An interview with King Colobus

King Colobus spent a decade shaping Torn Between Age & Perseverance, recording alone in South Devon and turning personal and political weight into baritone driven alternative blues. Songs like Hole confront dementia with restraint, while World On Fire reflects uneasy modern realities. Known for BBC Introducing support and fearless collaboration, Stewart Macpherson arrives here focused and patient, delivering an album that values reflection, endurance, and emotional honesty over immediacy.

Where can we find you right now and what are you up to?

I'm currently focusing on the launch of my album. Being a self-released project, this is taking up a lot of time, but it should be worth the wait!

How would you define success? What is your goal?

Regarding success, I feel like any day when someone discovers (and enjoys) what I do is a day to celebrate. Not the quantity, but the quality. My goal has always been to organically grow and discover places and people through music.

How did you start?

I originally started in a band called Faith Healer when I was 15 years old. It's hard to believe that this was 35 years ago, but I was thown right into the deep end, so I learnt a lot from that experience. I then moved onto a few other bands before relocating to London, where I formed another group called We Were For. I also carried out various session work, which was a new experience that also helped me to further develop as an artist. I returned to Devon in 2012 and formed King Colobus with some old mates, but it always felt like a solo project with 3 other people, hence the reason why it ended up as a solo endeavour.

What is a typical day in your life as an artist?

My typical day as an artist is pretty sporadic...I work as a kitchen designer by day and I have a family - not terribly 'rock n' roll', so I have to find pockets of time to focus on the music. There's a lot of material that one can absorb from day-to-day life and it helps inject reality into my musical content.

What do you think of AI in music?

Regarding AI, I don't think any of my material could have been created with it in the round, but I can see why some people use it as a tool. Whilst none of my music has been produced with it, I did use it for some artwork...I would have had to torch a village to get the front cover of the album and for obvious reasons, this was not an option!

Tell us about your latest or upcoming release.

'Torn Between Age & Perseverance' is exactly what it says on the tin. Given my age, I have been dabbling with the idea of firing up the band again, but this is fraught with the challenges that life throws at all of us. It's an album about politics, religion, personal grief, insecurity and our inevitable ability to be self-distructive.