Kingrow Productions

Kingrow founders, Allen King and Campbell McGill first met when they went to the same high school together in 1994.  They met through a classmate they both had in different classes (a guy referred to as "Jerry 'Woody' West" - whom inspired the duo later on to create a character based on him).  They were introduced to each other through him, and thus the friendship had begun.

It wasn't until a year or so later, in 1995, when signs showed of Allen and Campbell teaming up to create something for the world to embrace.  Since before high school, Allen had dreams of becoming a rock star.  Once Campbell found out about this, and the fact Allen was taking guitar lessons that year, he then showed interest and offered his services in this "band" idea Allen had.

Towards the end of '95, the band (then called "Swede") was beginning to take shape.  Their shared friend, "Woody" was recruited into the band as well (even though they hadn't checked whether or not he could play any instruments...).  Two others were "recruited" - Robert "Bob" Claymore-Squier, and Todd "Toad" Edwards.  Both of which also had characters based on them later on in Kingrow history.  ("Bob" also couldn't play any instruments, by the way, but "Toad" could...however, it was the trumpet...)

After about 6 months to a year after Swede had formed, Allen and Campbell had written lyrics for several songs, fewer instrumental compositions, but a massive 600+ song title list (most of which still exist to this very day!).  However, it was towards the middle of 1996 when cracks started to show.

With Allen being a bit of a control freak back in those days (he's cleaned up his act since then), Campbell found that he was doing a lot of things "Allen's way" rather than being able to chip in as much as he could've.  Because of this, Campbell got tired of Swede and left.  Unfortunately though, the friendship between the duo had been wounded in the process.  It looked (at the time) as though they wouldn't ever be speaking to each other again.  The fact that Woody was being the kind of kid he used to be didn't help matters much either.  Bob ended up leaving school halfway through the year, and eventually lost contact with Allen for quite some time.  Todd remained at the school, however, but due to the fact he didn't get to do much for Swede, it was almost forgotten that he even took part!

The rivalry between Allen and Campbell lasted for about a year and a half.  It's often referred to as "The Dark Ages: Jun-1996 to Feb-1998".  It was a rough year, as they couldn't be in the same room as each other.

HOWEVER!

It was virtually unseen, but inevitable...  Allen and Campbell, in 1998, were placed in the same class as each other.  It seemed hard at first, but because of this fact they couldn't see why the hostilities should continue, and they eventually buried the hatchet (everybody say "Aww!").

With all hostilities put aside, Allen and Campbell started to think back to the days of Swede.  Some forgotten memories emerged, and some stayed forgotten.  But talk of the duo returning to their musical days weren't spoken of at this time.  However, they did have another project in mind...

Filmmaking!

Allen and Campbell decide to explore the world of making videos.  But not just any videos.  What they had in mind in 1998 was to be a comedy sketch show.

For several months, the reformed duo drew out plans of what material to use, what equipment was needed, who else would be involved, etc.  It was possibly their most planned-out (and realistic) project at this time.

However, due to time being against them, and lack of equipment, they settled for the camera owned by their high school, and had to use it within the space of a week.  The reason behind this was because it was their final high school year.

The end result was a video entitled, "Comic Wit".  It wasn't exactly the sketch show they planned out, but fairly close (at least with the newsroom sketch).

Even though the video they ended up with wasn't exactly what they wanted, it served as an important part of their history as an entertainment team.  Not only does this video help them see how they could improve over time, but it also meant that the possibility of a co-owned company could emerge sometime in the future.  Eventually this happened...M.O.S. (Ministry of Sadness) Films!

It was around the year 2000 when Allen (all of a sudden) wanted to work at a radio station.  However, due to his lack of funds (and a job to provide them), he couldn't afford to pay for lessons at broadcasting school.  But he had a Plan-B!

Instead of spending a few years learning the ropes, and a large sum of money in the process, Allen thought it may help if he were to record himself on his computer, pretending to be a radio announcer.  After the recordings were made, the plan was to take them to a radio station of his choice to see if they liked what they heard.

The inspiration of Allen's new passion for radio came from shows he listened to (and sometimes still does) on 92 More FM (a Christchurch radio station in New Zealand), which were hosted by 2 people.  Usually, at least one of them was a comedian.  His shows of choice at this time were the morning crew (Simon Barnett and Phil Gifford [Phil has since been replaced by Gary McCormick]), and the late afternoon crew (James Milner and Chris Parkin [they moved to Wellington's More FM sometime after this period of time]).

Because of the "duo" inspiration, Allen decided to ask his good friend, Campbell, to help out by becoming the second half of the brains behind the recordings.  So, in late 2000 they decided to give it a go.

Their first recording, unfortunately, has since been misplaced.  This is possibly due to either a computer-related issue, or a CD-ROM disc that's gone walk-abouts.  But we can reveal to you now that a few elements from the duo's "Comic Wit" video helped towards creating what is now known as "Episode 1: The Pilot".

In 2001, Allen and Campbell saw a very productive year.  The earliest available recording (Episode 2: Ministry of Sadness) was recorded on Campbell's 21st birthday (24 January).  The title, like all episodes, was given to it in 2004, and is the same name as their filmmaking company.  It was given to this episode as the show was then called "M.O.S. FM".  Episode 2 showed a very amateur way of making an episode.  Not only did the equipment need a lot to be desired, but even the song-editing showed how far the duo has come over the years.

It was sometime around this point of recording episodes when Campbell decided to call Allen "Duckman".  He just randomly started saying it during a recording one day, so as a response to this, Allen started calling him "Weasel".  Thus the name of the duo was born!

Not too long after the completion of this episode, plans were made for the next recording (Episode 3: Crazy Train).  This time it became more experimental, as it flirted with the idea of a "real-time" recording situation.  Some segments were pre-recorded and arranged appropriately, with gaps of silence inserted in certain places.  After which, the last lot of material was recorded in a single take.  The reason for this was to see if they could work under pressure, as if it were a real radio station environment.  In one part of the episode, however, this method proved that they needed more work in this area, as a "commercial break" started in the middle of what they were saying.  Because the blooper intimidated them somewhat, this method was abandoned never attempted again.

Another short time after this recording came the next follow-up (Episode 4: Soundtrack to a Generation).  This was their most laid-out episode when it came to planning.  Allen came up with the idea of a show about TV and movie themes, and chose songs that were relevant to this...theme.  It was also the first episode to be planned out on paper before any recording sessions took place, which is probably why it is the better sounding episode of all the 2001 sessions.

Campbell decided to experiment with a stutter in this episode, and as a result of it, some segments ended up being rather long.  This is (possibly) one of the main reasons the episode itself became the longest - ending up becoming a double-album.

After the recording sessions for Episode 4 were finished, it was left up to Allen (as always) to do the final mixing of the album before putting it onto CD.  But due to procrastination (and some other unknown reasons), the completion of this recording was delayed majorly.  It didn't end up being put on CD until around 2004 or 2005!

It wasn't long after Episode 4's recording when Duckman and Weasel decided to become flatmates.  Some would think that this situation would've lead to a bunch of recordings being made one after the other, since they both lived under the same roof.  But for some unexplained reason, no recordings were made while the duo lived together!

Well, actually that's not entirely true...  The only recording made during the 15 months of being flatmates was a spin-off sketch (recorded like a radio show) based on one of the show's supporting characters, called "The Love Hour with Mr. 'Porno' Poulsen".  Since this recording barely reached the 5-minute mark, it proved that their time living together was their least productive when it came to entertainment-creation.

However, their lack of production from August 2001 to November 2002 was made up for in 2004, when the duo returned to make sort of a "comeback" (Episode 5: Return of the Apocalypse).  By this time, Allen had acquired a copy of better recording software and microphones, which explains why this episode appears to be more easier to listen to than its ancestors.

It was also by this time when Allen seemed to have less of a passion to get into radio broadcasting.  So the original idea behind these recordings was no longer valid, but the duo chose to continue recording anyway just for fun.

Sometime after Episode 5, the duo return again with yet another recording (Episode 6: When Everything Hits the Fan).  Unfortunately though, the lack of passion for radio set in more while recording this episode.  It was completely unplanned and it came across as more amateur than their early work.  After only halfway into the recording, they decided to end the show as they had no more ideas.  The end product lasted for roughly 40 minutes, which is 20+ minutes shorter than usual.

A part of their lack of passion for radio at this time may have been a result of their music projects that year (Kingrow).

It was within a year after the disasterous Episode 6 was made when a short recording for a "possible" upcoming episode was made.  Episode 6 was given both an open and closed ending.  The reason was because if they decided not to continue anymore, the ending would remain valid.  However, if they chose to carry on, the ending would still remain useful.

The short "intro" was recorded sometime in 2005 or 2006, and confirmed that the ending of Episode 6 did not mean the end of the radio show after all.  Strangely enough though, this intro wasn't used until mid-2007.

A true "comeback" from the duo happened in 2007 when they decided to make a compilation album (Episode 7: The Best of Ducksel FM).  This album became a very special one for the duo for a few reasons... The first being their return to the radio/comedy scene, the second being the first album not recorded as a single track like all previous recordings, but most important of all, the third reason being that it became their first album to be released on the Internet!

After the release of Episode 7 (which kind of takes the Star Wars approach when releasing in a particular order), Duckman decided to try and fix all the previous recordings (Episodes 2 to 6) and make them available online for the first time.  This lead to the Remasters Series, which saw various release dates between April 2007 and October 2008.

As a part of the Remasters Series, a plan was made to extend the short Episode 6 by adding new material to the end of it.  Not only was this plan made to reach the traditional hour-long limit, but also to try and make the episode funny (which is something else the episode lacked in 2004).

The duo plan on recording more episodes after the Remasters Series has been released in full.  Episode 8 sees the beginning of a new era in Duckman and Weasel's comedy history, and is considered the beginning of "Season 2" of what is now called "Ducksel FM".  It's been left unspoken of about when Duckman and Weasel plan on quitting comedy altogether.  Chances are this will be in a very distant future.

After a few years of being comedians, Allen and Campbell decided to go back to what started them off as entertainers in the first place - music!  By this time (2004), they hadn't made any songs for 8 years.  It would be familiar territory for them, but it would be a whole lot different this time around than when they started off as Swede in 1995.

Up to this moment in Kingrow history, Allen had already been trying to make himself known as a musician.  Since 2002, he has been promoting the music he made with his high school band, Supertrip, and as a solo musician under the name n-Somnia.  By the time he teamed up with Campbell for a new music project, n-Somnia had already passed its peak moment and was slowly falling out of the spotlight.

Around the time of the new band's formation, Allen came up with the name Kingrow.  The meaning behind it being a combination of Allen and Campbell's real-life surnames.

When Kingrow began, Allen put his n-Somnia project on hiatus to see how far Kingrow would go.  It seemed more promising than the other bands he had going at the time, so eventually in 2006 he announced to the n-Somnia fans that the project will be retired.  After which he put all his efforts into making music for Kingrow (along side of his reunion attempts for Supertrip).

Allen is known for making his music on the PC, and using his audio engineering skills (that he acquired in 1999) for any additional recording samples.  Campbell, on the other hand, hasn't had the same kind of training as Allen, and spends more of his composition skills on a computer program called "Music 2000", which he used on his Playstation 2.  The mixture of the 2 different digital compositions give Kingrow sort of a unique sound, as it isn't very well-known of any other bands using a game console to make songs.

Around 2006, when things were only just starting to come together for the duo, the decision was made for their comedy project to have a name-change.  For years it was called "M.O.S. FM", but that name was hardly ever used anymore.

With the recording of what would become the intro to their 7th episode, the name "Ducksel FM" arrived.  "Ducksel" meaning "Duckman and Weasel".  This was to be their comedy title for a short while, however.

Eventually in 2007, they decided to adopt their recently formed comedy label's name (Ducksel Comedy) as their own title.  Duckman's claim was, "Well, if it worked for a team of comedians that call themselves 'Absolutely', then so be it!"

After some thinking, Duckman thought it would be less cluttering if all of the projects he did with Campbell were all a part of one big organisation.  In 2004, he came up with the solution.

By that time they had "M.O.S. Films" (formed in 1998), "Ducksel Comedy" (formed in 2000/01 as M.O.S. FM, then Ducksel FM), and "Kingrow Music" (2004).  Allen thought it would be easier to name this company by taking a name that already existed.  So he settled for "Kingrow Productions".  The following meeting he had with Campbell saw him presenting the idea to him, and it was welcomed almost instantly.

Thus the birth of Kingrow Productions took place!