King Khan

Arish Ahmad Khan (born January 24, 1977), better known by his stage name King Khan, is a Canadian musician/producer/artist/writer.

He is best known as the frontman of King Khan and the Shrines and for being one half of The King Khan & BBQ Show.

Khan was born in Montreal to an Indo-Canadian family.

Khan had been since the end of 1994 in a Black Flag and Pavement-influenced band known as the Maury Povitch 3, a band that existed until its demise some time in 1996.

King Khan was a member of a number of Canadian garage bands including the Spaceshits, a frantic garage punk outfit formed in mid-1995.

The Spaceshits were established in mid-1995, featuring lead vocalist Mark Sultan, who was previously the drummer in a band called Powersquat in the Montreal suburb of Chateauguay.

In August 1995, following several lineup changes, he also became the Spaceshits' bassist and for several months would play shows for both bands.

The Spaceshits inherited Powersquat's reputation for violent stage shows.

At first, sets lasted no longer than 10 to 15 minutes, during which the band or members of the audience would create disturbances, at times including fireworks or food fights.

Eventually the band's raucous live shows would lead them to be effectively blacklisted from many venues in Montreal, particularly after an April 8, 1996 set in support of the New Bomb Turks.

As his circle of fellow troublemaker musicians grew, in 1999, he helped create a "death cult" of such musicians, originally known as the "Kukamongas" with identifying tattoos and a love for real rock n' roll.

He used the Blacksnake moniker while in the Spaceshits whose two full-length albums were released on Sympathy for the Record Industry.

He has spent a considerable amount of time in collaboration with former Spaceshits bandmate Mark Sultan in the two-man band, The King Khan & BBQ Show.

Since 1999, King Khan has performed as leader and front man of King Khan and the Shrines, a psychedelic soul nine member band.

Another notable incident occurred on April 30, 1999, just before the beginning of a European tour, while the band was promoting a new Sultan Records release.

As the first act, the Scat Rag Boosters, was performing, the venue's owners got into an altercation with Khan, injuring his hand and leading to the destruction of a television.

This incident caused the two remaining bands, Lyle Sheraton and the Daylight Lovers, as well as the Spaceshits, to refuse to play, and they encouraged the audience to seek refunds.

Since 2005, he resides in Berlin, Germany with his wife and two daughters, including the musician Saba Lou.

In 2005, Khan made his first film soundtrack for Schwarze Schafe (directed by Oliver Rihs).

They signed to Vice Records in 2008 and Merge Records in 2013.

In early 2009, King Khan collaborated with Mark Sultan and the four members of the Black Lips to form a gospel supergroup called Almighty Defenders.

Their debut album was released on Vice Records on September 22, 2009.

In 2014, King Khan had the vision to celebrate Black Power using the mystic language of tarot.

He chose 26 African American people who he felt followed a true path of illumination despite being born in a country that was so corrupt with racism and vehemently against them.

Khan had studied the tarot over a decade and was given a deck of the Tarot de Marseilles by Alejandro Jodorowsky while he visited him at his home.

Jodorowsky's personal teachings paved the way for Khan to understand the tarot much deeper than ever before.

The mission behind the "Black Power Tarot" was to add a heavy dose of surrealistic mythos to American history by replacing the archetypes of the Major Arcana with the chosen people thus giving the world a new deck.

Khan shared this vision with Belfast artist Michael Eaton who then came up with the drawings.

Khan provided him with many specific design instructions to stay true to the sacred geometry of the Marseilles deck, so that this deck could be used in the same way.

Khan then presented the drawings to Jodorowsky, who was asked to approve of each one.

Jodorowsky approved 17 of the 22 cards in the first round.

Khan & Eaton made the proper changes to the 5 remaining cards until they finally received Jodo's blessings and the supreme honour of being two of his spiritual warriors.

In August 2015, Khan announced the creation of his own record label Khannibalism, a joint venture between himself and Ernest Jenning Record Co. The label has released a series of four singles from the soundtrack to the film The Invaders, as well as full-length albums from William S. Burroughs, Khan, The Black Lips (with the Khan Family) and Saba Lou.

In 2016, he scored the film Back To Nothing (directed by Miron Zownir).

In 2018, Khan was asked by Rapid Eye Movies to replace two soul songs in the film Blue Film Woman (directed by Kan Mukai) a soft core Japanese "Pink Film" made in 1969, restored and to be re-released in 2019 by Rapid Eye Movies.

In 2018, King Khan started a new punk rock collective called "Louder Than Death".

The first release on In The Red Records featured long time collaborators Sean and Erin Spits (from The Spits), Drew Owen (Sick Thoughts) and Saba Lou.

In 2019, he scored and was music supervisor for a documentary film about civil rights called The Invaders (directed by Prichard T. Smith).

In 2019, Khannibalism plans on releasing the King Khan Experience, The Complete Invaders Film Soundtrack, Saba Lou's second album.

King Khan then recruited the Magnetix and Fredovitch from Bordeaux to back him up and they recorded the "Stop Und Fick Dich" LP will be released in 2019 by In The Red Records.