bsl sign language alphabet. of course.

thanks kites

well done kites!!!
thank you so much, guys, from the bottom of our hearts. your support has been truly touching, you are an amazing bunch of folks.
we'll be in touch soon with news on where next for the project.
congratulations to kevin allen for getting us over the line!

head over to the pledge website once you've helped us out to check out the exclusive updates just for pledgers:

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/redkite/updates

alt-rock is the winner.

so, so, so much love,

rk x

pledge goes live

so the pledge campaign has gone live.

those of you following on facebook may have noticed the countdown [the pictures have been printed below in full for those of you who wanted them].

thank you so much for the support, it is truly heart-warming to see.

remember, if you commit as a pledger then you get access to lots of exclusive content at the pledge site such as pictures, videos, news and, most importantly, free music downloads of exclusive non-album material.

you can keep track of the campaign with the button inserted below.

don't forget that 5% of everything we raise goes to the charity fsid, the foundation for the study of infant deaths. this charity specialises in research and help for families affected by cot-death, something that affected my family many years ago and as such is very close to my heart.

not to mention the fact that anything over the 100% helps us with marketing, touring, and merch, not to mention taking us a step closer to our dream of owning our very own tour-chinook.

once again, thank you for your support, and don't forget to op here for other news for all of you, not just the pledgers.

alt-rock love,

rk x

the countdown pics in full

track listing?

news coming soon

the album is finished.

there are ten songs on it.

it is called songs for crow.

it is about love, death and ornithology.

we will soon have some very exciting news regarding the release.

we may even be giving you some free non-album tracks. 

i know, fantastic, isn't it.

in the meantime, be sure to put your email address in the bit on the left in order to hear all the news first [ie before it goes on facebook and twitter].

much love,

rk

lofi dogma

here's the finished recording from the lofi dogma session. all six of us in one room, one live take, no overdubs, and it sounds pretty damn good. just click on the picture above to take a listen at the lofi dogma site.

here's the video interview as well:

lofi dogma is all about minimalism. they've been doing these projects in europe for a while now, but now they've decided to bring the experiment to the uk and red kite were lucky enough to be asked to do it. for anyone who doesn't know about the lofi dogma manifesto, here it is again:

click on the manifesto and it will take you to the facebook site, go ahead and give it a like.

a huge thank you to ben williams for his patience amidst the racket, to marc and daniel for looking after us all day and plying us with food and beer upon musical victory, and to elliott for taking pictures of us looking strange and awkward.

the track, calliope, will be on the album, news of which shall be imminently forthcoming. stay tuned, kites.

until then, here are some lovely pictures:

red kite associates.

red kite will be back in 2013 with the album release, but until then, get down to king jim's bandcamp site and get a load of the two free albums he's letting you all have:

http://kingjim.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-play

http://kingjim.bandcamp.com/album/oh-great-captain

he's our guitarist and a genuine country troubadour, and his lilting country ballads are the perfect antidote to all theose festive hangovers.

also out is the new album by an escape plan, featuring red kite multi-instrumentalist nick willes, as well as ex medium 21 member and longtime friend arge brown. this album is special, and something of a sister album to the red kite album out next year. treat yourselves:

http://www.anescapeplan.co.uk/aepshop/

we'll be back soon with exciting news on red kite in 2013.

enjoy the rest of 2012; next year's going to be a belter.

needle in the hay acoustic suzy radio

needle in the hay acoustic suzy radio

calliope acoustic suzy radio

calliope acoustic suzy radio

montreal acoustic suzy radio

montreal acoustic suzy radio

a busy week

and so ends a busy week for red kite.

sunday saw a return to london's live fold with a terrific show at camden proud, the first london show to feature the full-on two drummer assault. we are now frighteningly loud, and all the better for it. in-house sound engineers hate us. i consider us 'a challenge'.

the album is now finished. it's a strange feeling to have now finished something that two years ago began as something to do with a week off round tom's house. i never even imagined i'd play anything live at that time, let alone actually finish an entire album, but here it finally is. tom's contribution really cannot be expressed enough, without his dedication and at times needfully stern guiding hand, there is no way this would have happened. the man is a god.

now on to putting the plan together for getting it released. we're currently looking into putting together a video for some of the darker tracks (does anyone actually release singles these days?), which pleases me greatly. i shall hold off revealing too much about the track listing for now, you'll just have to stay tuned (leaving your email over on the left will help with that).

as if that wasn't enough to be getting on with, on thursday we went into the brilliant ilkatron studios to do our session for the lofi dogma project. i've posted the manifesto up here before, but if you think of the similarly monikered danish film movement then you won't go too far wrong. needless to say, we made a ferocious racket and caused ben our lovely recording engineer no end of headaches. thanks a lot to marc and daniel for organising the event and looking after us all day. lovely, lovely folk indeed. and swiss, too. great accents.

here are some photos:

the one of paul and jon cracks me up.

the track we recorded will go live at the lofi dogma site in january, along with photos and an interview in which i'm quite stoned. obviously we'll keep you updated here.

next up is friday 26th with the murder barn at rattlesnake angel, so get down there and let's all have a pop show.

dance with crow

as promised, here's the new track:

dance with crow

we've been playing it live for a while now, but thought we'd let you have a proper listen. we'll be taking it down after the show on sunday, so make the most of it. feel free to give it a share and all that gumpf people do with music. maybe someone will listen to it and think it's good. that would be awesome.

don't forget we're on at proud camden this sunday, doors open at 7, we're onstage around 10. support comes from emperor yes and lonesound. it's free entry, so event the skint ones can come. 

image from 'the love you taught me' by lyndsay martin

new track, photos, news and stuff

who wants to hear a new red kite track?

well, you're in luck. red kite are heading out into the musical wilderness to play some alt-rock concerts, and to celebrate the fact we will be posting a new track up on the website here for a limited time only. 

at midday on friday 12th october, we will post a link here for you to get your lugholes on a new track which will be available to stream until after we finish our show on sunday at proud camden (free entry, so no excuses not to show up).

aren't we nice.

the following thursday we'll be heading into the studio to take part in the lofi dogma project. anyone who has seen us live may be familiar with the track calliope, which we'll be re-working to fit the brief for the project. at the current time of going to press, we have no idea what it will sound like. all we know is it will rather rough and ready, and all the sexier for it.

finishing off our autumnal burst of activity, we'll be playing new venue rattlesnake in angel with the glorious the murder barn in celebration of their e.p. launch, and a royally rambunctious ruckus it will prove to be. 

photoshoots are a strange beast. my usual brief of 'try and capture how much i hate having my picture taken, and don't try and make us look cool' can be a tricky one to adhere to. as such, when he decamped to the technicolour hive of artistic activity that is the manor house warehouse complex, we simply said to crack photographer sam folan 'we'll just dick about and you shoot'. the fact that jim rolled up two hours late stinking of booze meant that we had to fire it off in record time, but the results were nonetheless extremely pleasing. we hope you agree.

the album's nearly done.

tom's computer blew up, but now it is fine.

check back here for the latest news and gossip like heat but not poor sentence to end on oh well bye

red kite live news

red kite hit the road (note tourbus pic, above)


red kite are going to be playing in a town near you. well, if you live in reading or london, anyway.

the dates are as follows:

sunday 14th october - proud gelleries, camden
friday 26th october - rattlesnake, angel
saturday 3rd november - the abbott cook, reading

ticket links and other information to follow soon, so stay tuned to the site.

for now, here's the faceplant link for the london show at proud:

https://www.facebook.com/events/115248848626432

and the show with The Murder Barn:

https://www.facebook.com/events/345258125563857/

in other news, the album continues at a healthy trot, with red blooded males now in the bag (my good god, that track is an unholy racket). chris ware's building stories is out at the start of october, just in time for my birthday. nothing eases the passing of the years quite like a beautifully illustrated box-set chronicling an entire building's despair and self-loathing. i am giddy with anticipation.


here's today's achewood coming at you, getting mad rutty: