King Nobody – M2TM 2026
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Band name: King Nobody
Location: Glasgow/Ayr
Genre(s): Groove Metal
Bathgate Heat: https://www.eventim-light.com/uk/a/64e4bd9fe21f656bd75a0c93/e/692857865e496e1e628138e8
It’s not the first turn at M2TM for King Nobody. They carved their way to the 2024 Glasgow Semi-final, in a beast of a bill, alongside Medusa Touch, Eld Varg, and Catalyst Symphony. Now they’re back in the Bathgate Heat again, but they’ve brought some chaos to stages inbetween.
On the highlights, the band comment : “There’s been a few, but raising £900 for a local charity, by playing a headline gig in a packed Garage Attic was amazing. That means a lot. “
Vocalist, Jack McPhillips explains: “The Common Wheel is a local charity who help people with mental health, addiction, or memory issues find hobbies and support grounds. They helped me when I was going through a really difficult time, got me into rock climbing and helped me find a lot of new friends who were in similar positions.”
“Unfortunately, in the year or so leading up to the gig, we lost one of the members of the group to suicide, and another through natural causes, so although I did want to give back to the charity who helped me, the gig was dedicated to them. Joining us on the night was Misophonia, and The Underneath. Unfortunately, I had the flu on the night but I still went for this. I just didn’t sound great for doing an hour and a half set. Had to keep going off during solos to have some soothers…“
“Headlining the Flying Duck to celebrate the release of our EP, A Man So Forlorn, was also amazing” Jack continues.
“The EP launch show was something we’d had planned for awhile but kinda came out of nowhere at the same time. We knew we were doing it, but time went so quickly. Fortunately, Callum knew the boys in Reckage who were really up for playing with us. I’d noticed A Dose of Death from that years M2TM actually, and really liked their whole vibe, their theatrical nature is something I’d started to add to KN, so thought we’d work great together and wanted to get them onboard- which they thankfully were up for.”
“Just before the gig, like days before, Ozzy had passed away so we agreed to open with the start of War Pigs and we all wrote ‘Ozzy’ across our knuckles. The other bands done their own Sabbath covers as well, which was awesome to see. At the end, we were being asked for an encore, which we hadn’t planned for, and ended up winging a cover of Be Prepared from The Lion King.“
King Nobody – M2TM 2026
“The EP itself, all but one song had been written for maybe 4 years by the time we’d released it.” he says.
“Seppuku was written, unwritten, written again, and so on lyrically because it was such a sensitive subject, talking about death and grief as well as suicide and mental health. I’d had a loss in the family and ended up disappearing to London for a week, shut myself in a hotel room with a bottle of whisky and my laptop, and just wrote the lyrics to these songs that Callum had wrote. Those are the ones that would make up 4/5ths of the EP.“
“Recording wise, Callum does all our recording (it’s handy having someone with a masters in music production in the band). We kept it simple, very much an old school feel to a lot of the songs. For the cover of the EP, man the artist blew it out the water. We’d went to her with a concept based on a Fallout New Vegas DLC, and she ran with it like crazy. It’s all painted as well, which isn’t something you see much anymore. I love it, I think I showed everyone I could when it was sent to us.“
In closing, Jack states “For the new stuff, we’re definitely moving in a different direction.“
“Still keeping that core groove sound, if anything leaning more into it. But we’re experimenting and having fun with it. For me, lyrically, I’m really having a lot more fun with what I’m writing, going a bit more out there with wacky concepts. We released a song as part of a charity album in October called Hand of a Fool, which I wrote about Yugioh, so definitely a bit different lyrically.”
“We’ve got another song, Carbon Neutral Cannibal, that Kieran wanted me to write about a Frankie Boyle joke about the economic benefits of cannibalism… so yeah, just having a bit of shits and giggles whilst trying to make better music than we have previously, bigger sounds, more production. I think we’re at a point where we can afford to experiment, try stuff we maybe wouldn’t have thought to try a few years ago, and start moving towards doing bigger concepts. It’s starting to show in our live shows as well, with new stage outfits and theatrics. I’m excited, to sum it up.“
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King Nobody – M2TM 2026
