Start Listening To: KickBoy

From cultural gentrification to the trials of mental health, KickBoy’s music serves as both a mirror and a refuge, inviting listeners to dance in the face of adversity.

In the bustling streets of Bristol, back in 2019, a musical alliance was forged among three souls fueled by a shared passion for garage rock and skate punk. Owen, Chris, and a Jamie laid the groundwork for what would soon become KickBoy. Fast forward to the pandemic era, and fate intervened as the trio found themselves converging in the heart of London, ready to resurrect with the addition of two more kindred spirits: Jules, discovered amidst the digital ether, and Connie, drawn into the fold through serendipitous connections.

Enter "Eat My Soul! Steal My Hands!" — a spirited anthem born from the ashes of a lackluster gig in London's Soho district. Fuelled by disdain for pretentious posturing and the encroachment of corporate culture, the song is a defiant call to arms, infused with irreverent humor and biting social commentary.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Owen, Chris and I met in Bristol back in 2019. We used to play a lot of garage rock/ skate punk - you know, real trash, high energy stuff. Then after covid we all happened to move to London and reformed last year with two more folks. There's Jules, who I met on the the big bad internet. It was on this app basically laid out the same as tinder, but for meeting musicians. And Connie used to date my old flatmate - I recruited them basically immediately when they mentioned they liked HMLTD and played sax. Now we play silly egg-punk sounding stuff. It's all a bit goofy.

‘Vision Shakes’ delves into themes of mental health and disorientation. Could you tell us more about the inspiration behind the single and the decision to explore these topics?

The idea behind the song came when I played a lyricless demo of the song to my brother. He basically said it sounded like something out of Scooby-Doo which I loved, so I ran with that idea and tried to lean into that aesthetic. I thought that mental health, or the dissociative episode that I'd had quite recently and was quite fresh, was a good fit for the sound. So there's this weird juxtaposition of the song sounding a little bit spooky / 90s TV show-esque but also covering quite a dark topic.

That's how I / we write music; usually it’s the the melody and the instruments come first and then I try to fit lyrics around it as a later step.

‘Vision Shakes’ is the first of a series of 5 tracks. What can listeners expect from the rest of the EP in terms of themes and sonic experimentation?

My advice would be not to expect anything! You're not going to get anywhere near what the rest of the EP sounds like because it doesn't make a lot of sense. The overall genre can’t really be pinned down to anything more concise than “disco/funk-influenced egg-punk/garage-rock”.  All the songs are completely different just because we don't like sticking to a singular sound and like to keep things interesting.

Can you tell us more about your latest single 'Eat My Soul! Steal My Hands!'?

I think this is my favourite track from the EP. It's so fun to play, always gets a sick response. It was great fun writing it and I was frantically sending demos to my bandmates within an hour of starting the process.

The inspiration for the track came from going to a terrible gig in central London in Soho. I'm not gonna say who it was because they're quite popular and we'll get eaten alive by their fans. But it was in central London and the crowd ended up all being salary men in shirts, at this 'punk' show - dead atmosphere - and the guys on stage just taking things way too seriously, clearly thinking they were the dog's bollocks. Real pretentious bullshit and I don't have any time for that. It's something I really despise in the scene - just pull your head out your arse and have some fun. They were playing some really cheesy punk rock-n-roll stuff which is fine, but just have some self-awareness in what you're performing man.

Anyway yeah, that's what the song's about, then the stuff about the Michelin Man in the chorus, who's coming to steal your soul etc etc, that's about the corporatisation of the world. The encroachment of businesses and marketing and how it stifles creativity, just like at this show.

This EP introduces a shift in sound with chilling synths and dissonant saxophones. What prompted this evolution in your music?

It was the reason we got Jules and Connie involved. More people just means we can play with more instruments and get some crazier sounds. For example I'd been wanting to get a synth involved for ages - it was Conor's suggestion to go with the Korg monologue, which is the the synth that they use in his band (Conor helped produce and mixed the EP; he’s in the band Home Counties) and it's worked out great with our sort of silly sound. And then sax just sounds sick in every band so that was a no-brainer. In terms of an evolution in general, we’re not sticking with chilling/dissonant - it’s just for this track. The plan was always to jump around genres but it means the trajectory is a little bit weird.

The single features an array of eclectic elements and unpredictable shifts. Can you elaborate on how you aimed to convey the feelings of a panic attack in your music?

There are two sort of aspects to the song. The first is the ethereal verse section where Jules is singing; that's supposed to represent the dissociative aspect of it. The ethereal soundscape - her voice over the lower energy section with the synth, sax and wavy guitar - is supposed to represent a ghost’s dialogue detached from its earthly body. Then on the other hand is the chorus, which is a lot more driving with persistent guitar lines and that's supposed to capture the more panic inducing aspect.

You've recently expanded your lineup with two new members. How has this change affected your sound and the creative dynamics within the band?

I think it's just made everything a lot more fun. Practice is more fun with more people, song writing is more fun with more instruments. You can definitely get a lot more breath of sound in there too.

We've lucked out really, everyone who's joined is super keen to experiment. Although sometimes I feel like I do have to push people into doing my most stupid ideas. Like for our more recent sets I’ve insisted on having an entry song which is always a little bit dumb. That's a good point actually, if there are any readers out there who have ideas for stupid entry music please send them my way. You’ll catch it at our next show on 3rd November if you’re in London.

The subject matter of your songs ranges from cultural gentrification to mental health. How do you use your brand of chaotic humour to address these complex topics?

I think at the end of the day we want to make music enjoyable and for people to have a little boogie. If we don't manage that then it's a lot less fun, plus we’re not very good at being serious on-stage; it wouldn’t really fit if we were playing dirge-y death-core about my well-being problems but all just goofing around on stage (actually that sounds sick maybe we’ll try that).

But at the same time it's these dark topics which are the most interesting for me when writing. I quite like the juxtaposition between the two. So it ends up with quite a lot of humour / sarcasm as that seems like the best way to bridge that gap. There’s humour baked into the melody and writing as well. Like the delivery of “I’m feeling spooky all the time” sounds unhinged and it’s basically the main vocal hook of the song. It’s so ridiculous you can’t really take it seriously, but there’s clearly a second meaning there.

‘Vision Shakes’ is described as "milk-punk". Can you shed light on what this term means to you and how it relates to your music?

It's pretty dumb. Apparently there's a genre out there called egg punk. I hadn't heard of it until someone who works at The George Tavern - a renowned industry professional - said that we fell into that genre. I loved the sound of it, but also thought, well why don't we come up with our own genre? We also reference milk in our only release so far (Portland from Streetview), so we picked that as our substitute food of choice. 

Now I feel like we're in a little bit too deep. We’ve incorporated the word milk into basically all of our songs. If there’s a song which doesn't have the word milk in it then it's in the music video or the album art or something else. It's just a silly little Easter egg that we're now running with. And yeah, I don't think we're ever going to shake it off.

With so many layers and instruments in your music, how do you approach the creative process to ensure everything fits cohesively?

I think that's a bold assumption. I'm not sure whether our instruments fit in cohesively at all. I'll leave that to the listener to decide, but Conor who mixed this EP did an insane job at pulling everything together nicely.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Owen, Chris, Jules and Connie would all give very different answers, but for me, Demon Days by Gorillaz. I feel like Damon Albarn has a very similar philosophy to songwriting. He just loves bringing in crazy genre influences to all their songs. Like what genre is Gorillaz? People would say indie / alternative, but in reality it's like Blur (so Brit-pop), with hip-hop and reggae/dub influence, delivered in this sort of noughties alternative rock aesthetic. It's awesome and all the songs sound so different.

What do you love right now?

Music wise:

The live version of this song La Fila de Tommy's from 2019. Divine chaos: https://spotify.link/0J8K2DAL9Db

Life wise:

My band and everyone working hard with us right now to release this music. Alex, Veronika, Molly, Nadia, Conor. They know who they are <3

They're just our pals, we don't have a manager or label or anything. It's just wonderful creative people.

What do you hate right now? 

Impending doom. 

How are you feeling about your launch tour starting on the 5th May? 

Laughing. Screaming. Crying.

I don't know, it's all a bit surreal.

When I started gigging with Chris and Owen in 2019 the only goal I had was to go to some free festivals, maybe start some mosh pits. Now we're going to other countries and it's got a bit out of hand. It's cool as heck.

Brighton and London folks, y'all better be at the shows or the Michelin Man's gonna eat your soul.