“It’s kind of a silly story,” says King David-Ike Elechi, grinning as he explains the origins of his jazz band Knats. At school, in year seven, he became friends with classmate Stan Woodward after a silent game of passing a giant pink novelty rubber back and forth to one another. Elechi suggested that Woodward should join a local School of Rock-style music club with him. “Then we had a Whiplash moment, where the teacher is really mean,” says a now 22-year-old Elechi, huddled in a booth in the cafe of Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle.
The breaking point was being told they weren’t good enough to cover Arctic Monkeys’ R U Mine? Woodward, also 22, is stuck on a train during our interview, but later confirms the story over a video call. “We were like: fuck this guy, let’s leave this club and do it ourselves.”
A decade later, that defiant streak is still strong, although they’re a little better at taking criticism. What started as DIY bedroom experiments – Woodward self-taught on a Tesco guitar, Elechi on drums he’d learned to play at church – has grown into a project that has already taken them to the BBC Proms. After dabbling in metal, grunge, reggae and house, the pair found their way into jazz through hip-hop and drum’n’bass samples, following a breadcrumb trail that led them to Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal. The result is jazz that is sprawling and eclectic, with gritty, menacing percussion one moment, and bright, groove-led horns the next.
As the sound has evolved, so too has Knats’ lineup, with the addition of trumpeter Ferg Kilsby, saxophonist George Johnson, pianist Sandro Shar and occasional vocals from poet Cooper Robson. They discovered Kilsby on YouTube as teens, clocked that he lived nearby in Hexham and tracked him down. Now, all three are studying at Trinity College’s conservatoire in London. But they insist they still – and always will – play “geordie jazz”.
There was a time when Knats kept their music-making “covert”, fearing classmates would think jazz was “cringe”. Now, the genre is firmly in the mainstream, epitomised by Ezra Collective’s Brit awards victory in 2025, where they became the first jazz band to win the British group category. But buzz around the UK jazz revival remains London-centric, from the artists in the spotlight to youth initiatives such as Tomorrow’s Warriors and the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy.
Raised by single mothers in a working-class area, Woodward and Elechi were struck by the regional disparity when they first moved to London, and struggled to get the same kind of live bookings as their established London peers. Kilsby, who was inspired to play trumpet by his older brother, had witnessed the deterioration of northern arts programmes first-hand: “My brother used to play in a county band for free. By the time I was older, it didn’t exist any more.”
Setbacks haven’t knocked their confidence, though. Last year, when former Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep agreed to produce their upcoming second album, A Great Day in Newcastle, pro bono, the band was awestruck by Greep’s musical intuition in the studio. But they still vetoed some of his suggestions.
“They know what they want and where they’re going,” says Greep over the phone. He was introduced to Knats two years ago, when Elechi sent him a follower request on Instagram. Greep messaged back, and soon he, Elechi and Woodward were jamming as a trio. “I was shocked. They were incredible – two of the best musicians for their age I’ve met,” says Greep. “They don’t want to make music that’s just for dancing and vibing out. They want to do music which is comparable to great works of more intellectual jazz and classical music.”
Last year, Knats supported Greep on his solo tour, alongside gigs as the backing band for R&B legend Eddie Chacon on his UK dates. The latter’s shift in style – emphasising, as Elechi puts it, “subtlety and restraint” – only made Knats sound tighter when they returned to jazz. At a Knats gig at the end of Chacon’s tour, “our sense of dynamics was heightened. That went down as one of our favourite gigs ever.”
Their own tour is scheduled throughout spring, after a pit stop at SXSW in the US in March, but first there’s the release of A Great Day In Newcastle. “It’s my baby,” says Woodward, who typically writes Knats’ songs before arranging them with the band. The record is dedicated to their home town, passing on lessons from their upbringing through themes that span toxic masculinity and local pride. On lead single Wor Jackie, they take on the story of footballer and miner Jackie Milburn; Carpet Doctor, featuring Greep, reflects on life after prison, inspired by a close friend of Woodward’s family.
“But overall, the album has a positive message,” says Woodward. “There’s anger, but not towards other people. It’s about our own communities – in a positive way, not pitiful.”
At the heart of each song is a story of resilience. “Geordie optimism is this rigorous spirit of hard graft. It’s cold as fuck outside, but everyone is happy,” says Elechi. “The mantra of this band is essentially: there’s nothing here for us, but we’ve made it work. We just had to grind and figure a way out.”
Not for ever, though. Knats are clear-eyed about the need to stay in London to advance their careers. But when the time is right, they plan to return home and build on a one-off jazz masterclass that Woodward, Elechi and Kilsby hosted in Newcastle last year. “By the time we’re 30, I’d like to have a Tomorrow’s Warriors-esque thing going on, which is free for kids,” says Woodward. “London has grown on me a little bit, but it’s never going to be as good as the Toon.”
A Great Day in Newcastle is released 1 May on Fontana. The single Never Gonna Be a Boxer is out now
Source:
www.theguardian.com
