Putting all the tools to good use | The KVB

How would you say your latest album develops on your previous work?

We spent a lot of time creating layers of sound, experimenting with processing instruments and developing textural dynamics across each track. The album takes the cinematic elements from our last release ‘Mirror Being’ and combines them into more familiar, song-based structures of previous works. We both think that this is our best record to date!

It’s a given that the musical landscape has been changing rapidly and dramatically over the last few years. You’ve employed everything from digital distribution to cassettes: was this your attempt at experimenting around for a solution? 

We are just using the tools available to get our music out there, the same as most other bands do. The musical landscape has changed yes, but its up to the artists and industry to keep up with the times and be inventive with how music is released and consumed.

What does the word ‘shoe-gaze’ mean to you? 

Not much, really. It’s a style of music we like the aesthetic of and occasionally reference in our own sound, but it’s just a drop in the ocean of all the different music we appreciate. To be honest I’m only really into a few of the bands associated with shoe-gaze, to me, a lot of it can feel pretty self-indulgent and boring at times.  

Are you looking forward to performing in Malta?

Yes, very much so! We love travelling to and playing in new places, especially places that most other acts don’t get to go very often. It’s also going to be the first time we’ll play songs from the new album live!

About the band

Formed in 2010 by Nicholas Wood and Kat Day, The KVB got started with a number of limited cassette and vinyl releases before their first full-length album, Always Then, arrived in 2012. 

Two more albums, Immaterial Visions and Minus One, arrived the following year, Minus One being a proper release of material that had surfaced before in the form of digital downloads and extremely limited cassettes. 

In 2014, the duo ventured to Brian Jonestown Massacre mastermind Anton Newcombe's Berlin studio to track what would become their Out of Body EP, released later that year on Newcombe’s own A Records label. 

That session would mark The KVB’s first recordings made outside of their own home studio as well as the first time they'd work with drummer Joe Dilworth, best known for his work with Stereolab.