In-depth - KEG on their new EP ‘Girders’
KEG on their new EP ‘Girders’, European tour and the source of their live show effervescence.
Since the release of their highly appraised debut EP “Assembly” in 2019, KEG have been on the radar for many as a band with a plenty to say on the topic of post-punk, with critics hailing their groove-based atmospheres and subtle harmonies.
Since then, they have been touring up and down the UK spreading their feverish energy, recently also playing shows in Switzerland and Germany. “We had to win them over”, explains guitarist Jules Gibbons about playing to a crowd which is not as familiar with the group as in the UK.
With unfamiliar territory also come unusual experiences, as vocalist Albert Haddenham recalls the crowd at Sacred Ground Festival near Berlin. “There was a guy in dreadlocks doing backflips in the crowd”, he exclaims, “He would get really bashful when we would ask him to do it again, and then every quarter hour he’d do another one”.
Haddenham channels an intricate display of anxious and ardent liveliness in the seven-piece's new release “Girders”, a five-track EP which explores themes of uneasiness, paranoia and even sonic torture. “I like the feeling of being scared in a song”, he talks about the eerie sounds heard across its 20-minute playtime.
“It’s a strange process because I would sometimes have lyrics that I’d already written, so often it was about trying to manipulate them into the theme”, he says regarding the lyricism on these tracks before Gibbons interjects with a similar note about the themes of anxiety spreading to the instrumentation. “I don’t think there were any intentions on that, we kind of just played and after the fact we could see what the theme was”.
On tracks like 5/4 and NPC, the instrumentation mentioned takes peculiar creative routes as some of the most spectral sounds of the project take centre-stage through unconventional synthesizer sounds. “On NPC I clearly remember when Will was doing that patch it sounded a lot like sonic torture, and that is what the song is about”, Haddenham explains, “I think every decision we made after that was to make it sound as awful as possible, we embraced that”
Another recurring theme with these songs is the intense endings, something KEG has become well known for. “We do like that, we want to write the festival bangers, the anthems”. If per chance you have the pleasure to see the group perform live, it is clear to see that there is something quite special about the rapturous sound which justifies the number of people on stage.
“It’s my safe space”, Haddenham reveals about the freedom of live performance, “there are moments when I fully lose myself and I feel great”. The whole band seems to be having the time of their lives as they let loose behind the security of so many talented individuals on stage. “Everyone is very loose, apart from the main person who is never loose which is Joel”, the group seem to agree, “We go to the astral plains sometimes and he is always the anchor”.
As a group KEG seem to be headed in an artistically autonomous course, allowing themselves to explore the borders of the music they tend to create, and “Girders” reveals yet another layer of brilliance that the band surely has plenty more of.
Words by Jay Cohen
