By way of Boston and Washington D.C., Kingsley Flood have spent the last handful of years churning out socially aware Americana. The band’s sound, which feels like it could coexist in small town America as much as the major cities the band members call home, revolves around the potent lyrically punch of frontman Naseem Khuri. Growing up as a Palestinian-American outside of Boston, Khuri felt like a normal American kid only to later realize his community saw him as “Middle Eastern,” something he had never really thought about. The baggage that comes with being seen as the “other” lies at the heart of Another Other, Kingsley Flood’s new LP, which drops October 14th.
As much folk as it is charged up rock and roll, Another Other is an exploration of identity and race and class that plays out over thirteen exhilarating tracks. Today we’re excited to present an exclusive premiere of the music video for their rollicking tune “To The Wolves” here on Glide Magazine. The anthemic, fiddle-heavy rocker features the band playing in a loft of some sort and getting kidnapped, except there’s a twist.
Speaking on the song, frontman and songwriter Naseem Khuri says, “I used to have a job that was low-paying, totally mindless and leading me nowhere – and I would write songs on napkins when the boss wasn’t looking. I would blame everyone else – ‘I’d feed you to the wolves’ – for my inability to realize potential and change my own life, and then realize that I never actually took the napkins out of my pocket. I was screwing myself, and wanted to capture that idea in the video. So we had the band kidnap itself. That’s the official explanation. Another is that we’re losers and couldn’t find anyone else to kidnap us.”
Bassist Nick Balkin adds his own amusing backstory on the making of the video, saying, “It’s a bit nerve-wracking driving around a city in broad daylight, in a sketchy white van, while wearing ski masks. For those final scenes, we actually drove by a bank, saw some cops in the distance and – because we were paranoid and it was really hot and we were deep in character and not because we had actually robbed the bank – hit the gas and got out of there.”
WATCH:
Kingsley Flood release Another Other on October 14th. For more music and info check out kingsleyflood.com.
One Response
Re: Kingsley Flood “To The Wolves” video…FANTASTIC!….but did Glide reviewers actually listen to this song? “Folk Rocker”? “Fiddle Heavy”???? To The Wolves is hardly what anyone would define as folk rock. It is a hard angst-filled driving retort to folk rock. Heavy distorted fuzz bass is all over this, heavy drums…with just a few key fiddle accents sprinkled in here and there. Seems like reviewers don’t really take the time to listen to what they review…just rely on old definitions and the label “Americana”. Sorry….Kingsley Flood’s success owes much to the fact that they are ever evolving and experimenting. At this point in their career, it is almost an insult to the intelligence of the musicians to pigeon-hole them as “Folk Rock” just because their arrangements often, but not always, include violin. This is a band who can be defined by their eclecticism, instrumental dynamics, and willingness to expand their sound so that labels won’t stick. KF jumped out of the Americana box a long time ago. Glad they are getting attention and good press…but even better if the editors “got” the sound and intention of Kingsley Flood.