King George
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Established. Jan 01, 2007 | SELF
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King George is where emotive lyrics merge with rock sound. Think The Killers meet Muse. The mind behind the songs George Zois has carefully crafted the songs on Heroes so that you never want to skip to the next one. This is an album to keep on and let it play through entirely…. Or just keep it on repeat.
The album’s title song “Heroes” is what captures exactly what King George is. He’s a singer/songwriter that gives us lyrics like: As I’m staring down these stars tonight/The hero calls my name/He says it’s a little lost town in a really big way and (my favorite): Who’s your hero? You’ve got to save yourself.
Though “Heroes” gets a bit dancey (emphasis on The Killers for that song), songs like “Hover” provide a more altrock feel with memorable guitar riffs that act just as catchy as the vocal chorus.
The best part of Heroes is all the movement. The songs have a clear beginnings, middles and ends with bridges that connect everything together. Heroes is a story with a distinct flow.
These are the aspects that make Heroes completely radio ready, but still engaging enough to listen to anywhere else. It just so happens that this is a story you’ll want to hear over and over again.
Visit the King George Facebook page to give Heroes a listen. - Creative Control Magazine 2014
King George has slowly been building the fan base and has included some unique initiatives to help get his message across. With major influences including U2, Bjork, Faith No More, The Killers and even Dusty Springfield there is diversity from where King George draws from. More recently King George played a show in Sydney supporting Jimmy Barnes for the Oz Harvest CEO cook off and played a set in front of 1000 homeless people that where being fed by the countries top corporate CEO’s. King George adds “for me it was special, considering their situation, these people were having such a great time and I sometimes wonder how are they going and if any of them have managed to move forward in life over the last few months…I stop and think about this once in while…more importantly I hope the CEOs do as well.”
The trip to US in 2011 has had a major impact on the King with George doing plenty of writing in New York and penning ‘Why Am I Here?’ released around Christmas 2012 and the new single ‘Hover’ released in March 2013.
May 2013 saw King George launch the music video for ‘Hover’ shot by up Australian director Dillon Pearce.
‘Prisoners of The Pluto Junction’, ‘Why Am I Here?’ and ‘Hover’ are out now via iTunes and all good digital stores
Check out this great interview we did with King on his new single, “Heroes”.
How does this single relate to the rest of the Album, EP or Mix-tape?
The song Heroes has a different feel to other King George tracks being more upbeat with more of a pop feel.
What was the writing process for the song?
In this case some of the lyrics came first on the plane back to Melbourne from LA in 2011. I slowly pieced the rest of the song together when I got into my studio. I originally had a different chorus but Michael (Drums) and Ben (Bass) felt it wasn’t strong enough so I went back into the studio an wrote a new chorus for the song.
What does this song’s lyric mean to you?
It’s a reflection of an interesting 3 days I spent in Hollywood. I spend most of one evening watching the pilot to Wonder-woman being shot on the street. (The pilot never got approved by the studio in the end). I came across some weird and wonderful people on the Hollywood Blv. Many dressed as superheroes! I might leave it at that because I never really like explaining the meaning to my songs as I like other people to interpret them without my influence.
What would it be like to see you in person performing this song?
It would be the best gig you’d ever attended, so good it would change your life! If you are a girl you’d want to sleep with me, if you’re a guy you’d want to be me and probably want to sleep with me too LOL! Wink! wink! (Only kidding)
Could your fans summarize who you are as an artist by this song?
Almost, there are themes and feelings in older songs like ‘Beauty Master’ (off the debut album Prisoners of the Pluto Junction) that wouldn’t be captured in Heroes.
Is there a video planned and or completed and if so, what was the idea behind the video?
The song has promo lyric video online that was directed by Jonathan Oslar in the UK. Jonathan did well with the concept here and I’ve great feedback about it. I might do a full video for it one day.
One last question, what is your motivation behind your music?
Music for me is a passion, my songs are a reflection of how I interpret things around me and it helps my express myself because sometimes I struggle with that outside my musical world. I learnt a while time ago just to enjoy it and not take the business too seriously, this has worked well for me over the last few years as I been having a lot more success than ever and I’m having a ball. - imoveilive Magazine 2014
Discography
Prisoners of the Pluto Junction 2010
Love Songs and Medications 2014
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Bio
With a sound based on emotive melodies and powerful rhythms, Australian artist King George has been described as having a unique mix of light and dark. (Buzz Magazine, MARCH 2009). The man behind the madness George Zois says "It's taken a while to find the right direction with my sound I always wanted to be able to bring a deep, emotional content to my music, but not lose the rawness."
From his early days as toddler he has been infatuated by music but although he grew up with music being played around the house he comes from an un-musical family and attended a religious high school that at the time had no interest giving its students a musical output. So what happens when playing music is part of who you are and you're in an environment that isn't? George says "I guess you have to break down some walls and make people understand who you are and what makes you happy. Since my early teens I have been writing and playing music and to put it bluntly I fucking love it. For me its very simple, what do we have to leave behind in life? some people have their photo albums, homes, cars, videos etc , all I can leave behind is the songs I have written that capture who I am and what I'm feeling at the time no matter how good or bad the song, it's there, locked away and captured in time and available for those who are interested."
The debut album 'Prisoners Of The Pluto Junction' was released in February 2010 that took King George from Melbourne to New York City in 2011. George adds, "The album is definitely the direction I wanted to take musically. It is a fair departure from anything I had done before. The themes are provocative, sleazy, immature, serious, heartbreaking and dark. The Pluto Junction for me is like a place of mourning and recovery, a place where I go mentally to pick up the pieces and put myself together again, some people can't get out of that junction and become their own prisoner. It sounds a bit weird but to be honest its hard to explain and the longer I try to explain the meaning of songs the more I waffle and become boring and like many songwriters and musos we are pretty boring people...we are not here to talk about self indulgent bullshit we are here to rock, and music should be there to be interpreted by the masses or very few in my case!"
With major influences including U2, Bjork, Faith No More, The Killers and even Dusty Springfield there is diversity from where King George draws from. "My favourite albums are U2s Achtung Baby, FNMs The Real Thing, the Killer's Sams Town, PJ Harvey's Stories from the City and Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion."
With the album came a debut film clip for the single Nothing Left and a very wacky video for second single Birthday Girl starring a rooster looking for...well?....no one really knows!. KG explains this came from "the creative mind of my drummer and co producer of the album Michael Makris, who was probably overdosing on protein shakes when he drew up the concept. To be honest I don't know what it means but its different and fun"
More recently King George played a show in Sydney supporting Jimmy Barnes for the Oz Harvest CEO cook off and played a set in front of 1000 homeless people that where being fed by the countries top corporate CEOs. King George adds "for me it was special, considering their situation, these people were having such a great time and I sometimes wonder how are they going and if any of them have managed to move forward in life over the last few monthsI stop and think about this once in while more importantly I hope the CEOs do as well."
The trip to US in 2011 has had a major impact on the King with George doing plenty of writing in New York and penning 'Why Am I Here?' released around Christmas 2012 and the new single 'Hover' released in March 2013.
2013 saw the launch of videos for the singles ‘Hover’ (that won the best thematic award at the Australian Independent Music Video Awards 2013) and 'Heroes' (Lyric Video).
King George played 3 rocking shows in Toronto for Indie Week 2013 and was a tour that inspired the writing of new material. With the first half of 2014 in the studio recording a new album King George released a second lyric video for the sleazy tune 'Firestone' (by UK director Jonathan Oslar) and has just release a new single and video for 'Broken Hearted Whispers’ (by Australian director Dillon Pearce) which has been nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award to be held in November 2014.
The new album 'Love Songs and Medications’ is the follow up album to 2010’s 'Prisoners of the Pluto Junction' and features songs with sounds and melodies that cover themes such as love, heartbreak, ambition, temptation and regret.
Love Songs and Medications is out now via all good digital stores!
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