Kid Kapichi and Madness’ Suggs talk Terry Hall-inspired single ‘Zombie Nation’

Kid Kapichi and Suggs have spoken to NME about their collaboration on the politically-motivated new single ‘Zombie Nation’, memories of late Specials frontman Terry Hall, and the struggles faced by new artists. Watch the music video first on NME below.

The track is the latest taster of Kid Kapichi’s new album ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ – following on from the previously shared singles ‘Let’s Get To Work’, ‘Tamagotchi’ and ‘999’. Set for release on March 15, the third studio album release marks the follow-up to 2022’s sophomore album ‘Here’s What You Could Have Won’.

According to the Hastings punk band, the upcoming album is set to be more “concise” than their previous work, but will keep their signature political approach at its core. “We know what we’re doing more this time round, but we’ve always been a band that has written about what’s going on in the world,” frontman Jack Wilson explained to NME.

“I don’t feel like much has changed there. The topics you’ll find are pretty similar and I don’t think anyone who is a Kid Kapichi fan is going to be shocked by this new album. It’s like a continuation of the last album, but with a little bit more precision”.

Since their debut release back in 2018, Kid Kapichi have gone on to harness support from the likes of Bob Vylan and Frank Carter, and this time around have also found a fan in Madness frontman Suggs – with the two-tone pioneer joining the band for his first collaboration in 10 years.

In his appearance on the album, Suggs contributes vocals to the new ska-inspired track ‘Zombie Nation’ which explores losing faith in an unsympathetic government. “It was a funny coincidence because my son-in-law was into the band. I was doing a one-man show and he was driving me around, playing me some of their stuff, and I instinctively liked it, even though it’s three or four generations before my time,” Suggs explained.

“It was the energy and the attitude that they had, it reminded me of Madness when we were on our third album as opposed to our 34th where we all hate each other, despise the whole business and have no enthusiasm left,” he joked. “As for the track, it was right up my street. I loved it as soon as I heard it.

“I heard it as we were in the process of making ‘Theatre Of The Absurd’ – which was about all the absurdity that has been going on for the last few years in this country – so it had a lot of elements of what we were doing for our own album at that time. Just a bit more fun!”

For Kid Kapichi, the collaboration marked more than a coincidence, however, with Wilson insisting that the moment was “definitely more of a big deal to us than it was to him!”

“We spoke to our label and they said ‘If you could work with anyone on the album, who would it be?’ and I said how much I’d love to work with Suggs. He’s a hero of mine. I grew up with Madness and still absolutely adore them,” Wilson said. “Next thing I know, Suggs is calling me, saying he loved the song and wanted to work on it, and I had to pretend that it wasn’t the coolest thing ever.”

As well as contributing vocals, Suggs also joined Kid Kapichi for the accompanying music video, which sees them trapped in a Shaun Of The Dead-inspired zombie apocalypse. “It was a mental video and something that we wanted to do for ages,” Wilson recalled. “It was two days of filming in a pub in Hastings and it just got more and more absurd. To the point of ‘Right, Suggs, we’re gonna chop your head off now, then we’ll do a bit where your head is singing to the camera’…

“If someone told me years ago that I was going to smash Suggs’ head with a cricket bat, I wouldn’t have known how to deal with that information. I can’t believe he did any of it!”

Suggs added: “I was beside myself filming it. I’m just glad it wasn’t really my head because he gave it a good wallop!”

With the track, Kid Kapichi also embed a deeper meaning, using the unmissable two-tone influence to pay homage to late Specials frontman Terry Hall, who died at the end of 2022 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

“Not long before we wrote the song, we’d supported The Specials in Margate and meeting them was something that we ticked off the bucket list. We were writing the album when we found out the awful news, and had always been inspired by that sort of music, so it felt like a natural thing to do,” said Wilson of paying tribute to the singer. “I always say that those albums that Suggs and Terry were doing back then are as relevant now, if not even more relevant now, scarily. Of course, we wanted to pay our respects as well.”

Suggs continued: “The Terry thing was just incomprehensibly horrible. The Specials were probably the main reason why Madness is here today. We started with them on the Two-Tone label when Terry and all the rest gave us a chance with our first single. We were just kids then, but the whole thing took off and the two-tone thing became a phenomenon. It’s a very important part of British pop culture.”

“But that wasn’t why I got involved with the track, to be honest, I just liked the song and I liked the attitude of the band. I hadn’t made the correlation between the two things, It’s only now when I think about it…”

While there are unmissable tongue-in-cheek moments rife within the LP – whether it be through charging at Suggs with a baseball bat or longing for the return of VHS in ‘Tamagotchi’ – with ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’, Kid Kapichi look to showcase their desire for change in a more coherent and precise way than ever before.

This time around, the album centres on the current climate in the UK, and highlights a snapshot of ‘a forgotten people scratching through the mire of a post-Brexit landscape’.

Discussing the motivation behind the album, namely in light of recent news that 2023 was the “worst year” for grassroots venues being closed across the UK, the frontman recalled why the decline of today’s music scene is something at the “core” of their music, and something fans can relate to.

“It [Brexit] affected everyone so much. It’s such an awful thing that has happened. I think it’s embarrassing and something that we shouldn’t shy away from. It is something that we need to speak out about and not let ourselves live down,” Wilson told NME.

“It’s so hard seeing these venues go, and it also feels like a land-grab, planned attack in lots of ways. We’re seeing these places struggling, but the councils and our government see it as an opportunity, which is really sad. They should be seeing it as an opportunity to import and export this wonderful thing of music… but it feels like we’ve just stopped doing that. It’s horrible but it’s something that we’ve had to deal with.

“We’re in a really lucky position — and this is what worries me about younger bands — that we’ve just gotten past the point of playing in these local venues that are now closing down. And when it comes to playing abroad, we have a team of people now that can sort that stuff out for us. We have enough money to be able to go and do these tours and for the costs not be enough to end it. But there are millions of bands just one level below, and I have no idea how they’re supposed to get over these hurdles now.”

He continued: “The only advice I can really give is to sing and write about what you believe in. Don’t be afraid to say stuff that might rock the boat or that your nan and grandad might get upset about – just really sing about what you believe in, because if you’re performing songs that you believe in, people feel that and people relate to it.

“For us personally, that is why I think people have liked us. They’ve liked what we do and what we talk about, and I think we’re quite genuine with it.”

‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ is set for release on March 15 via Spinefarm. You can pre-order it here. Additionally, Madness’ new album ‘Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie’ is out now via BMG.