One of my favourite discoveries this year has been Kibbo Kift, a shoegaze-folk four-piece band based in Bristol.

Having recently headlined at The Louisiana and played as part of Bristol’s Harbourside Festival, the eerie atmospheric band are taking the indie scene by a storm!

We had the pleasure of getting to know the band and exploring their religious, folklore roots!

“The band name comes from a youth group, that focused on camping, hiking, and so on. For it then to become quite a political movement, ambitious to bring world peace in almost a pagan ritualistic way.” 

Originally formed in late 2023, Kibbo Kift’s members have always been long standing lovers of music and performing:

“Originally, Jake and I (Badger) were in a band and met through that and wanted to start a new project together focussing on folklore and combining it with shoegaze.“

“Jake worked at Mother’s Ruin at the time and we were looking for a drummer, and Tommy, who was also working there, was looking to join a band.“

Once the band began forming, they knew they were missing a key element to the “nostalgic sound” they were hoping to create:

“We really wanted to add to our nostalgic sound, with some eerie synth and diversify our sound with female vocals, so after putting out a ad on social media, Ella got involved.“

Your sound is said to have religious undertones from a confessional point of view and a larger relationship with god, would you say you guys are religious in one sense or the other? Additionally, how has religion influenced your music and larger identity as a band? 

“Well, not necessarily. Personally, for me, I find a lot of the time I refer to God and religion as a type of metaphor for my personal life.

“Dealing with a lot of trauma in my life, i’ve often turned to faith whether it be religious or spiritual as coping mechanism.

“I think a common interest we share are learning new folklore tales, and the endless stories of paganism. It really strips back everything in life, and rewrites our perspective for story telling.”

Crossroad is definitely my favourite track, and the striking imagery to go alongside it truly makes it stand out! The band aesthetic as a whole has that Twin Peaks, indie/mysterious feel to it –  what would you say has influenced your band’s image the most? 

“Thank you so much! David Lynch definitely has had an effect on me (Badger), watching Eraserhead at a young age definitely screwed me up a bit but I blame my neighbour for lending me a copy of the DVD (I should probably give that back, actually).

“The music scene is constantly evolving in Bristol, and for our aesthetic, we’ve wanted to stay minimal, maybe a little gothic. Black and white is classy, right?”

The folklore element of your band is extremely interesting, especially as shoegaze has a common notion of storytelling! Are there any folklore tales in particular that have influenced a sound or lyric?

“Yes, definitely. I’m originally from Dorset (Badger) and recently became with the Dorset Ooser. It’s basically this 19th century half man, half beast character that would go around towns to “playfully” frighten people.

“I believe it was a way to sort of public shaming people. We’ve actually got a song, that we’re recording in the next week, about this character.”

Your latest single, Permanence, combines an early coming-of-age sound with an eerie undertone. Tell us a bit about the track, what was the inspiration and story behind it? 

“Originally, it was just written as a demo in Badger’s room, and we got the chance to properly record it at Joe’s Garage (it is an actual studio despite the name).

“Permanence” is a fable that faces fear and growth on an epic scale. At its core a sailor is entranced by sirens at sea that reflect his ego, leading the sailor to be cast adrift in a vast sea of meaningless existence.

“The sailor explores the dissonance between chaos and comfort.”

Following on from that, what’s your creative process like? Do you start with a lyric, a mood, a drone or something else entirely – or does it change each time? Is there a part of the process that you like to keep unstructured and free-flowing? 

“A lot of the time, it just comes from personal demos. I don’t think we usually have an actual idea what we’re doing but it works for us.

“I think we mainly have a structure we follow, but we try and switch it up depending on how we feel when we enter a rehearsal space (Tommy’s bedroom).”

With your upcoming show at The Louisiana, what’s the track you’re looking forward to the most in playing live? Any particular reasons why?

“We’ve got some new stuff we’ve been working on, which we’re all pretty excited to see what the audience thinks.

“Dorset Ooser, is definitely my favourite to play. The dynamic of how we play on that song is really fun and hearing our friends sing it back is great.”

What’s next for you guys? Any more tracks in the making?

“We don’t know! Just keep writing, I suppose. It’s what we kind of live for.

“We’re in the studio next week to start on an EP but who knows when that’s out. We’ll let you know when we do!”

We can’t wait to see what the furute has in store for Kibbo Kift and can’t recommend them enough!

Stream their music here!

Check them out on Instagram here!