After a long road to reaching #1 on the charts, Kings is now gearing up for a summer of touring.
Kings, aka Kingsdon Chapple-Wilson. Photo: Supplied
It’s as easy to like Kingsdon Chapple-Wilson, aka Kings as it is to like his music. He’s laid-back but passionate, unassuming yet driven, warm and welcoming with his heart on his sleeve. He won 'Breakthough Artist of the Year' at the NZ Music Awards this month.
The song that has dominated New Zealand radio charts all year (with 19 weeks at #1) is ‘Don’t Worry Bout It’ - a summery care-free song about letting go of fear and enjoying the moment. But the genesis of this hedonistic anthem wasn’t borne out of endless nights in a club being young and irresponsible; Kings is a father, and his daughter provided the inspiration.
“It was Christmas time, we were stressing about Christmas presents, and money, and my daughter just wasn’t worried at all. She was just running around the playground, so the first words in the song ‘run free boy run free, that’s what I would have said to the young me’ those words came to me just from watching her run free and be not stressed.”
Though it's just this year that he's hit the NZ public consciousness, it's been a long road for Kings. He has been honing his craft, in a studio on his local marae, for about six years.
“I made music for commercials - I did Malaysia KFC I did Les Mills in New Zealand. So my name was kind of already in the background as a producer, then last year I decided to take up artistry. All that experience helped create the boom.
"The more I started making the more people encouraged me to put it out there. People were saying it just about my production, it helped big myself up. The first couple of songs didn’t do too well, and then ‘Don’t Worry 'Bout It’ went out and really shone. My dad also, he was a huge believer in me believing in myself, if I didn’t have him I would definitely be at Macca’s right now probably, doing the drive thru shift.”
By the time ‘Don’t Worry Bout It’ came out everything began to fall into place. The video started going viral, and record companies started paying attention.
“It was a process of getting it out there. I had all the tools to do it, it didn’t cost me anything, I shot the video on my phone, I mixed, mastered produced and wrote and recorded it myself so there was no budget going into it and then it’s up on YouTube and that platform sort of created the shockwave into the field where Warner Music New Zealand got in touch with me and Ministry of Sound Australia.”
Kings debut self-titled EP is out now and he’s using it as a calling card for what he’s capable of.
“For the EP I wanted to touch on everything. It was important to me that I wrote, produced and mastered everything myself. I wanted to show people I could do that. In lots of different styles.
“I wanted to use it like a business card like if you guys need some production I got you, I can also do some singing and some rapping. It’s just a very diverse ‘take me as I am’ kind of thing.”
His breakout song has also brought invitations to tour and a very busy summer. He’s the opening act on the upcoming Broods tour, as well as making appearances at Rhythm & Vines and Homegrown.
He’s working on his live show, adjusting his songs to work with a band instead of playing out through his laptop.
“There’s a lot of elements that don’t carry over, like affected vocals. Now it’s just my vocal, so I have to fill it up with music. I’m finding it fun.”
LISTEN > KINGS interviewed on Music 101:
