Karen Rutter
IF Mark King hadn’t started his music career as a drummer, then Level 42 would have had a very different sound.
The lead singer and bass player for the funk-pop band is renowned for his distinctive slap technique, a punchy backbeat that powers most of Level 42’s material. King says that starting out as a drummer before switching to bass led him to pursue a more rhythmic style. “I guess I think in terms of the beat, even while playing melodic lines,” he explains.
Level 42 will appear at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival tonight, a gig which marks the band’s first performance here.
“We’ve been together for 34 years, so it’s pretty special to be playing in Cape Town at last,” says King.
The UK band was formed over three decades ago and had a stream of hits including Running in the Family and Lessons in Love.
Although their roots were jazz-funk based, they were also able to make the transition to accessible pop compositions. This flexibility allowed them to move across different performance platforms – a feature which is still in evidence today.
While Level 42 broke up in the 1990s, they reformed in 2001 and still play at gigs ranging from the 1980s Rewind Festival(alongside names like Rick Astley and Jimmy Sommerville) and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival(alongside names like Abdullah Ibrahim and Kirk Whalum).
“We love to play anywhere and everywhere,” says King. He reckons the reason for the band’s success, despite not being a conventional pop band, had something to do with them emerging after the punk-dominated 1970s.
“I liked punk, don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed it because of the energy,” he adds. “But there was this ethos of not caring too much about the actual music, of playing knackered old guitars. We were influenced by jazz musicians like John McLaughlin and Miles Davis and Chick Corea. And we were instrumentally quite good.
“I think people were open to hearing something different, and there we were.”
King says they chose the name Level 42 to be less combative than the more aggressive-sounding punk bands like The Clash and The Stranglers.
“Initially, listeners thought we were from the US, because we were so different,” he laughs. “I’m from the Isle of Wight – that’s nowhere near the States.”
But there’s an unmistakable US edge in many of the band’s compositions, perhaps because of the strong funk groove in King’s bass, which he acquired through watching American thumb-slap players.
“The music scene in the 1960s was very vibrant, and then we had these guys like James Brown on the scene,” says King. “And now we’ve got bass players like Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten, who’re extending the theme.”
The line-up for the Cape Town concert will include co-founder and keyboardist Mike Lindup, as well as long-standing saxophonist Sean Freeman and King’s brother Nathan on guitar. Also on the stand will be drummer Pete Ray Biggin.
“Can you believe this? When we were auditioning for a new drummer a while back, this young guy comes in and he says ‘you won’t remember me, but I played with you 11 years ago’.
“Turns out his parents had brought him to a sound check and he sat down at the drums and blew us away – what a precocious, wonderful talent. So we just had to have him in the band – he’s phenomenal!” smiles King.
While touring forms a large part of Level 42’s schedule, King still enjoys working in the studio – but not in a conventional commercial way. For the past few years he’s been selling EPs and CDs directly to the public via the band’s website.
“It’s great – I get direct feedback from fans, I don’t have to be reliant on PR and marketing people,” explains King. “It started when I realised I had a whole lot of ‘unfinished’ songs that I didn’t know what to do with.
“So I sent out a message saying that if people were interested, they could send £15 and I’d put the songs on a disc for them.”
The response was huge, and now King and his wife are totally involved in the business side, making their own CD covers and uploading to iTunes and Amazon.
“We’re so lucky we live in these times – how it has all changed.
“I can sit in my garden shed working on new material, and then upload files to a drummer or guitarist, and we can jam in cyberspace.
“It inspires me, it’s a great way of working with other guys,” says King.
Cyberspace aside, however, King and Level 42 will be very much present and accounted for when they debut in Cape Town.
Watch out for that slapping bass – it’s bound to be a lot of fun.
The Cape Town International Jazz Festival takes place tonight and tomorrow at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Tickets are sold out.
l See www.capetownjazzfest.com