Pete of King Kraken Sits Down For A Chat About his Tentacles

28th February 2025 0 By DJ Pixie

If you like your riffs colossal, your grooves thunderous, and your vocals packing enough grit to sandblast a battleship, then you’re probably already familiar with King Kraken. This South Wales heavy rock/metal powerhouse has been making waves with their hard-hitting sound, blending classic influences with modern muscle.

Today, we’re diving deep into the world of King Kraken with none other than Pete Rose, the band’s formidable guitarist and sonic backbone. We’ll be talking all things Kraken—writing, recording, gigging, and what’s next for the band. So, grab a drink, turn the volume up, and get ready for some unfiltered Kraken wisdom straight from the source.

You guys have just released your new music video ‘Hero’, the vocals and music for this video are incredible. Such a beautiful track, I really enjoyed it!

How did you find the recording process went for this?

Well, Rich found the church we used via somebody he knows and it was such a beautiful place that everything just fell in to place very easily. The mood of the video came across as we anticipated and the feel of the church being enhanced by the light, the stained glass windows and candles enhanced the feel of the video. It’s a masterpiece in our eyes visually and emotionally. Jay Hillyer has an amazing eye and works wonders, we highly recommend him and used him for all videos for all four singles we’re releasing. He’s done a grand job!

What factors influenced your choice for the location?

Mark (vocalist) knew as soon as he wrote the lyrics that it needed to be filmed in a church. More of a mark of respect to his father than anything.

What aspects of the song did you want to emphasise or interpret visually into the video?

For Mark it was a certain air of respect wearing a suit as to his normal stage gear. The lighting and mood had to be quite somber, yet warm, so use of candlelight was a must. The challenge was filming in a large church without making it look cold. The topic needed a certain warmth to it. Loss can be hard enough without the visuals adding to the despairing nature of it all.

What were the key steps in planning and preparing for this video shoot?

Location was the most difficult part to be honest, you wouldn’t believe how many churches and chapels we called to try and book the shoot at. There’s so much red tape to get through these days just to film inside these old buildings, it’s unbelievable. As this track was mostly a band performance video, it was the mood we went for rather than planning a storyline unlike our other videos.

How did you ensure all the bands’ ideas and Visions for the video were brought to the table?

As this track was about Mark’s father and the reality of loss, it was mostly based on the performance of the song and bringing forward the emotion of it all, which worked as we wanted it.

Did you face any challenges whilst recording the video, and if so, how did you overcome these?

The only challenge was finding this location to be honest. – Fun fact, if you look at our video Berserker, the inside shots were also shot on location within the same church on the same day as Hero, but you probably would never think so until I said so. The only reason we did this was because we were booked in the following day for an outdoor shoot and there was almost a hurricane warning announced at the time, so we played safe in case we couldn’t play at our planned outdoor location.
You guys have just been announced to play Bloodstock’s new indoor event in December, ‘Bloodstock Winter Gathering’. I bet you’re excited for this as it will be an event to go down in Bloodstock history.

Have you thought about what you might do differently at this event that you may include in your stage show? A new song perhaps or a guest appearance?

It’s very fortunate that we will be touring our new album so this will be fresh to so many new ears. We can’t wait to get it out there now! We’re so looking forward to it, especially our opening night of the album launch in Swansea

If you could describe Bloodstock in 3 words what would they be?

Quality, iconic legendary

We have our tickets for this already booked so we will see you there!

Finally, you guys are recording again at the moment, can you tell us about this and what’s next for the band?

All the recording was finished back in August, we’re showing reels again from then that we had held back to show people and gain interest before the big day of release!

Our pre-order is now live along with tickets for the full UK tour in April. Go take a look and come join the carnage! We look forward to seeing you all very soon! Thanks so much for the support!!