Montreal native Kim Bingham is a true journeywoman of music and has been apart of various projects beginning with her career in third-wave ska band Me Mom and Morgentaler, formed in 1990. Kim recorded three works: ‘Clown Heaven and Hell’ EP (1991), ‘Shiva Space Machine’ (1993) and Live ‘We Are Revolting: Live & Obscure 1990-1994’ (1994).
In 1994, Bingham left Me Mom & Morgentaler and moved to Vancouver where she formed the solo project Mudgirl. Her moniker Mudgirl was chosen based on “the title of a short story she wrote about a waif made of mud,” intended for children. She stated, “Mudgirl is an extension of myself where I get to be cartoony and a bit surreal.” In 1996 Kim released her debut five-song EP ‘First Book’ which included three radio hits “This Day”, “Adjusted” and “Contact”.
After 5 years as a Mudgirl, Kim realized that, as the driving force behind her musical project, she could put her name out front and decided to change the name of her collective to “The Kim Band”. Under this moniker, Kim released the successful album ‘Girlology’ (2001) produced by Steven Drake (The Odds, The Tragically Hip). The album’s concept, “stemmed from Bingham’s work on a website devoted to the mind-boggling science of trying to figure out girls.” and features more the radio singles “What A Drag”, “Valentine’s Day” and “Quel Dommage”, her French version of “What A Drag” that reached No.1 on French-Canadian radio charts.
In 2007, Kim released the French-language mini-album ‘Intermede’ in collaboration with Canadian label Musik 2 Musik. ‘Intermede’ was Kim’s first release with her name as the artist, and it is Kim’s only fully French-language release to date.
Her next work, the full-length album ‘UP!’, was recorded in Los Angeles with co-producer John Kastner (Doughboys, All Systems Go) and with members of super bands such as Queens Of the Stone Age, Jellyfish, Blind Melon, and Masters of Reality over the summer of 2010. The album was released in May 2012 under Kim’s longstanding indie label Mudgirl Music Group, with distribution by Distribution Select across Canada.
The French version of the song “UP!’ and the sole French single on the album, a song called “Party Girl”, were once again radio hits for Kim in French-speaking parts of Canada.
In summer 2019, Kim released her first single performed in both English and Italian, the upbeat pop song “Beppe Green”. In December 2019, “Beppe Green” garnered the #5 position of the Top 100 Songs of the year from Bombshell Radio.
In fall 2020, after an unexpected break-in content creation and release due to international lockdowns and COVID-19, Kim is back with the release of a new video for the song “Sweet Irene,” and today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of that video. Musically, the show showcases Bingham’s unique style of infectious power pop with big crashing, punk-infused guitars and an earworm chorus. Despite sounding fresh, the song is actually from Bingham’s ‘UP!’, but she gave it a slight update in adding (Escape from Lockdown) to the title after COVID-19’s influence on the music video production. Speaking of video, director Jolyon White features 52 Instagram story filters to create an art piece using only Instagram filters. The result is a zany sci-fi story sequence.
“Sometime in April during the lockdown, Jolyon contacted me about doing a music video using a bunch of Instagram filters,” says Bingham. “I suggested that there should be a light narrative to it, that we could make it a sci-fi story using the green screen and lighting kit I had at home and my astronaut costume from Halloween. So was born the concept of the video ’Sweet Irene – Escape From Lockdown’,” says Bingham.
WATCH:
Photo credit: Massimo Malvestio
