A Blast From The Present - The Wild, Wonderful Ian Kay
When it comes to vehicles I’m not much of an audiophile. Rather than crank music on a spirited drive I almost always prefer to hear the sound of the engine, wind and tire noise, whining gearbox, and all the other glorious audible proof of a car and driver working together to make their very own kind of music. That said, there are definitely times when the right tunes can transform a driving experience, and although I am not an audiophile I do consider myself a music junkie. At certain moments I feel that matching the right songs to the right drive can be as important to me as matching the right steering wheel to the right interior.
A few years ago, before COVID stole a few years from each of us, I found myself at a small, out of the way nightclub in the mountains above Javea, Spain called “La Hacienda.” I was there with my brother in law, the former manager of The Connells, to attend a small-scale musical event called “The Pin Up Festival.” I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, because I hadn’t heard of any of the bands on the playbill, and didn’t even know what the feel would be, but I’m a sucker for live music and decided to give it a go. It turned out to be something of a surprise.
What began as a lark rapidly turned into one of the best small-venue live shows I have ever seen, with performers like Tito Ramirez bringing down the house with his hit “Lonely Man,” a thrashy, punky explosion of magnificent noise from “Las Munjitas Del Fuzz,” and a nearly hour long set by the most eye opening act of the night, a skinny French kid named Ian Kay.
I don’t know quite how to describe Ian Kay. The music is decidedly retro-tinged, with undertones of The Kinks and The Hollies, and his songwriting is as nuanced and polished as you could ever ask for. But I think it’s the frenetic energy that he brings to performing that really sets Kay apart. He is nothing short of electric on stage, jumping and twitching and wailing away on guitar, or with his hands flying over the drums, or hopping around, sweating and singing his lungs out as the lead. He can (and does) do it all on stage, and it’s enthralling to watch. And on this particular night, for his swan song somewhere around 4:00AM, he belted out a rendition of “Nothin’ But A House Party” that I haven’t been able to entirely get out of my mind since.
Some time later I saw him again at an event called “Sin City,” a trippy, all-night music festival held in an old abandoned “Wild West” clapboard movie set town in the hills outside Benidorm, Spain. He wasn’t playing on stage that night, but rather spinning as a DJ in one of the saloons, and the place was JUMPING, and packed to the rafters, with a vibe and happiness that was unmatched.
After a COVID-imposed hiatus, Sin City is coming back this year sometime in the autumn, and I’m not sure if Ian Kay will be there, but I’ll be there. And whether or not you can make it yourself, you could do worse than check out Ian Kay and his music, in whatever form it takes, any chance you get. You might find, as I do, it suits you on a particular stretch of road at just the right moment.
For more, see www.iankayofficial.com