was perfect… The soundtrack is so important in this movie… it’s so beautiful.”
(Interview to be continued...)
