Interview: Resident Upheavel – Jim Kroft's Extended Stay at Jianghu

England. Germany. China. The stamps on Jim Kroft's passport keep accumulating, but the singer-songwriter has covered far more emotional ground. Kroft tells us about that journey, ahead of the start of his September residency at Gulou's Jianghu Bar.

How do you keep things fresh night after night during a residency?
I did it in Berlin, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I have a bunch of unreleased songs that I'll perform. And I'll write and play new songs in Beijing. Touring is incredible, but you're often just passing through. With a residency, you get to know a city.

Tell us more about your stint in Berlin
We arrived in 2007 without organizing anything, squatting in a venue called Arts House Tacheles. They were incredibly supportive, putting my band up onstage night after night. It became an intermittent, two-year residency. Before that I was in London, gigging very regularly with my old band. We recorded in a studio next door to the Black Eyed Peas, and The Libertines were down the hall. But it was so saturated there. Our rehearsal room cost 600 Euros a month. In Berlin, it was free. If you play a headline show in London, the bookers stipulate that you can't play for several weeks beforehand, to whet people's appetites. Berlin was more laissez-faire.

Then you had a mainstream breakthrough
I got a solo deal at EMI last year. It was like a dream, to be on this huge label. But almost a week after my record came out, Universal took over. The first thing they did was kick off all the newcomers. New things have opened up since then. Major
label albums, with huge budgets, have so many sound engineers. My drummer had to be in perfect synch with the synthesizers. It was a huge ordeal. Now I’m going to release a series of EP's called Journeys. I hope to do some writing and recording in Beijing for the next installment, and take it to my next residency in Zanzibar, Tanzania. I hope to do more residencies into 2015.

Being dropped from a label can't be easy
Yeah, especially at first. But even if I was EMI's biggest artist, I'd never be able to do a residency in Beijing. I'd be doing a festival, then leaving. I've learned time and again that life doesn't give you what you want, but what you need.

Catch Jim nightly during his residency at Jianghu Bar from Sep 1-12.

This article first appeared in the September issue of the Beijinger.

Photo: Courtesy of Jim Kroft