Karmadillo bring Divine Comedy meets Noah and the Whale vibed songwriting onto the stage with catchy tunes ranging from the melancholy to humourous. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’ll change your life. Who would have thought an instrument traditionally made from armadillo’s would have such an affect?

Karmadillo Now

We are a four piece though sometimes we play acoustically as a duo and when Rishi hasn’t showered, solo. Rishi, currently based in London and Cambridge, is the main songwriter and frontman – he picked up a charango whilst doing volunteer work in South America in 2002. It inspired him to cut his hair and stop playing in metal bands. The first gig he performed with a charango as Karmadillo was coming on stage before David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) headlined the Bracknell Out There Festival – its all been downhill since then.

Live the full band has entertained as audiences with their witty feel good music with insightful commentary and ballads from small boats to being on stage at big festivals.

2009 was a busy year. Following a storming appearance at the London Ukulele Festival a ukulele based record label is in discussion and the first Karmadillo single ‘Facebook Makes This Bit Easy’ is due to launch in 2010. In addition this August saw Karmadillo hit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival supporting Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls fame and Thomas Truax.

It also saw a couple of lineup changes as a standard lineup evolved to change the format from being an acoustic band first and foremost to a full on band with drums and guitarist, adding the hillbilly rock’n'roll vibe that some of the songs have been crying out for. We are currently planning a tour to go with the single launch for the first half of 2010 and then to get a new album off the ground later in the year.

Karmadillo Then

For a bit of history, here’s the story in the earlier incarnations of Karmadillo. After a bit of tinkering and figuring out a musical direction he was joined by James Thomas on bass and Kate Newell on oboe and a variety of other instruments. This saw the launch of their self released first album in 2006 – ‘Crunchy On The Inside’.

After Kate left it was decided a drummer was the way ahead. Juliette Jones, of Cambridge punksters the Saffs, came on board for a while, but she wandered back into the punk arena with ‘Beverly Kills’. Her replacement Phil Johnson came on board in 2009 and has slotted in perfectly.

2009 has been a busy year. Following a storming appearance at the London Ukulele Festival a ukulele based record label is in discussion and the first Karmadillo single ‘Facebook Makes This Bit Easy’ is due to launch in November. In addition this August saw Karmadillo hit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival supporting Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls.