If you visit my profile on Last.fm, you’ll find that my all time top artist is The Reign of Kindo, top album is Rhythm, Chord & Melody, and top song is The Moments in Between, with over 470 scrobbles.
This is a band that I loved. This is a band that should’ve been so much bigger. This is one of the reasons why I’m still in love with music.
I remember someone mentioning Kindo on the Trading Yesterday forum I used to frequent. It was just a short post, just saying “check ‘em out”. No one else was as enamored as I was with the band. As soon as I hit play and heard The Moments in Between, I was in love.
I cannot do it justice, trying to explain it is futile. It’s just such a good song; a never-ending crescendo composed of complex melodies, generating a high like I’ve never felt before.
It’s not a single song that’s good too. They have been brilliant song after song, album after album; producing amazing tracks and live videos over the years.
Here, you can hear and see the original members—Steven Padin on drums, Kelly Sciandra on piano, Mike Carroll on guitar, Jeff Jarvis on the bass, and Joey Secchiaroli as the frontman.
Just Wait is from their first EP. This is also their most jazzy album—the sound moves from jazz rock to indie rock to even more electronica as time passes.
Hold Out is the closing song of their debut album. Talk about ending on a high. Listen to Padin banging away, and Kelly losing himself in the melody.
The first time I listened to the album, and it ended, I was left wanting more. Thankfully, the Japan release had one more song up its sleeve, October’s Storm:
At this point, these videos were the closest thing to a national tour they had. They would release another album, This is What Happens, before they would tour. Kelly would leave right after, leaving keys to Danny Pizarro.
While their styles don’t really jibe, Danny does a good job keeping up with Kelly’s melodies, and gets to show off his style in the upcoming album—and the studio recordings of Kindo songs with the highest production values, paid by crowdfunding.
The Tour
Shortly after the 3rd album, they finally were going on tour… in the USA.
And, due to some conflicts, Kelly effing Sciandra was gonna play the keys on this tour!!! I had to be there!
I was back from Sweden then, struggling to find a company that needed design services and realized that they needed it, and did not have a US visa. I still bought the most expensive ticket the band offered for their Boston gig, and prayed that everything would go right.
At the time, I had been Facebook-friends with all the band members, they already knew I was coming to see them—except for Kelly. He intimidated me, I thought to myself “a guy with that much talent must clearly be very self-absorbed_“. Boy was I proven wrong.
I introduced myself, reluctantly, only to be met with the warmest, most shocked and yet most appreciative welcome I’d ever seen. I got to stand next to him throughout the whole concert, and capture a few songs even, on my DSLR:
This album is so clearly different. Gone are the complex melodies created only by 5-7 basic instruments—you can now expect to find electronic sounds and effects to fill the gaps.
Currently, only two members remain from the original members: Joey on vocals, and Jeff on bass. Everyone else is new. And so is the sound.
Covers
As I’ve mentioned countless times on this blog, I feel the ability to cover a song in their own style is a true testament to their talent, and let me tell you—Kindo absolutely covers.
The EP had a cover of Do You Realize?? by Flaming Lips, and they have multiple videos covering songs like Wicked Game and Black Hole Sun, and my all time favorite Fleetwood Mac cover of Dreams:
…and hey, with Christmas around the corner, their Christmas EP should definitely be on your playlist
When I began this blog, a year seemed like such a long time. Now that I’m running out of weeks, with the format I chose, it seems like I’m going to run out of time before I run out of bands and artists.
Sure, there are some fillers that I regret doing before others. But there was no way I was going to let The Reign of Kindo slip by.
No matter how good I structure this post, no matter how I lay it out, it’s not going to do them justice. I could do a 52 week blog project for Kindo alone.
Therefore, I’m going to finish off with 3 things I truly admire about them:
1. They drop easter eggs into their songs, borrowing melodies and lyrics from others:
- Help It has lyrics she put a feeling in the night in the backvocals, from the song Feeling in the Night
- Second albums Sing When No One’s Around has the same melody from first albums Morning Cloud in the bridge
- Return to Me includes the piano riff from Nightingale
2. Despite all their Christmas songs, the most Christmassy song of theirs to me is Breathe Again. It’s also one of the creepiest song I’ve ever heard—I love it.
3. I Hear That Music Play is the opposite of I’d like to die with the songs I love stuck in my head to me. It’s also that song.
When your heart’s feeling weak,
and nothing seems to remedy—
The weeping of the piano keys,
it’s crying for your pains and needs…
And in the storms you cannot bear,
the chaos swarms and fills the air;
There’s not a soul to mourn with you,
the dissonance is ringing true.
Bonus: Matthew Santos + Kindo
I’ve just remembered this video of Kindo jamming to Matthew Santos’ soundcheck.
There are very talented people on this world. I’m jealous of–and grateful for–every one of them.
(Also, frontman Joey on the bass? There’s a good story on that, coming next week.)