Interview with Kite Thief, 2000trees
Kite Thief by Jez Pennington
Kite Thief is a high-voltage expanse of catharsis; an ecstatic space of rage, and a playful moment in time to lose yourself, without fear. Fresh from opening the NEU Stage at this year’s 2000trees, we sat down with the Bristol-based five-piece Kite Thief - Elin Allan (vox), Max Harris and Josh Bailey (guitars), Henry Stone (bass) and Zac Lever (drums) - to chat about their upcoming EP and their advice for anyone just starting their journey building a band.
We heard you’ve been coming to Trees for years but this is your first time actually playing the festival?
Elin, Kite Thief (KT): I've been coming to Trees since I was a teen. I've been coming a lot, constantly, every chance I could. And this is all of their first Trees, so I've gotten to introduce them to it which is very fun. You’re all very happy I think. You liking it You liking it? You all very happy I think. Yeah, it's tough. It was sick.
Kite Thief (KT): Now that we’ve played it'll be really nice to enjoy the festival. Now the stress is gone.
Kite Thief by Jez Pennington
How was your set?
(KT): Better than I think we ever could have imagined. We're opening the stages side of the festival, where Forest Sessions was on last night. But we were one of the first bands to play so we didn’t expect many people to be there because it was quite early. But it was absolutely rammed. It was like a dream come true for us really.
How are you finding the rest of the festival?
(KT): It's nice to have like somewhere like this press and band area where artists can kind of just come and mingle and chat. We’re also camping with our friends who are in other bands. We keep bumping into people we know. It’s a proper bit of community.
Can you tell us about how you first came together?
(KT): We all got together through uni. We went to uni together in Bristol and we had to assemble a band for one of the exams.
Kite Thief by Jez Pennington
Really?! Your exam was to put together a band and then you thought, oh well that’s nice that works.
(KT): Yeah we just had to create one song to person. And then we were like, well that was good.
That was around the end of the first year. We were lucky that we then had the better part of two, nearly three years, just working together, going to practise multiple times a week. Like a crash course in how to be a band which set us up to do be able to do more stuff at a quicker pace.
You’ve got a few singles out and we’re hearing talk of an EP?
(KT): So our latest single came out February of last year and since then we've just been writing. We got with some management who have been great in helping us out. Now we have an EP on the way! It’s recorded and just being finalised now, so that’s the next big step for us. In the next few months you’ll be seeing more and more and more come from us.
We know we haven’t released music in a long time. We’ve been busy gigging, touring, and really just getting our shit together. So this should be quite a lot of music coming at once.
Kite Thief by Jez Pennington
What do you think this new EP signifies for you as a band?
(KT): It's definitely a new chapter. Up to this point we’ve only been releasing singles. And with each new single we’ve kind of introduced a new flavour. I think we’ve showed our versatility; that we’re not just one sort of style or breakdown. But this now feels like an entirely new songwriting approach. It’s like a whole new ecosystem of who we are.
It’s angry. Really energetic. Something you can mosh to, dance to, bang your head to. Whatever moves you’re capable of, you can do it.
What about the new music is angry?
(KT): It began when I (Elin) started going through an awful breakup after a longtime relationship. And then a few months later Max had the same thing. So together were just writing loads. And we wanted to really come at it with a bang. Because of that it all feels really quite raw.
It's raw emotion, a lot of attitude. Raw is definitely the best way to describe it. Every bar of the music has an emotion set into it. There's no filler for us. We’ve been very intentional about the writing to make sure it represents the story of each song and takes listeners on a journey each time.
You said you’ve been playing a lot of shows over the last year, two years, so we assume really building up your fan base. With this new EP, is there anything you want new listeners to get from you and their experience listening to your music?
(KT): The most important thing for us to bring across to people is just about fun. Our whole thing is about trying to make this type of music fun and enjoyable for everyone. And that’s kind of what our show is about. Even though we're playing some really heavy stuff, we want it to be for everyone to have a good time.
Kite Thief by Jez Pennington
Are there any tips you would share with any other young bands that maybe don’t have access to that education, or what skills they should be focused on in addition to playing music?
Elin, (KT): Don't take yourself too seriously. When you get social media, don't just be sharing posters about new music and gigs. Show yourself. I think that's more valuable than we realised when we started. Actually people just want to get to know us as well.
Max, (KT): We definitely know now the more personal content we put out, that would show behind the kind of veil, shows we’re real people and everyone gravitates towards that. It might be “rock and roll” but everyone’s still a normal person. Don't take yourself too seriously, for sure.
Henry, (KT): Spread out the work between you. When we started, we were getting all five of us to sign off on everything we chose to do. Every single post, every email, just everything. And it makes it all take so long. And now, we delegate stuff across the band now and it's so much easier. We can get way more done because we're not waiting for stuff to happen. One person takes care of merch and another takes care of demos and someone else takes care of money and admin.
Max, (KT): We realised we can't all be good at everything so we needed to play to our own strengths and weaknesses. I’m not that good at social media but Elin really loves doing it. It’s about finding roles that people thrive in and giving everyone that room to grow and show what they can do.
For instance, like Zac now, we only just discovered that he's really good at writing riffs. We thought he was just a drummer and now all of a sudden he's writing full songs for us.
Zac, (KT): I don't even play drums really? I would definitely say as well to younger bands on the musical side of things to just try everything. Don't turn something down in the songwriting process. I think that was a big thing for us. We had ideas and would stop ourselves for some silly reason. But we've learned to try it anyway because if it works, that’s fantastic, and if it doesn't then at least you’ve tested it and now you know, and it could spark an idea for something else. So just try anything and everything.
Josh, (KT): And everyone's opinion is valid. We learned that the hard way, thinking one idea is better than another. But you’ve got to try everything. Otherwise you’ll miss something. And some thing's are like happy accidents that make the thing you’re working on so much better for it.
Huge thanks to Kite Thief for taking time to chat with us. Stream Kite Thief on Spotify and stay tuned for the release of their new EP later this year.
