History of Charlie Comes First

Mervin Scott truly falls into the gifted minority of innovative talents walking the Earth’s surfaces with an inborn, yet exquisitely polished, ability to write and perform a unique and commercially indiscriminate style of music.

Born in the musical hub-land of Brixton (South London) in 1969 (the year of the moon landing!) when Jimi Hendrix was very much still alive, Scott stood out from his siblings, peers and, well, everyone. At school, his fellow classmates would boast of their popular love for all things reggae and hip hop while Scott’s excitement was placed in future legendary artistic greats like The Beatles. An apprenticeship with his dental technician father during his late teens was short-lived as Scott joined more than fifteen other apprentices who fell victim to his father’s lack of patience.

Just like Lord Killing Ling, the frontman (and Scott’s alter-ego) of the virtual band Charlie Comes First, a fascination with motorcycles influenced a decision to uptake a job as a motorcycle messenger. “A motorcycle messenger?” his parents would have yelled, but this turned out to be unsuspectingly instrumental in unlocking an almost bulging bubble of artistic potential. Having little time to pen compositions with a demanding and arguably frenetic delivery schedule, Scott’s lonesome journeys during his day job left him to entertain himself with his own thoughts. The freedom that despatch riding afforded him gave ground to an ability to compose songs mentally. In 2006, Scott’s magnificent brainchild, Charlie Comes First, took life.

The inimitability of the Charlie Comes First collective is a mirror to Scott, reflecting a one-of-a-kind persona – a noticeably pervasive quality throughout his works. It becomes apparent whilst listening to Scott’s painstakingly crafted musical masterpieces that his songs represent everything that ‘normality’ is not; an embrace and magnification of new ideas and approach rather than the mundanely recycled “tried and tested.”

Charlie Comes First is the product of one man’s emotional and cerebral journey through a maze-ridden life, drawing on milestone events that paved the way for a modern-day prodigy to bring his ideas to fruition.A significant by-product of this voyage has been the synergy of Scott and Misha Nikolic, whose dexterity in musical production gave an added breath of life to Scott’s compositions in which listeners are invited to immerse themselves. Scott puts it neatly:

“The finite musicianship of Misha Nikolic gave flesh to the lyrics, drums and guitar riffs swimming in my head.” He then adds, “…the Punk Clown characters that make up the virtual band, Charlie Comes First, is taken from the influences of punk rock visually dressed up as clowns.”

Charlie Comes First is a composition of five dissimilar personas with similarity in artistic vision, each with their own unconventional traits, engaging intensely in the creative process that serves to stockpile music designed for unadulterated mass enjoyment.

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Q&A's

Q: How would you describe Charlie Comes First in one sentence?
A: An innovative rock musical phoenix rising from a burning fire of raw poetry.

Q: What influenced you to conceive a virtual band rather than pursuing the more traditional route of using live members?
A: I’ve studied other bands, both past and present. With a virtual band, there are no egos to contend with, no arguments, unless the creator writes this in. This allows me to control and manage a band single-handedly in a way that doesn’t compromise the ongoing production and delivery of quality music. Gorillaz group is probably the most obvious comparator, but only in so far as it being a virtual band.

Q: In the biography segment of your press pack, you hint at a connection between Lord Killing Ling and yourself. Does Lord Killing Ling allow you to act out certain dreams that you would, perhaps, otherwise not fulfil in real life?
A: In a nutshell: Yeah! He rides a vintage Harley Davidson!

Q: Tell us some more about Kill Switch. Is she based on a real life person and is there anything more we ought to know about her relationship with Lord Killing Ling?
A: I once went to see a female band play live in Camden and saw this band member going ape on the drums, only except she didn’t look like a primate but more of an attractive and talented player with great energy. Kill Switch has a real edge to her; so cool yet so alive with a fiercely independent streak about her. As to her relationship with Lord Killing Ling, well, I’ll keep you guessing – go wild!

Q: Who do you most credit as your role model(s), both personally and professionally as a musician?
A: This is a commonly asked question. My honest answer is that I don’t really have one in either category, but have always valued music industry greats like the Beatles to name just one. Just look in the mirror and have confidence that you will be the best you can be and work towards that destination point. John Lennon was a prodigious artist and could have contributed so much more had his life not ended prematurely from tragic circumstances.

Q: How would you plug your self-entitled debut album ‘Charlie Comes First’? What was your thought-process whilst penning together this work?
A: Charlie Comes First is a conflation of a several works entitled Albums A, B and C, which were produced at different times in my life and so combine to offer cherry-picked reflective accounts of my state of mind and experiences. Albums A and B (or two-thirds of the final Charlie Comes First if you like) were penned during my early twenties whereas Album C presents a mature perspective as it was written some ten years later. The end-product is a work depicting a unique life journey throughout the ages.

Q: If you could take any two luxury items with you to a desert island, what would they be and why?
A: A Lear Jet (a Gulfstream if anyone’s offering) with a full-tank and a highly-qualified doctor. Both are lifesavers! Neither comes cheap, but your question does mention ‘luxury’ and so I’m taking that literally!

Q: Is your approach to write your songs first or write once you have the music?
A: Many of the songs are composed mentally and the music is added afterwards to help tell the story. It’s a whimsical process.

Q: What is the future for Charlie Comes First?
A: There is neither shortage of material nor vision! I have both a romantic acuity of ‘what can be’, counterbalanced with a business blueprint to see this through to fruition. My music is the product of an unwavering appetite to innovate. So long as this continues to burn inside me, Charlie Comes First will grow and permeate an industry purpose-built for mass enjoyment. I will carry on producing fresh, exciting material to appease the taste buds of the music-hungry.

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