“We're here to forget about the real world for a little bit”

After a stay in hospital led to several cancelled interviews, Steven looked into the abyss of this weekend's interview. A call out on social media led to an introduction to karaoke host Adam Ashford-Smith, and 24 hours later, they were meeting in Sittingbourne to discuss what goes into hosting karaoke events, the etiquette, and how to make karaoke accessible for diverse audiences...

What is your official occupation? 
At the moment, karaoke host and singer.

And do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid? 
House spouse, which I believe is the more current term. 

When did you first get into karaoke?
Growing up, we would regularly have family parties. Me, my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. We would sing on my uncle's karaoke setup. He had a typical karaoke box with lots of tracks that he bought online. We would sing at family parties like Christmas, New Year's, birthdays. We were just having good fun with it. Then, roughly about uni time, so 2011, I started looking at more advanced systems I could do myself, rather than relying on my uncle's. I just wanted my own system for my parties if my uncle wasn't available. I found software I could use. I found the various tracks I could use, and I've slowly evolved from there into what it is today.

When did you make the decision to turn it into a business? 
In 2019, I started doing it for the Yellow Stocks micro pub, just on the fly, here in Sittingbourne. About 2022, after having lost my job due to illness and disability, I then decided I needed to make money somehow. 'Let's branch this out, let's start dabbling a bit further into this.'

I'm guessing 2020 was a challenging time to host karaoke.
In 2020, it just hit a standstill. It was a massive stop, and it was pretty much sitting there waiting for pubs to say that they were open to doing it, but also waiting for the government guidelines to work out when was the safest time to do it. Which ended up being two years later. It was a very long pause.  

Can you do a karaoke Zoom party? 
You can. There's quite a bit of delay. A lot of people within the karaoke community did end up doing it on an online Discord channel. Lots of karaoke DJs, KJs or karaoke hosts like myself would all get onto this Discord, and they would all sing on there. Or have friends, family join on that or regulars they know would want to take part.
I personally didn't get involved in that myself, but that was mostly due to being new to the community and perhaps a little bit shy. But I do occasionally do a little karaoke thing with my mates online. They mostly listen to the songs. They don't really like to take part in the singing. But mostly it's just me going out into the public and setting it up for everyone post-covid. 

We welcome anyone who wants to take part and take a crack at it, regardless of how shy they are

What makes you a different host? 
I'd like to think that we're different, because as well as being a karaoke host, I'm also a singer, so I do get up there and I sing myself and I do my best with it, but we also provide a full live setup, rather than just a typical karaoke box. It's like you would be going to see a live act, but you are the live act or basically a wannabe rockstar. You've got a high-quality sound set at your disposal. You've got a singer to fill in with the quiet periods, but we've also got the family friendly and disability friendly focus. We welcome anyone who wants to take part as long as they don't go over the top. We do have some, being pubs and bars, who maybe take it a little bit too far now and then. We welcome anyone who wants to take part and take a crack at it, regardless of how shy they are. If they are shy, we can sing with you if you want, if we know the song. Usually, for the more popular songs, that would be my wife taking part with them and singing with them. I don't have that much of a pop music taste myself.

What is it that makes your karaoke friendly for those with special educational needs?  
Well, the main thing is that we just look out for them. We try to make sure that their needs are covered. As well as special educational needs, it's also disability friendly. If you're in a wheelchair, we adjust. If you have got autism, like me, then we try to help with those social aspects of it. If it is to the point where you're practically non-verbal, it's letting them go up to the mic and do what they want to do and not mocking them for it and making sure nobody mocks them for it.
A good example, I'm not going to name him, I'm going call him Michael. He was a regular at one of our venues that we were at last year, and he would slur his words a lot, and he wouldn't get the pitch right. He would go from quiet to loud, and I would always try and make sure that people would applaud him rather than mock him or imitate him in a bad way. It's to give people the confidence to do what they want to do and have fun, and karaoke isn't about being spot on perfect anyway. It's about having a laugh. It's making sure that people are having fun regardless of who they are and what background they are.