Mixed feelings must emerge when you’re in the music biz and your best mates make it big before you do; there’s surely a tinge of jealousy, but also the excitement that you can hitch a ride on their opportunities. Well, that’s exactly what happened in 2013 when Bastille made it big and invited their musical besties, To Kill A King, along on their ‘Bad Blood’ tour.
TKAK are a London-based alternative band, formed one year before Bastille, whom they met at the University of Leeds. They released their debut EP, ‘My Crooked Saint’, in 2011 and their first album, ‘Cannibals With Cutlery’, in 2013. This meant that when it came to the Bad Blood tour, they had an arsenal of songs to perform, but these songs never made it that big. In fairness to the band, many Bastille fans love TKAK songs and propelled the band into minor stardom, but they never made it any further than the fandom. It’s a shame they have become lost voices, because TKAK’s music is very calming, clever, and sentimental.
When watching TKAK open for Bastille, they are much more confident live. When you compare TKAK’s lead singer, Ralph Pelleymounter, to Bastille’s Dan Smith, Pelleymounter seems much more at home on stage. He is armed with an acoustic guitar, exhibiting the band’s more folk genre, which may be where the difference in live performing lies; it is surely easier to be confident when you have something to hide behind, whereas Smith is only armed with a microphone and the pressure to show more stagemanship by dancing. I doubt, however, that this has anything to do with the success difference, but it’s strange to think that the more nervous and frightened performer made it bigger.
Perhaps being associated with Bastille meant TKAK always sat on the back burner, or perhaps was indie folk just too niche of a genre? Whatever wind it was that blew success only one way was very unfair, and To Kill A King deserve a much larger audience!
