Words: Darci Jackson
Photos: Izzi Glover
Strolling alongside the Mersey on a fine Monday afternoon is where we found our next feature. Sounds ideal right? Wrong.
Because in reality this was a few hours before we nearly got stranded in Liverpool when the Dizzy-mobile broke down and The Kowloons came to our rescue.
“Youse are from Kowloon I’m not from fucking there!” laughs guitarist Mason Jones after being designated the role of microphone holder. He points at twins Anthony and Stephen Ng who explain how their band name comes from a city in Hong Kong “our Grandad is from there, he moved from Kowloon to Liverpool in the 60s.”
The Kowloons have been an outfit for about two years, with bassist Bobby Griffiths joining around a month ago.
The four piece already have several singles to their name with their latest offering ‘Can We Go Faster?’ being the first single from their debut EP. A nostalgic guitar led tune making The Kowloons’ future look very bright indeed. “You can hear off the bat it’s very Oasis.”
“Bit of Dear Prudence in there. Happy Mondays drumming. Mix of all our favourites really.”
In terms of when we can expect the EP, the band are taking things one step at a time. “We’ve been sat on these songs for a long time but it’s hard to get it ready and get it over the finish line. We’ve got dates outlined but nothing’s in concrete really.”
It’s impossible to go to Liverpool and not least mention the band that started it all, particularly as a multitude of Beatles posters adorned the walls of The Kowloons’ practice room. Dizzy Magazine asked the band who their favourite Beatle was, and Mason, Bobby and Stephen all decided to Come Together and choose Paul.
Anthony, however, had other ideas.
“There was no wrong answer, and you picked it!” exclaims Mason at Ant’s choice of Ringo.
“He’s the most chilled out one like he just doesn’t care, he’s just there for the vibes.” Was Ant’s reply. Whatever floats your Yellow Submarine, I guess.
Fast forward around 60 years and we find ourselves mesmerised by a different band instead.
“We’re obsessed with Fontaines at the minute, the new tunes are just unreal.”
Dizzy has been loving The Kowloons’ covers of Fontaines D.C. recently and we wanted to know when we’d be getting more.
“We were gonna cover Starburster and then we thought fuck that. We’ll do Favourite I think but Starburster, couldn’t imagine him [looking at Ste] wearing a trackie.” That’s the spirit, Mason.
“You can’t sing it without the accent.”
The Liverpool music scene is absolutely thriving at the minute, with so much exciting talent everywhere you look. The Kowloons share a few of their favourites; “There’s so many bands, East Exchange, Reignmaker,” mentions Ant.
“The Sway, The Cheap Thrills are fucking brilliant, The Lags. There’s too many but it’s a good thing to have,” adds Mason.
With a debut EP on the way and upcoming gigs in Liverpool and Scotland, there’s a lot to look forward to for the Merseyside quartet.
“That’s our mindset, we don’t stress too much about what’s coming next. As long as we’ve got songs coming out and gigs on the horizon it’s happy days isn’t it.”
Happy days for The Kowloons indeed.
(This feature is dedicated to Ray Ng who fixed Darci’s car, cheers lad <3)