Kinships discuss new 'self-reflective' EP, Vice

Vice is out now on regular streaming platforms.
Kinships. Photo by Hollie Peck.Kinships. Photo by Hollie Peck.
Kinships. Photo by Hollie Peck.

Kinships celebrated the release of their second EP Vice earlier this month with a headline gig at The Black Prince in Northampton.

The follow up to last year’s Shapeshifter EP, Vice sees Kinships continue to refine their juxtaposition of samples and synthesisers alongside guitars, drums and vocals.

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Multi-instrumentalists Dave Crawford and Tom Butler met in 2019, both sharing a love of indie and electronic music.

The following year, bassist and singer Aoife Foley and drummer Adam Gammage completed the line-up, formally bringing together Kinships.

To mark the release of their new record, Crawford and Butler sat down for a run through of tracks on their new record, written and recorded during lockdown.

“A lot of this record came together through that period and I think because of that, it's quite a self-reflective collection of songs,” explains Butler.

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“We had to spend so much time with ourselves over that period, I went very inward.

“With a lot of these songs, we didn't go in with a theme in mind but a lot of these songs are me thinking about how I behave around people, different situations you're in and how you respond to them.”

The five track EP features the songs Deeper, Dissolve, Reform, Recover and the title track Vice.

Talking about the opener, Crawford said: “This was one of the songs we entered for a BBC Introducing Live Lounge competition and there’s a live version on YouTube which we're really proud of.

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“It felt a natural choice as the first track on the EP and it’s also the first track where we had Tom and Aoife’s vocals going backwards and forwards between each other and then coming together in choruses.”

Of the second track Dissolve, Crawford says: “This is another where the vocals are a big part of the choruses, but it has more of an electronic feel to it in the middle parts.

Butler added: “We've only just added this one into the live set, it's more electronically led compared to Deeper which has more of an indie vibe.

“That one is led by a repeating guitar loop, where as Dissolve is more keys led, it's a fun track and has this big build in the middle.”

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Reform was the second track Kinships released off Vice as a single earlier this year.

Crawford said: “This one is quite a slow burner, it’s quite a laid-back song and has got an amazing big vocal from Aoife on the choruses.

“There's some great unexpected little bits on the guitar throughout it.”

Butler adds: “Reform kind of kicks in right at the end with quite a wall of sound.”

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Fourth track Recover is described by Crawford as “the most direct track” on the EP, explaining: “Recover features Adam’s drums, where originally we had loops.

“It didn’t really have the right vibe to it so Adam recorded some drum beats, we chopped them up and it all started coming together properly.”

Butler added: “I started writing that song with just a little synth loop and a drum beat, right during the first lockdown last year.

“It’s an interesting one because I kind of wrote it about having a bit of a meltdown with my girlfriend due to lockdown – all of a sudden being in that quite intense world of having to constantly be with each other.

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“There was so much time where you can't do anything else and feeling everything was on top of me.

“It came very much from being in that lockdown and responding to a relationship.”

The EP closes with its title track, which was recently picked by BBC Introducing in Northampton as a Track of the Week.

Crawford said: “Vice is a bit strange, it's quite different, it’s a song more influenced by our dance influences.”

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Butler adds: “It’s structured more like an electronic track.

“Most of our songs have traditional song writing elements and structure, where as Vice doesn’t really have a chorus, it’s a more back-and-forth vocal and then some strange bits in between.”

Following the release of Vice and looking ahead to 2022, Kinships are hoping to play more gigs to promote the record as well as continuing to work on new material.

Crawford said: “I love artists which push boundaries a little bit, which do things a bit differently and that’s what I hope we can do with Kinships.

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Butler concludes, “I think we naturally both lean towards slightly more melancholic sort of sounds, that's the kind of music we both enjoy listening to and writing.”

Vice is out now on regular streaming platforms. For more information, visit https://linktr.ee/kinships

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