Credit: Found On Internet

Khan Morbee – it’s the kinda name that makes me think of men in animal furs and war paint, swinging fake weapons about and hollering ‘BATTLE METAL!” at each other. Calm down though – Khan Morbee is actually the frontman of South African indie-rock-types, The Parlotones. There’s not a Lordi-esque jockstrap in sight, just rousingly accomplished indie rock’n’roll.

“Myself and [Neil Pauw, drummer] were introduced by a mutual friend who knew we liked similar bands, we got together and ‘jammed’ a few times soon realising we needed additional musicians.” It’s an age old story, only instead of coming together in a grotty bedsit in Camden, the embryonic form of The Parlotones developed in South Africa. “[Neil] had played in a band previously with [Paul Hodgson, guitarist], and our bassist [Glenn Hodgeson] (who at that stage was really a pianist), happened to be the brother of the guitarist and he took over the reigns of the only instrument left to complete the package.”

“We are fans of The Beatles, Queen, Radiohead and more recently Coldplay (although we never knew of them when we named ourselves) and noticed a connection with Parlophone records, so we slightly morphed the name in an attempt to tempt fate.”

Of course, when a band is fairly established in one territory and trying to break into others, it can cause bizarre release schedules, even in this day and age when it is possible to download a band’s album before they’re even aware they’ve finished it. Which is why the band is only getting round to promoting their ‘Radiocontrolledrobot’ album here, while the follow-up is already out in South Africa.

“[Radiocontrolledrobot’] was our first proper recording in which we did 18 songs in 2 weeks. We have obviously been promoting that album since [2005] and now we are sort of multiple-personalities, having to promote different albums in the different territories. I’d like to think that as musicians we’ve obviously improved, so playing them here seems almost effortless. The songs have been given a breath of fresh air playing them to brand new audiences and winning them over one by one. It’s an exciting challenge…”