Interview - Kennedy

Someone else I hadn't heard of at all, but he turned out to be very funny and cheeky; always makes someone nice to chat to on the phone. Kennedy sounded a bit like a cult character, though to my knowledge he never really broke through here.

Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in September 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

KENNEDY

On Mothers' Day, the technicolour video to Kennedy's tongue-in-cheek song about loving your mama was featured on YouTube's homepage, proving that someone there has a sense of humour. Named as one of the frontrunners in the world of dirty pop, Jack Kennedy's music is cheeky with a strong lick of funk and his album has been described as ‘an attention whore’. We spoke to him about classical music, running for presidency and why he didn’t get into acting in advertisements.

Hello, is that Mr Kennedy?
It is!

How are you enjoying yourself in London at the moment?
I love it here. I got in and I went straight to the Notting Hill Carnival and hung out there.

Were you watching it or were you in it?
I was just a civilian drinking Red Stripe and listening to huge soundsystems play dub. I didn’t even know what it was. I got off the plane, got to where I’m staying, walked outside and I was like ‘What the heck is this? Is it like this all the time?’

What kind of music do you listen to yourself?
I listen to a lot of hip hop, a lot of classic rock. As a kid I was really into The Cure and The Smiths, those were like my two favourite bands. A lot of 50 Cent, a lot of Kanye West. And I also listen to a lot of classical because I have this really old car back in the States and it only has AM radio, and so the only station it gets that’s not talk is classical. But it’s cool, I like classical. It’s better for your mind than listening to repetitive music all the time.

My car’s rubbish, it only takes cassettes.
Can you still buy cassettes? Once I got an iPod I was like, I hold onto special cassettes that I like, but my CDs are all gone.

Copied and chucked out?
I sold them all and bought some crack. Only kidding.

Your hometown is Thousand Oaks isn’t it?
Wow, you’ve done some research!

Yep, I read the press release.
It’s like a suburb of Los Angeles. I’d say it was like the Woodford Green of Los Angeles.

Are you missing it at the moment?
No, not really! I live in LA now. I’m a big fan of LA and I’m a big fan of London. It’s kind of a toss-up as to which city I like better.

How did you get into music as your career?
I started playing in high school. My friend had a The Cure cover band so I played bass with them. I didn’t really know how to play that well but they were patient, helped me along. And then as the years went by I got better and then more comfortable and started writing my own songs, started my own band, and then started my own band under my own name and that was it. I did a lot of touring around California - I lived in my van for a while - and it was just on an acoustic guitar. I did a lot of covers too, it was like me trying to do T.Rex songs.

You’ve been sort of pigeonholed as dirty pop, do you know much about that genre?
I’ve heard a little bit about it. I don’t even know how you would define it, but yeah people are calling my stuff dirty pop. It has a good ring to it. I think there’s a song out right now called ‘Mr DJ’ and that’s by a dirty pop artist called Charlean Dance.

What can people expect to see in your performances?
Well you get to see one of the world’s greatest white male dancers. Me. We try to bring like a party to the shows.

Party hats, jelly and ice cream?
Whistles, pin the tail on the donkey.

Is it not dangerous playing those games with a lot of alcohol around?
Yeah. We don’t like to play darts either while we’re on stage.

I was looking on your MySpace. Apparently you’ve got Moses and Jesus in your band. That’s quite a coup, how did you pull that one off?
It’s the holy trinity of rock bands, or of pop bands I guess. Yeah I phoned up their agents and they got back to me. It’s funny because Jesus has the same agent as Lily Allen. You would never think. Buddha’s kind of got an Eastern vibe, but it all works out.

It’s good you can sort of bring it all together like that. I also read you got kicked out of Silversun Pickups.
For setting the singer’s sweater on fire, yeah [sighs]. It was an accident, but it was a very very special sweater for him and he had a tough time letting it go. But he’s long since forgiven me and we’re still close friends. I think they’re one of the best rock bands coming out of the States right now. I play the bartender in their video and the girl working the door was their original drummer.

You’ve had a few songs in movies haven’t you?
I had a song called ‘Karate’ in a movie called The Namesake which I still haven’t seen, I heard it was a really good movie. And I heard it was kind of a serious movie too, I thought that was surprising. ‘Karate’ is not like ‘We Shall Overcome’ or anything like that.

I used to do karate. Would I learn anything from that song?
It would make you an instant black belt. I’m a pink belt.

Good belt. What sort of movies would you like to get your songs into?
I think anything other than a Hummer commercial. It’s great to have your songs in movies that you like, as opposed to Hulk which wasn’t that great a movie. But I guess sometimes you take what you can get too.

Have you done much acting yourself?
A little bit. I have an agent back in the States. I dressed up really Seventies and was roller-skating around this roller rink, and there was this agent there and she’s like ‘You’d be great in commercials.’ I was like, I’ll give it a shot. So she sent me on these auditions but I never really landed anything.

Did you have to roller-skate for all of them?
No [laughs]

That’s why you didn’t get them!
I kid you not, the first one I auditioned for, I get there and it’s for a car commercial and they’re like ‘OK we need you to strip down to your underwear and come back out on camera’. I was like ‘I thought this was for a car commercial?’ ‘It is.’ ‘Oh, right.’ And so next thing I know I’m standing in front of the camera in my underwear and they’re asking me to pretend I’m being stung by mosquitoes. I was like, ‘You know what, I don’t think this acting thing is for me.’

Who would play you if there was a film about Kennedy?
I don’t know, it would have to take a lot of casting. You could probably get Macauley Culkin, how old’s he now?

I don’t know, about 52 or something?
Yeah. You could get him to play my grandfather.

Your next single is ‘Your Mama.’ Can you tell me a bit about it?
It’s a fantastic song. Oh my God you’ve got to check out the video! The video actually makes the song. But yeah, it’s an autobiographical piece about a woman that my mum hooked me up with, one of her friends. We dated for a little bit and then we stopped and about six months later I started dating her daughter. So that was the inspiration behind the song.

Keep it in the family.
[laughs] Yeah. Not always the best idea. It’s a fun track. There’s a couple of really good remixes of it too. I think when you see the video it will all hit home for you.

And that’s off your album ‘Kennedy For President’?
Yeah, I’m running for president of the world.

How are you getting on?
Well I’m taking it one vote at a time. Do I have your vote? Sweet. Yeah, it’s one vote at a time, it’s tough but I think at this point people will vote for me over George Bush any day.

I think you probably have a better chance. Have you got any campaign slogans?
Yeah, it's ‘Kennedy For President – Let’s Do It Again.’ Which you can take however you want.

Back to the album, what’s your favourite track off there?
I like ‘Karate’ and I really like ‘Mama Made Me A Pimp’. The process of recording was so easy, it came out really naturally. Those are songs I really look forward to playing. Where I’m writing a song I’m thinking if I have to play this song every night for the next forty years, I’m gonna want to do that.

What do you want people to feel when they listen to your music?
Horny. And also I want them to move. We have a real obesity problem in the States and so we need to get people moving around more, so that’s kind of a goal.

You can put that in your presidency campaign.
[laughs] Combating obesity!

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Kennedy releases single ‘Your Mama’ on September 24th and album ‘Kennedy For President’ on October 8th through Atlantic. Vote Kennedy, and combat obesity.

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