Pelagic Records Artist- Lost In Kiev Interview up
1. Give us a bit of the story from 2007 to 2012 when youre 1st proper album Motions came to be?
Back in times ! Lost in Kiev was founded in 2007 by Yoann our drummer. Believe it or not, even if there has been 5 years between the beginning of Lost in Kiev and the release of Motions, we always stick to the same goal : Telling stories in the most cinematographical way possible. In this times we had to face up with a couple of line-up changes which means a lot of different versions and modifications of the final tracks you can ear on Motions. But we already knew that video would be fully part of our musical concept and that we want to tell our own stories and not using existing samples.
Oh and yes the name Lost in Kiev was born from this early time with our former guitarist…
2. Post Rock, Post Hardcore, Avant Prog, Indie Rock , Experimental rock all these things are parts of Lost in Kiev to me when I listen to " Persona " how would the band describe the sound of the current album?
Interessting! Well I think that it is impossible to describe the sound by itself.
The sound, the textures, all that is linked to the theme of Persona.
We always want to create our own soundtrack. Well this time we wanted to tell stories about AI and a close future. It was natural to us to use more machines and electronic textures. So, let’s describe our sound like a more direct post rock with a touch of synths atmosphere.
More globally our line-up is now very stable and we know us very well.
That means that we can fully trust us to experiment and bring our personal influences on the table when writing new stuff. I guess this also explain why you can hear all the kind of music you mentioned.
3. Being rather new to Lost in Kiev. How do the earlier releases differ from " Persona" ?
Our previous albums are more post metal, darker. Because the themes were focused on this kind of energy (motions, about travelling physically and mindfully ; and Nuit Noire about brutal death of a man who was in couple). Also our previous albums were made focusing more on post rock codes. Such as long tracks.
With Persona we wanted more direct songs. This is to me the main difference with of course the add of synths and the not so darker vibe.
4.The album cover is very futuristic and otherworldly .How does it play into the theme or sound of the band?
The cover, fully designed and made by Yoann our drummer is clearly futuristic (AI theme) but most important to us very minimal and very clear.
This is the direct reflection of what our music is now in a way.
5. No true vocals ,Just loops and Samples do you feel this just adds to the music . Was it always the plan to be instrumental Post Rock force ?
Well as we all love soundtracks especially such as Blade Runner, the Fountain our Interstellar, we deeply think that emotions better goes through music without singings. It is very personal, but yes We think that the power of instruments and the force of samples (written by us) is by far more impactive that a singing chorus.
It is not to feel post rock (there are great post bands with vocals) but it is to be closer to our soundtrack concept. To be the soundtrack of our story.
6. What are some the bands in Paris that are impressing the members of Lost in Kiev currently?
We all love Jean Jean and we are always really impressed by seing them live!
That’s mostly the first band in Paris that comes to my mind !
7. You were working with a label called Dunk correct? How did you come to work with Pelagic a label on the rise?
We are very thankful to Dunk! Yes. They truly believed in us and they organized the most amazing festival in the world too.
Pelagic has always been in our contact circle as we toured with pg.lost with who we became friends. So when we got an email from Pelagic, it was to us really logical to accept the offer. But we are still very close to the Dunk! Crew too.
8.How does Live vs Recording differ for a band like Lost in Kiev?
Great one! Well in a word, when we record we get energy from experimentation and testing a lot of sound textures. It’s always the search of getting the best sound that is exciting.
During our lives. We try to give a real rock”n”roll energy to our audience to really share something special with them and creating a global energy.
Two essences of musical pleasures well.
9. If you would record any song and make it sound like Lost in Kiev but fans would still know the cover what song and why?
We already did that by covering the main them of Mister Robot soundtrack. But let’s say that if we would want to cover a trip hop song such as Portishead or tricky. Both are very important influences to us and we would love to give them an epic post rock remix.
10. From 2007 to 2019 how has digital albums, pr and magazine and social media changed they way underground music is presented and created?
We feel that maybe it is because our music is growing, that all the internet and social network era is helping musicians to go further and further in their music.
On the other hand it forces (in a good way) bands to be better and better because there are more than even friends from all over the world that are doing post rock, and sadly not all of them can shine.
11. Do the members have other musical projects tell us about them if you do ?
Maxime our guitarist has a solo project named Arche. It is a very interesting electro ambient project influenced by Kiasmos, Boards of Canada or Jon Hopkins.
I have (JC, Bass) another band named Chancellors. We are playing alt post rock with great vocals and are influenced by Tool, Russian Circles and Oceansize.
12. Did Bandcamp bring the underground back to the bands again or is it a great way to get music for label and artist out to the world?
Let’s honesty say both because it is a very interesting and underground way to sell our music and our merch and as it is one of the greatest streaming platform is offers a unique exposure to bands to be discovered by most of music fans.
13. If the members of Lost in Kiev were not making music what other outlets creatively would you all be presenting the world?
Most images things. It can be video, 3D animations for some of us or photography for the other part of us. Images are very very important to us.
14. Were did the name Lost in Kiev come from ?
Our former guitarist Vincent was dating a girl living in Kiev at the time.
He travelled there quite often to see her and one day during winter he does not came back on time for a band rehearsal and we were not able to contact him in any way. So, we make fun of this by saying that he was lost in Kiev.
And well, he was for real due a massive snow storm.
We loved this name also because it is fully part of the theme of Motions (travels).
15. If a bigger label like Matador, Play it again sam or Roadrunner came to you and wanted to release an album would you pass or is it something that could work? Would a band like yours feel lost on Massive Indie label of those sizes?
As we all have full time jobs for now, I think that we would passed in order to keep our work/music balance. And as I said at the beginning of this great interview, we love the concept of label family which are directly related to indie structures ;)
16. Thank you for the time any closing thought here ...`
Thanks for such great questions. Most of them have never been asked before ;)
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