Kinships Turn Inward with Their EP, ‘Vice’

Four piece Northampton, UK base indie pop band, Kinships join us to share all about their second EP release, ‘Vice’, following the success of their previous release, ‘Shapeshifter’.

Formed in 2019, the genre diverse group consists of members, Tom Butler, Dave Crawford, Aoife Foley, and Adam Gammage and creates a soundscape combining vocals, pianos, and guitars with drum machine samples and synthesisers to express their unique musical story.

Kinship’s latest five track EP release, ‘Vice’ talks all about the internal forces that take us over and the journey that we take to find a state of peace of mind.

The EP is a self reflective journey, taking the listener from a place of inner struggle and conflict and working to an ending feeling of calm.

Listening through the tracks, you will hear a combination of delicate, emotional vocals and instrumentation and more edgy and catchy beats and synthesisers.. it’s a feeling of musical polarity that creates a balance between the emotional depth and empowering feeling of moving forward.

You can listen to ‘Vice’ below:

What was it that first brought you together as a group?

Tom and I were working together as we have a shared appreciation for electronic music and other forms of music and  felt our sound needed an added dimension to it and so we asked Aoife to join.

Later, we wanted to play live and so Adam joined on drums in late 2019 to complete the lineup.

How would you describe the feel of your music?

Our music is quite ambient and has a chilled vibe to it with a groove.

We like the more dark side of music but it offers a sense of optimism too.

You have released your new EP, ‘Vice’.. tell us a little about how this EP came about.

We released our first Ep in 2020 (Shapeshifter Ep) and after this was out, we had a lot more ideas which we wanted to finish.

These songs then came together throughout 2021 and Deeper was an early Ep contender which was made BBC Introducing track of the week in April 2021.

From there, the Ep started to take shape as we kind of new what we wanted to say with the Ep direction.

What do the songs on the EP mean to you?

They mean a lot – each one is a little piece of things we experience and things we want to write about and put music to.

If that resonates with listeners then that is even better!

What is your creative process like, when you are creating your music?

I personally create music best later at night when I am most awake 🙂

Tom and I generally start ideas off and pass the projects back and forth, adding sounds and textures and vocal ideas.

Sometimes it takes a while and other times, something just clicks.

There is no real set formulas.

Has there been anything along the releasing process that you would do differently next time?

We would like to look at physical copies in the next release – limited to 250 or 500 on vinyl perhaps.

I really like owning physical copies of music.

How has covid affected your release?

As Tom and I live in different locations, covid was not a massive issue with writing – it did affect being able to gig but then once things re-opened, we played a few locally which were great.

What would success in your music look like to you?

In terms of success, Vice Ep was played on Radio 1’s future music best Ep’s of 2021 show in December which was amazing and we get great support from BBC Introducing which is a great setup. 

Success would be to establish a fanbase, play more shows, a festival or two and play abroad.

Is there any message that you would like to share with your audience?

We just really enjoy what we do and really appreciate all the comments and support from listeners and hope our enjoyment filters through to our audience.

Where can people go to find your music?

Spotify is the most obvious place – https://open.spotify.com/artist/6xMh9v2npz57o20B83u6py?si=68AO7uawQ8CbuuYWQqbsTA

We have instagram too which is https://www.instagram.com/kinshipskinships/