To Be A King Q & A: Peter Darlington & Tarek Musa from ‘Spring King’

Manchester 4-piece Spring King have released their latest single Rectifier from their upcoming debut album, due out later this year. We threw their guitarist Peter Darlington and vocalist & drummer Tarek Musa a few hypothetical questions about being kingly and medieval politics.

If you had to describe your music using only words that end in “king”, how would you describe it?

Tarek: Fu*king rocking.

Peter: Attacking, outflanking, body-checking, mapmaking, rollicking and earthshaking!

Would you rather be trapped in a loveless marriage with a queen you married for money and land, or be a peasant working the land, poor, but married to the girl of your dreams?

Tarek: A peasant working the land, poor, but married to the girl of my dreams.

If you ruled a kingdom for the day, what would you do?

Tarek: Make it national Brian Wilson day and insist everyone listens to surf music all day.

Peter: Relinquish my own power and encourage a society based on voluntary self-governance … Anarchism!

What would your ideal palace be equipped or stocked with?

Tarek: Ice cream, hot sauce, WiFi.

Peter: Puppies, vegan food and video games.

If you could have any 4 people in the world, living or dead as the knights of your round table to advise you, who would you choose?

Tarek: Bruce Springsteen, Saul Berenson (Homeland).

Peter: Chet Baker so we could teach the world to sing. Noam Chomsky because he could advise on all the serious stuff and he’s never wrong.

If you had to go to battle, what would be your go-to weapon?

Tarek: Supersoakers and kindness.

Peter: A blaster from Star Wars.

If each member of The Spring King was a king, who would be killed off by their people first?

Tarek: Probably me, I’m not very fast or ruthless.

Peter: Probably me as I spend a lot of my time sleeping and dreaming.

What would you say are the biggest influences behind Spring King’s sound?

Tarek: Bands like At The Drive-In for their high energy and stage presence, punk bands like The Clash for their raw sounds, and finally a bit of Beach Boys for those catchy melodies.

Peter: The Beach Boys for songwriting and the work of Markus Dravs for production choices.

Without using the letter “E”, can you describe Spring King’s sound in four words?

Tarek: Cool rock for all.

When can Australia look forward to catching you live?

Tarek: 2016 baby!

Peter: This year! Hopefully in summer, which I think is your winter? We just signed with Dew Process over there so we hope to visit as much as possible to promote the album