The Emergency Please is a Southampton based band which is making a real impact on the city’s live scene with their funk and neo-soul spiced alternative rock. As a greater landscape of attention is finding the band and its creatively energetic sound we had the chance to find out more with the band’s founder/vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Karan Master, finding out about its beginnings, inspirations, and other exploits…
Can you first introduce the band and give us some background to how it all started?
Hi my name’s Karan Master, I started The Emergency Please as a songwriting vehicle for music I’d been writing. Since then I’ve been working with a few drummers and bass player writing, recording, and gigging music for The Emergency Please. On the debut EP, Remember You, I worked with session players Sam West (drums) and Adam Porter (bass).
Have you been involved in other bands before? If so has that had any impact on what you are doing now?
I actually moved to Southampton with my old band, A Gentleman Film. We were a prog funk alt rock trio. There’s definitely a hint of that in The Emergency Please though the newer music I’ve been writing is more influenced by pop punk, which is what I grew up on.
What inspired the band name?
My old band when I was 14 was called Emergency Please. I always really liked the name so decided to stick with it since it wasn’t being used anymore.
Was there any specific idea behind the project and in what you wanted it to offer?
I really wanted to go back to my roots so to speak. I grew up on pop punk/emo bands like Funeral For A Friend, Paramore, and Fall Out Boy but also wanted to incorporate some of the other genres I love like, funk and Neo soul.
You are still inspired by the same things or have they evolved over time?
I think so, The Emergency Please is still relatively new but the drive is just to play music that we enjoy and get it out there the best we can.
Since your first days creating, how would you say your sound has evolved?
It’s got a bit more groove to it and a little more rawness.
Are any changes more of an organic movement or you deliberately wanting to try new things?
I’d say it’s been pretty organic.
Presumably for you and across the others involved in the band there is a wide range of inspirations; are there any in particular which have impacted not only on the music but your personal approach and ideas to creating and playing music?
Haha this could be a long list. My top three inspirations are Jimi Hendrix, John Mayer, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Honestly don’t know if I’d be doing this without them. There are a lot of others though such as Funeral For A Friend, D’Angelo, and Darwin Deez to name a few.
Is there a particular process to your songwriting?
I usually like to start with the guitar and lay down the music first before the vocals. Though I’ve had a few vocal ideas first that inspires me to write a song…they always seem to happen in the shower haha.
Where do you, more often than not, draw the inspirations to the lyrical side of your songs?
It’s mostly about personal experiences or topics that are important to me.
Would you give us some background to your latest release?
Remember You is our debut EP. It has 4 tracks each of which is unique in its own way but still carries our sound. It’s an introduction to The Emergency Please and shows the sound we plan to build on.
How about some insight to the themes and premise behind it and its songs?
The first song is the title track of the EP and is an upbeat pop punk song about running into an ex that you weren’t quite sure why it ended. The second track, I Can’t Stop is a more grooved based song; I especially enjoyed working with Sam and Adam on this one. The following track Lost is more slow and melancholy than the others. It’s a song I had written over a year ago about the toll personal issues and baggage can have relationships. The final song Clark Kent Syndrome is groove based emo track. It’s probably my favourite track on the EP (can’t decide between it and I Can’t Stop). It’s about how people can lose themselves when they become attached to the outcome of something they want and the irony of it.
Do you go into the studio with songs pretty much in their final state or prefer to develop them as you record?
We come to studio with everything written and rehearsed but also with an open mind. It’s great to have an external input and working with the right producers makes a real difference.
Tell us about the live side to the band, presumably the favourite aspect of the band?
We’re pretty hectic on stage. I think live shows are where you get the full experience of a band. We really like to get into it and give it as much energy as we can.
It is not easy for any new band to make an impact regionally let alone nationally and further afield. How have you found it in what seems from the outside, a vibrant musical city?
Southampton definitely has a thriving music scene though not what it used to be; there is still plenty of love for artists. It’s actually got a great scene for jam nights which is how we all met.
How about the internet and social media, how has that helped the band to date or not? Some see it as something destined to be a negative for bands.
Social media and the internet are great ways to get out there but because they’re so widely accessed it makes most bands a drop in the ocean. It’s definitely hard but it’s something we’re working on and plan to keep working on.
I don’t see it as negative; it’s just kind of become a part of the game we all have to play.
Once again Karan, a big thanks for sharing time with us; anything you would like to add or reveal for the readers?
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us! If anyone brings me a chocolate macaroon or any memorabilia of The Flash we will be best friends 4 lyf!
Find out more about The Emergency Please @ https://www.facebook.com/theemergencyplease/
Pete RingMaster 10/05/2017
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Categories: Interviews, Music
The RingMaster Review 
Leave a Reply