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Interview: King Khan
When Arish Khan — better known under the stage name King Khan — was a fetus in his mother’s womb, she’d place a pair of headphones against her stomach and pipe in hours of sitar music. When the sound of those strings drifted to his developing ears, Khan says, it kicked off a love of trippy music that continues to drive him 33 years later, as the front man for nine-member psychedelic soul outfit King Khan and the Shrines.
A full disclaimer is warranted, though: that story may be a lie. That’s the thing about interviewing the notoriously devil-may-care Khan, a fellow known for his oddball answers. Sometimes he busts out a story that’s insane but obviously true — like, say, accidentally throwing up in the mouth of the late rocker Jay Reatard (“Definitely the punkest guy I’ve ever met”) during a make-out session intended to shock the audience. Sometimes he spins a yarn — meeting his wife by answering an ad in Reader’s Digest for an “erotic housecleaner” — that’s clearly intended to be a bit of fun. And then there are stories like his mother playing him sitar music in the womb that are just on the line between convincing and absurd. Khan tells more of those tales than any other kind.
“I used to find interviews really boring, but now I’ve learned to enjoy it. If you want to give boring answers then you can bore yourself,” says Khan. “But if you make it psychedelic then you can have some fun with it.”
That serves nicely as an encapsulation of Khan’s general approach. With the Shrines at his back, Khan blends the fuzzy guitars of psychedelia with the propulsive pep of vintage soul. They’re like Sly and the Family Stone by way of the 13th Floor Elevators, or Little Richard if acid, and not cocaine, had been his 1960s drug of choice. He speaks reverently of Sun Ra, the genre-busting jazz pioneer who claimed to be a visitor from Saturn.
Live, Khan’s just as quirky. He’s famous for his on-stage attire — his most popular ensemble consists of only tight black underwear and a donkey teeth necklace — and a show that plays as much like a circus as a concert.
“I really like spontaneity, and I try to keep the live shows interesting, with strange and funny things happening,” Khan says. “The world needs a band like us to make life seem less dismal and horrible. That’s the one compliment I’m always really happy to get. There’s always somebody after a show who comes up and says, ‘Because of you I had a smile on my face for two months.’ “
Khan was born in Montreal, Canada, where he paid his dues in an array of garage bands before eventually joining up with the Spaceshits. He fell in love with Berlin during a European tour and opted to move there, leading to the dissolution of the group, In Berlin, the ever-busy Khan — he also plays under the name King Khan and the BBQ Show with former band mate Mark Sultan and has side projects with the Black Lips and rapper GZA — met his wife and formed the Shrines, who released their U.S. debut in 2008 on Vice Records.
The seed for the band had been planted years before, when Khan visited the house of New Orleans dance musician Quintron and discovered that the Mardi Gras spirit didn’t have to be confined to Mardi Gras.
“I remember walking into this crazy-looking house and opening the door and people were in feather masks and face paint and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is beautiful,’ ” recalls Khan. “That kind of spirit didn’t only have to live on a celebration day. That was the point of the Shrines — to bring that whole feeling of crazy celebration into places.”
“Crazy celebration” sometimes meant fireworks, food fights and urinating on the audience, but Khan’s live shows have settled down a bit. After all, he’s 33 now, and has two daughters. Khan says when it comes to crazy live shows, he can rely on the audience to meet him halfway.
“We used to use the shock thing as a tool to incite the audience and get their attention. But now people come expecting more of a musical and psychedelic experience rather than expecting to watch something grotesque. So they do most of the heavy lifting these days,” says Khan. “I’m relieved that I don’t have to relieve myself anymore. I think my wife was really tired of seeing my genitalia on the Internet.”
King Khan and the Shrines perform Monday, April 5 at 10 p.m. at Emo’s, 603 Red River. Tickets are $15 in advance; $17 at the door.
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