Self-described “genre-fluid, eclectic” rock band Kendall Street Company is scheduled for a return engagement at Cervantes’ on Saturday, August 26. They’ve previously played the Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom – this time they’re playing Cervantes’ Other Side.
The band is touring in advance of the release of their latest album, Separation95, which is scheduled to drop on September 22.
Formed in 2013 by a collection of friends who were students at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Kendall Street Company is quite possibly the most difficult to pin down band, in terms of musical style or genre, working today. This has been a deliberate choice – the band has specifically avoided locking themselves inside a single box. The result has been a proliferation of material – their current catalog contains between 150 and 200 songs that they rotate into their live shows.
In advance of the Cervantes’ show, I connected via Zoom with Louis Smith (lead vocals and guitar) to talk about the band’s journey, how they manage to juggle the multiple genres they fall into, the importance of humor in their live shows, the new album, and what lies ahead, even beyond that new album drop.
I connected with Louis from the band’s van, with them driving through Connecticut on their way to their next gig. The entire band was in the van, as well as their tour manager. Kudos to Louis, who stayed on the phone with me through a pit stop the band made on their journey.
We started by talking about the band’s eclectic catalog, and the fact that they cross so many genre lines. I asked Louis if this “genre-fluid” design was something they set out deliberately to do, or if it just evolved organically.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that it was a plan. I mean, we just have always been inspired by a lot of different kinds of music. It was never really a decision of any of ours to be that way. It’s a way that we don’t get locked down into something like, we pretty much would never say, oh, we can’t do that, because it doesn’t sound like us.”
I followed up by asking him how the songwriting process worked. Do individual band members do their own thing, then bring it to the band for consideration? Or do they all sit down together and work ideas through in a collaborative fashion?
“It really depends on the song, and the timing. You know, we all have different backgrounds as far as where our main influences come from. So that kind of leads to a unique sound in itself. Sometimes we’ll all sit together, and we’ll all write together. And other times, somebody will come with a song that’s almost fleshed out as far as form and chords and lyrics and stuff, and then the band gets their hands on it and wrestles around a little bit and figures out the best way it works. And other times we just play. If somebody’s got an arrangement, maybe one or two people will sit and arrange something and say, yeah, here’s how it goes. And then we’ll just try to stick to that as much as we can.”
We then shifted our focus to the band’s live shows. They have a reputation for putting on stellar live shows, so I asked Louis how he would describe those shows to someone who had never seen them live.
“Well, you’re gonna see a unique experience every time (because) we never put on the same show. There’s a lot of improvisation. The shows are fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We take the music very seriously. We have some sillier songs and some songs that people can just kind of get down to and laugh along to. People will dance. We people to go to shows and meet their new best friends. We want to kind of develop this community and we want people to connect and dance together and laugh together. But generally, I’d say that the shows are tight, we really feed off of each other, and off the crowd, and really like the experience for the crowd to feel like they’re seeing something created on the stage.”
Humor plays a big role both in the band member’s relationships with each other, and in their live performances. I asked Louis if the humor in their shows is scripted, or if it just flows organically.
“A lot of the music, like the lyrics, I mean, have some humor involved and so that it would be mostly scripted. But it’s 90% improvised each time. And, you know, I don’t think of myself really as like a great comic, or an improviser. But I do it. And, you know, sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s off, but it’s always solid.”
Next, we shifted to talking about the band’s career thus far, through the nine plus years since they released their initial EP in 2014. I asked Louis if their path has been anything like he envisioned it when he was a student at the University of Virginia, putting the band together initially.
“I don’t know, man. I always pictured us touring around and doing shows and things like that. But I never really put too much thought into trying to figure out what it was. I’ve always kind of just let the project be what it is. I think that’s the beauty of it. And then we graduated college, and we decided, yeah, let’s do this more. Let’s see where it goes. And I’ve been doing it every day. This is still fun. This is still exciting. This is changing over time.”
“So I think the answer is no, it’s not. But it has transformed and evolved to stay really exciting over the past decade or so. You know, it’s the beauty of the art and being an artist and being able to hang out with my best friends and like, run around on tour and play music for people.”
As mentioned above, the band has a new album ready to drop on September 22, about a month following their gig at Cervantes’ Other Side. Louis told me it’s unlike anything they’ve done before, and I asked him to elaborate.
“Jake, our saxophone and keyboard player was the chief influence and leader on the project. He kind of put the project together and mixed it and that in and of itself makes it really unique and different. A lot of it is keyboard led. I think it’s like half instrumental. It was partly inspired by the soundtrack of a French movie I think is on HBO. It has more of a European influence, and it’s a really compact 40 minute great listen all the way through.”
I asked Louis if it was a concept album, like previous releases Nautical Acquatical, or The Year The Earth Stood Still.
“It’s not necessarily that. I mean, the songs are related, obviously. But it’s not necessarily pointed at one specific story or storyline.”
Wrapping up the interview, I asked Louis about what the future holds. Obviously, there’s a new album dropping in about a month, so a lot of attention is focused there. But are their other projects in the works that the band’s loyal Colorado fanbase would be interested in?
“We definitely have some projects in the works. One is a metal project, which is kind of inspired by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Another one is a follow up to the Nautical Acquatical… we’ve been writing for that. As well as just writing. There’s a lot of songwriters in the band. So there’s people actively writing songs, you know, whether they’re writing for Kendall Street Company or not. We’re always kind of tinkering with something. There’s no writer’s block going on, which is great. We always have a single ready to go. And maybe that single belongs on an upcoming album or not. We’re thinking, well, we’ll get the single recorded and released because it’s ready to go. And then if we find that it belongs on a bigger project, then we’ll just release it with that project.”
“And we’re trying out the singles that we’re working on and writing live. We don’t really hold things back. When they’re ready to play, we’ll start playing them live. So that’s another thing you can expect at the shows, unreleased material.”
I ended the interview by offering Louis an opportunity to ad lib, and put anything into the article he wanted, that I hadn’t asked him about.
“I think we just generally want people to know that the shows are really fun and they’re gonna have a great time. If they come, they’re gonna dance. They’re gonna meet cool people. They’ll hopefully hear some music that they really love and connect to.”
Kendall Street Company is Louis Smith (rhythm guitar/lead vocals), Brian Roy (bass), Ryan Wood (drums), Ben Laderberg (lead guitar), and Jake Vanaman (saxophone/keys). They put on high energy, eclectic live shows that are very different from anything you’ve seen before. Do yourself a favor, and check out their music, and their live music videos on the net. Then buy yourself a ticket – or better yet buy yourself and several of your friend’s tickets – and join us for the party on August 26, at Cervantes’ Other Side. We’ll have a great time, and if you seek me out, you might even get a quote or a pic in my review article for DenverEntertainmentHub.com.
