Staff Editor on June 11th, 2019

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By VINCENZA BLANK

Five years ago, Orange County-bred Kiev were well on their way to becoming one of the best, if not most distinctive, rock bands Southern California had produced in years. In late 2013, they released the genre-defying full-length “Falling Bough Wisdom Teeth,” secured some plum spots opening for bigger bands as well as helmed their own tours and even had a song featured in “The Walking Dead.”

Then, poof, they were gone.

“You come to a weird fork in the road where you can put a lot of pressure on yourself,” says singer-guitarist Robert “Bobby” Brinkerhoff.

Or you can jump on a flying drum as Kiev does in their video “Be Gone Dull Cage” and ride deep into the metaphorical desert of life.

How to describe Kiev’s time off? “Experience as an end in itself,” says keyboardist Andy Stavas, as he sits in the wide expanse backstage at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium after a show on Sunday, March 24.

They had surfaced notably only once in 2018, and early 2018 at that — Kiev’s Daytrotter performance of “Home Now” appeared on the compilation “Arecibo — Songs for Puerto Rico,” which benefited hurricane disaster relief efforts.

No other communiqué from Kiev was forthcoming for the rest of the year, and then …

Bam! In February of this year, they announced a West Coast tour with Oxford, England’s Foals. And that wave of mutual musical appreciation and friendship continues, flinging them across the Atlantic as they are bringing California rays up to open for Foals on a series of U.K. dates beginning this week.

During their hiatus, Kiev the band — Brinkerhoff, Stavas and bandmates Brandon “Cornbread” Corn on drums and Derek Poulsen on bass — was in L.A. all along, still intact. As some members had kids and some traveled, they continued getting together in their warehouse space, jamming and writing new tunes. However, Brinkerhoff says, they “were okay with letting the band as a social entity quiet down.

“Still in our hearts we’re all really connected to music and being creative and we are very close,” he adds. “Even though we don’t have as much time as we had had in the past, we try and keep it alive, and when Foals comes and asks you to do a tour you say, ‘Hell, yeah yeah I’ll do it’ [and] dust everybody off. We’ve been joking it’s like a defibrillator to the heart.”

True to modern meta style, right before the interview Kiev had been talking among themselves about how it would be weird to do interviews now. Because, as Stavas explains, there’s not that symmetry they have when the band is more active.

It makes sense they would emerge from hibernation (never “a planned hiatus”) when a band of their buddies called them up because as Brinkerhoff notes, “we’re a band’s band.” More than just another opening-act tour, their March jaunt up the West Coast was a reunion, as they had hit the road with both Foals and second-on Bear Hands in 2016.

Live, Kiev’s vibrancy had not dimmed. They create massive soundscapes with deep grooves, and their set was highlighted by a couple of their more well-known songs, “Ariah Being” and “Be Gone Dull Cage.”

And their current more laid-back philosophy allowed them to do something they wouldn’t have previously — Corn’s sister Kat Corn joined the band to sing “Great Gig in the Sky” from Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.” The band’s attitude was: “Yeah, why not, that sounds fun.”

Beyond a fun exercise, their interpretation of the “Dark Side of the Moon“ connected with some in the audience, who raved about it online: “They blew me away too. [Pink Floyd] are one of my favorites and [that song] holds a special place in my heart and they absolutely floored me. Such a nice surprise.” Also: “The pipes on that girl they brought out were incredible!”

When asked if they were jealous Foals had played Kiev (Kyiv), Ukraine, in 2017 and will again this year, Brinkerhoff says, “Nah, too much pressure. … We’re not even sure how to pronounce it.” (Kiev took their name from a poem a family member wrote.) They do, however, get requests from the residents to play and even journey to the city with their English friends.

In the meantime, Kiev has found a way to have it both ways — individual pursuits and homes and their collective band family with a warehouse to play in and the chops to revive themselves for “cool opportunities.” Rest assured that their current routine still means they “record a lot,” Brinkerhoff says. “We get fans or people who follow us who do reach out and … at times we feel a little guilty for not releasing [new music].”

When they were more outwardly active, “we were writing a ton,” Brinkerhoff says, “but I think we needed space from everything we were writing because we were just too deep in our cognitive worm holes, too deep in our brains.”

They now have a new perspective, bringing a new lightness to both the songs that were only seeds and ones that are almost finished. They’ve talked of aiming for this summer to release new music. It’s a self-imposed deadline, so true to their current ethos, it may not happen exactly now. Regardless, beyond their run and return from the United Kingdom, who knows what possibilities may enter into Kiev’s realm.

Vincenza Blank is a Los Angeles-based freelancer who has written for Rogue Magazine, LA Weekly and Impose, among others.

||| Stream: “Falling Bough Wisdom Teeth”

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