With festival season well and truly in full swing for 2025, Keg are a band that will be gracing many stages over the summer. The 7-piece have exuberant energy onstage which is as infectious as it is joyous. With their debut album Fun’s Over released on Alcopop! Records in the spring, The Decibel Decoder found out more about this bunch of rabble rousing party starters.
Welcome Keg! Could you please introduce the band and share how you came together?
Hi there, we are Keg.
Albert Michael Haddenham – vocals and thrusts.
William Henry Wiffen – synth wobbles n riffs
Jules – riffs
Frank – riffs
Joel – riffs
Charlie – honks n wobbles
Jonny – slaps
We’ve known one another for a long time now throughout various projects. Me (Albert) Joel and Will grew up together in Bridlington—the chrysalis of Keg was born in Brighton in 2020 after Me, Jules and Frank moved there from Bristol. Will knew Charlie through his fabulous brass honking on the jazzier circuits of Brighton, and he was quickly signed up. After a brief initial stint of drumming and singing, we found the final key in Jonny who tied us all into the racket we are today.
Where did the band name Keg come from? And did you have a bundle of names to choose from?
As usual it was on a long list of names; Haulage, Ricky Stanstead and Baggage boys, Ticklers, Goldfish and The Michael Dauphinoise Experience. Once Keg was uttered it stuck pretty instantly; short, squat and economical.
Your debut album Fun’s Over was released on 14 March via Alcopop! Records. How was the writing and recording process?
It’s been a long time coming and as such we’ve been playing with it for a while. We wrote it over the last couple years, shaping and refining into what we wanted to release. After our last EP we were all pretty dedicated to making a bigger piece of work. During 2022/23 we were touring so much so we really wanted time to write.
We recorded it between home and Toby Burroughs studio in Deptford through 2024. It was a process of restraint in a lot of ways, it’s so easy to feel like you need to layer and layer when you have unlimited time, especially with 7 heads working on one thing, I think we found a nice balance. Everyone found their niche, whether that’s in the arrangement, mixing or artwork we’ve all got our favoured areas, which makes it feel like a collective I guess.
I have to ask about ‘Mr and Mrs Rayleigh’. Where did that come from, and why did you include on the album?
I’ve always loved skits on albums, and I have been writing comedy sketches with Harrison, Flo and Theo for a while, so it felt natural to ask them to do something. I remember Harrison saying “so you want a post punk , radio 4 crossover ?” And Father Charles came out of that.
‘Mr and Mrs Raleigh’ was a sketch I wrote for me and Flo, I wanted to create some Keg lore inventing characters who had met us along the way. Initially I had the idea that the album could be marketed as being released posthumously, although I think the interviews might have been difficult. There’s a series called Human Remains with Julia Davis and Rob Brydon which was a big influence, and Chris Morris’s Jam.
And it contrasts with ‘Ferryman’ which is unexpected but thrilling. Can you expand a little on the creation of this track?
Yes I particularly like the sharp left turn in the running order. We’ve always liked to keep ourselves guessing with our style. At the time we were listening to a lot of hardcore bands like Warthog, and thought we would give it a go. There’s a few tracks we’ve left by the wayside as a result of this cluster bomb approach, but I think we all enjoy having a more diverse range of approaches and influences, bands like Ween who try whatever they like out have always stood out to us.
I think we wrote it towards the end of lockdown, and as such was having bouts of creative drought and doubt. The lyrics are about battling with that feeling really, repeating the failure to get something fresh, and feeling like your creatively dead, hence the Charon (ferryman to the underworld) reference.
Your live shows are bursting with energy. How did you capture that on the album? You must have needed loads of room in the recording studio!
Once the rhythm section is captured, that contains the majority of the fission. After that it’s just a case of building. Vocals are always funny to record seeing as we do most of them at home and it’s a lot of screaming, must sound pretty alarming for our neighbours, but luckily I think one of them is half deaf. We bulk ourselves up on a dairy heavy diet for pure milk energy on recording days.
You’ve had a hectic start to 2025 with live dates including Independent Venue Week, instores and headline dates in the UK and Europe. Could you share how important Independent Venues are to Keg?
Independent venues alongside merch are perhaps the only places in the industry we can still make a profit & support ourselves. We all work outside of the band and have a pretty DIY attitude as a result. The support of venues and promoters is integral for planning a tour, especially outside of the country. These connections are integral in sustaining communities of artists and musicians to cultivate scenes and try out new projects. It’s more difficult here in the uk to sustain these things, as there is a stark disregard for live music, grass roots movement and the arts in general by the government. The gulf is massive, and can be easily discerned after a quick glance at the rider & fees across the channel.
If I looked in your fridge right now what would I find?
A mouldy broccoli, 2 pints of milk, chorizo, cheddar, 3 jars of open mayo, 4-5 jars of pesto, pickled onions, a crabbies, two pint cans of carlsberg.
For more information on Keg please check their facebook and instagram.