"Everything's a rip off." Kicking Bird states that clearly but without irony or apology on their debut album *Original Motion Picture Soundtrack*. The twist however is that while stolen chords or melodies are an inevitability in all music, it's impossible to not filter the work of those who came first through our own cracked and unique lenses. This is where the *Original Motion Picture Soundtrack* shines. We caught up with the band and have an exclusive premiere of the track "Impermanent Assistant" Today!
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
The very first incarnation of Kicking Bird played in Chicago Illinois at the Cobra Club. Our first guitar player Dylan Kloska, also Shaylah's brother, came up with the name based on a movie that had moved them both as kids. When Shaun and Shaylah moved to Wilmington we met Robin and started all playing together. Greg came in next on drums, and eventually I was able to move back to guitar when we found Tom playing in a few local bands and he showed interest in joining us on bass.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Everyone has different roots but pretty much the same story. From Ohio, London, Chicago, and North Carolina all of us started playing music and performing live in various ways very early on. Shaylah and Shaun met in Chicago while both writing individually until eventually collaborating on the indie rock band Chaperone. Finding the rest of the band in the Wilmington music scene was a blessing and a continuation of the pop rock direction everyone had been moving towards individually. Tom was playing in the Frondeurs when we first met him and I instantly knew he was on the same wavelength. The Wilmington music scene has grown a lot in the past few years, evolving past the punk/metal and alt-country bands that have been a staple for years into a lot of really unique rock bands. We love Pleasure Island, Narah, Morning News, Sean & Her Dilemma, and a lot of the rock acts that are popping up in town.
First concert that you ever went to?
When I was 12 my dad took me to see Neil Young. The next day he bought both
of us guitars.
What's your writing process like?
Songwriting normally happens one of three ways. Occasionally one of us writes something from start to finish, music and lyrics. Even then, everyone is left to their own creative style to figure out what they are going to do that fills out the bones. Most often, one of us will come up with a part, a chorus or hook or maybe verse and turn around but still something is missing, and the rest of the band will finish the song. Those are always the best because you'll end up with something unexpected and perfect. Last, there's the rare occasion that a full on warm up jam turns into something we love and can flush out together in the moment. No matter how the main form is acquired, lyrics seem to always be a component that is fine tuned last second.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
This record has some pretty direct inspirations and some more roundabout ones as well. Liam Kazar's* Shoes Too Tight* was a song I heard while walking around the neighborhood one morning and I instantly was caught by the jagged guitar. I went home and started just trying to get that same vibe and eventually landed on the main chords for *Impermanent Assistant,* which gets its name as a nod to Robin's least favorite Paul Mccartney song *Temporary Secretary*. When bands started touring again after 2020 one of the first shows that Shaylah and I went to was Kevin Morby and Hamilton Leithauser. It was amazing and both of those artists have been major influences. I've been chasing Hamilton's ability to control a scream my whole life and his sound definitely can be heard on *Hickory River.* When Shaylah was writing the chords for that song we definitely had Morby's album *Oh My God* in heavy rotation. Robin came up for the initial riff part of *Lauren* and we had jammed it a few times at practice but I wasn't able to get lyrics I liked beyond "Lauren" until I was reading the hobbit one day and the phrase "unexpected party" struck me as fun and quirky. It was easy from there. *238* is a song that popped out almost entirely at once. I was at work and my friend Paul was playing a skate video in the shop and one of the parts featured Joel Alme's *The Way We Used To Beg. *I became obsessed with that song and pretty much ripped it off verbatim and turned it into a song about my beautiful dog.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
Our band is explosive live. It's the most fun and rewarding part of being in a band for me. It's sweaty, we dance, we yell at each other on stage, we crack jokes with the audience. It's communal and I think we've become such a strong family unit that our bond really comes across. We are genuinely blown away when people come out and have a good time and smile at us and we get to meet them. We really just want to have a party with everyone. Mimicking a recording isn't really interesting to me. I want to have it be special every time we play a song. I think that's the hardest part of recording, capturing that same energy. Tom did a great job of getting us recorded in a way that feels really true to that live performance.
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows? worst shows?
We have not been on any tours yet. We've had some really fun times at Satellite here in Wilmington. Our halloween show there was such a crazy party and everybody had so much fun. When people really start moving to the music we feed on that. We'd love to get out and do jaunts in other parts of the southeast or maybe get back to Chicago sometime soon.
What's up next for the band?
We hope to immediately start working on album two. We have a handful of new songs already that we really love and we are super excited to spend some time on the creative side of things. We love having new jams to play for everyone. It keeps us interested and that makes the live performances so much better.
