King Bob

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, spelling, and readability. Music excerpts are noted where they appear in the episode.

Cold open

Jackson McDonald: King Bob is both a guy and a band. I created a character named King Bob so that I could separate myself a little bit from what I was doing. We’re very scrappy, very working-class. I’ve been a service-industry worker since I was about 15 years old. A lot of the songs reflect that. Sonically, I think we kind of sound like a soup made out of ’90s and early-aughts radio rock.

Music: “Still Me” by King Bob

---

Eric Chan: I’m Eric Chan, and you’re listening to Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.

In this episode, I’m joined by King Bob from Victoria.

I’ll let Jackson take us back to where the band first started taking shape.

Jackson McDonald: I had wanted to start my own project since about 2018 or 2019. I remember I was at Sled Island in Calgary with The Plodes, the band I was playing bass in at the time.

Evan played drums in that band, and Reid, the main guitar player and songwriter in that band, was in King Bob when we started, before he moved back to Calgary.

I was talking to them about wanting to do this project. I had these different names and ideas, and I asked them. They decided King Bob was the best name that I had.

We talked about it, and I had been thinking about it for a long time. I’d been sitting on some of these songs for a while.

And then the pandemic happened.

Music by King Bob

Jackson McDonald: All of a sudden, this thing that I was starting to think about and get excited about doing, I couldn’t really do anymore.

But I think it ended up being mostly a good thing because it allowed me a couple of extra years to amass all of the songs, fix them up and, most importantly, learn how to record them properly at home.

My songwriting took a huge leap when I did that because I could start layering parts on top of each other and understand how things work together.

Eric Chan: It’s not common to see a debut album with 17 songs on it.

I’ll let Jackson tell us how Rookie came about.

Jackson McDonald: Rookie is basically a combination of songs and ideas that I’ve had since I was maybe 19, and other stuff that was completed in a sort of manic fit as the pandemic was wrapping up and I was starting to think about actually being able to play live.

The second half of the record is basically a suite. It has all of these songs, all under two minutes, that weave into each other.

That was basically an attempt to get rid of all the junk in my attic, all the little song fragments that I didn’t know what to do with and hadn’t done anything with.

When I learned that some of my favourite records that do this, like Abbey Road by The Beatles or Worry by Jeff Rosenstock, were made for the same reason, it gave me permission to do it.

It was like, okay, this is what you can do with these ideas. You throw them all together in a ball pit or whatever and let them bounce up against each other.

Music by King Bob

Eric Chan: I was doing that thing where you keep clicking through new music, one track after another, and “Figure It Out” was the song that pulled me into King Bob.

Jackson McDonald: It’s funny that “Figure It Out” has resonated with people because it’s one of the oldest songs on the album.

There’s a version of that song that I played in my very first band when I would have been about 19 or 20. It was very different at the time.

It developed over time, and it’s an example of why I’m glad it ended up taking so long, because it’s way better than what I had more than 10 years ago.

Music: “Figure It Out” by King Bob

Eric Chan: As I kept digging into King Bob, one thing that stood out was how they use Patreon as part of the creative cycle.

Jackson McDonald: When I was starting the band, I was trying to think of ways to make it work. You can’t always be playing gigs, and you can’t always be selling merch. There’s overhead on that stuff.

The nice thing about Patreon is that there’s no overhead whatsoever. It’s a way for me to make a little bit of money and connect with fans by doing things I would already be doing, while giving people an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at what we’re working on from week to week.

For 10 weeks, I recorded a cover every week, a demo of a cover. I’m going to open up a vote for patrons to choose which of the 10 covers will get an official recording and release as the B-side to either our next single or the single after that.

Before that, I was posting a demo of a new song or a song from Rookie every week.

It’s five U.S. dollars a month at patreon.com/allhailkingbob. It’s a little more in Canadian dollars, around the price of a grande beverage at Starbucks. There’s something new every week, usually a demo and usually a song that isn’t out yet.

I’m languishing right now in this $150-a-month hell, but I know that once it catches on and people see what’s behind there and get a sense of it, I really enjoy doing it.

It has made the content-creation part of being a musician, which is a necessity now and something I hate, a lot more palatable, freeing and less soul-crushing.

Music by King Bob

Eric Chan: Before we wrapped up, I asked Jackson what he loves about King Bob.

Jackson McDonald: I think what I love about being in this band, and what separates it from other stuff happening when I look around, is that we’re very thoughtful.

A lot of rock music is very tossed off. A lot of it is purposely presented as, you know, it’s cool not to care, so we don’t care about anything.

When it comes to this band, every song is about something. It has a thought behind it, and everything in terms of the execution, the lyrics and everything else relates back to that idea.

It feels nice to make music that is about something and that resonates with people, particularly people who are broke, people who work tough jobs, people who are underprivileged and people who feel like they’re along the margins of society.

I’m happy to be in a band that I think and hope speaks to that kind of stuff, but isn’t preachy and doesn’t lecture you.

Eric Chan: That was Jackson from King Bob.

They’re hard at work recording their second album, with more new music on the way.

So catch them live, and catch them on Patreon.

I’m Eric Chan, and you’ve been listening to Inlet Wire, your direct line to BC artists.

Music