Kiran Leonard shares new single and adds new tour dates
KIRAN LEONARD SHARES NEW SINGLE “UNREFLECTIVE LIFE”
ANNOUNCES LONDON SHOW AT MOTH CLUB ON 27TH NOV AS PART OF HUGE UK & IRELAND TOUR
NEW ALBUM WESTERN CULTURE RELEASED 19TH OCTOBER 2018 ON MOSHI MOSHI
Kiran Leonard recently announced details of a brand new album Western Culture, released 19th October 2018 on Moshi Moshi.
Today, he shares new single “Unreflective Life”, intended as a counterpoint to what he feels is a total misunderstanding of the way we use the internet. The song rails against trite clichés associated with the web: zombie-like scrolling automatons, rampant narcissists, and so on.
https://youtu.be/nGeK4two5uU
https://youtu.be/nGeK4two5uU“The internet is not about total self-absorption, or attracting users to look in our direction,” says Leonard. “It is a complete paralysis, a disarticulation of the self which is caused by the act of looking outwards and being subsumed by the vastness of the violence we witness. Remember that Narcissus saw nothing beyond his reflection in the lake; the user of computers instead perceives every particle of dust suspended in the water and so loses sight of themselves.”
“Unreflective Life” follows the success of the BBC Radio 6 Music-playlisted lead single “Paralysed Force”. New album Western Culture marks a huge sonic progression due, in part, to the involvement of his venerable live band (Andrew Cheetham on drums, Dave Rowe on bass, Dan Bridgewood-Hill on guitar, synth and violin) on record for the first time. It is also the first Kiran Leonard album to have been made in a professional studio.
“It was nice not having to spend 2+ years recording an LP in drips in my front room,” says Leonard. “It was mostly smashed out over nine days or so makes it a lot more focused than my long-ass records usually are. I think it’s both more accessible and more peculiar than my other records. There’s a nice Bon Jovi solo at the end of the seventh track “Unreflective Life”.”
Kiran Leonard is a 22 year old musician from Saddleworth, Greater Manchester. Debut album proper Bowler Hat Soup (2014) and follow-up Grapefruit (2016) were both recorded at home, with Kiran playing virtually every instrument himself. Dervaun Seraun (2017), a concept album in five movements inspired by five pieces of literature and arranged for piano, strings and voice, was an ambitious departure from his usual sound.
Leonard has also just announced a headline show at London’s MOTH Club on 27th November. This is a new addition to a weighty UK and Ireland headline tour in October / November. Please read on for a full list of tour dates, as well as Kiran’s complete statement on Western Culture and its influences.
Kiran Leonard UK & Ireland tour
20 Oct – Oxford, Ritual Union
22 Oct – Leicester, Cookie
23 Oct – Cambridge, Portland Arms
24 Oct – Guildford, Boileroom
25 Oct – York, Crescent
26 Oct – Huddersfield, Parish
27 Oct – Stockton, Georgian Theatre
21 Nov – Galway, Roisin Dubh
22 Nov – Dublin, Whelans
23 Nov – Limerick, Kasbah Social
24 Nov – Cork, Cyprus Avenue
26 Nov – Brighton, Green Door Store
27 Nov – London, MOTH Club
28 Nov – Manchester, Soup Kitchen
29 Nov – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
30 Nov – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
01 Dec – Newcastle, Cumberland Arms
03 Dec – Norwich, Arts Centre
04 Dec – Bristol, Rough Trade
05 Dec – Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
KIRAN LEONARD ON WESTERN CULTURE:
The starting point for writing Western Culture was a preoccupation with how language affects the way we perceive problems in the real world. That is, the structures that carry out the worst acts of violence in our communities (social hierarchies; borders and nationalisms; global finance) are all legitimised within a certain discourse; in this sense, the words we use have a funny sort of position, both as a feeble opponent to real-life violence, and as the critical foundation for that very violence.
I say this because my intention with the record was not to make a self-absorbed, “How-can-art-respond-to-these-problems” sort of gesture, because to me the problem is a lot wider than art. It’s to do with basic communication: it is impossible to understand or confront a brutality that we can’t articulate. So, these songs are mostly about this sense of missing the wood for the trees, and trying to stress the existence of connections between all these obstacles, past, present and future.
I think this thematic cohesion is matched by an effort to make the music on the record more compact and distilled. This is the first proper LP I’ve made at a recording studio (the excellent Low Four in Manchester), and the first record I’ve made with my live band (Dan Bridgwood Hill [dbh]; Andrew Cheetham [Jane Weaver], Dave Rowe [Plank]). Leo from Cult Party, and Rosa and Jenny AKA Let’s Eat Grandma, and Elle Mary, and the guitarist Jon Collin, and Laurie Hulme (Songs for Walter) also lend a hand.
WESTERN CULTURE:
“E neste cheiro a podre milenário — vale a pena
Sequer dizer que são filhos da puta?”
(“And in this foul stench of millennia— is it even worthwhile
to say that they’re all fucking bastards?”) – Jorge de Sena
INFLUENCES ON WESTERN CULTURE: (“ALPHABETICAL MORE OR LESS I THINK”)
Bilge Pump ; Birchville Cat Motel ; David Borden ; D Boon ; JL Borges ; Chico Buarque ; Kate Bush ; Caroliner ; Alice Coltrane ; Cult Party ; Deerhoof ; Embrace (MacKaye et al, 1987) ; Enablers ; Mark Fisher ; Góngora ; the Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner ; Geoff Hattersley ; Guided by Voices ; Mary Halvorson ; Adris Hoyos ; Daniel Johnston ; Khanate ; Clarice Lispector ; Daniel Machover ; Jonas Mekas ; Joni Mitchell ; Jason Molina ; Joanna Newsom ; Novos Baianos ; Matana Roberts ; Scriabin ; Tom Settle ; Shellac ; A Silver Mt Zion ; Mark Smith ; Esther Tusquets ; U.S. Maple ; Women
Western Culture will be released on vinyl, CD and download via Moshi Moshi on 19th October 2018. Click here to pre-order.
“Unreflective Life” https://youtu.be/nGeK4two5uU
“Paralysed Force” https://youtu.be/YHwNb1QVOTY
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