Emerging from the vibrant music scene of St. Louis, Missouri, progressive rock trio Kirkos has been turning heads with their genre-blending, experimental soundscapes. Their latest release, Late Night at the Nick, a live album recorded at the iconic venue in Birmingham, AL, captures the raw energy and emotional depth that define their performances. The album features previously unreleased tracks that showcase the band’s ability to bring together elements of jazz fusion, industrial, post-rock, and doom into a singular, cohesive vision.
Kirkos was also featured on our recent Progotronics 48 compilation. In this interview, the band delves into their eclectic influences, the unique creative energy of St. Louis, and the stories behind their new live album. They also share insights into their creative process, live performances, and plans for an ambitious 2025.
Your music blends a wide array of genres, from jazz fusion to industrial. How did the three of you develop such a diverse and experimental sound?
Each of us have a very eclectic mix of influences, ranging from various genres across different cultural mediums including literature, art, philosophy, cinema, as well as our musical influences. As such, our music inherently displays a certain enigmatic quality, a tangled tapestry of different influences and lived experiences. It all comes together organically in one coherent synthesis, blending each of our individual personalities into a single discernible network of sound.
St. Louis, with its post-industrial backdrop, clearly influences your music. Can you tell us more about how the city shapes your sound and creative vision?
As artists, we naturally synthesize the aesthetic qualities of our external environment into the content of our creative work, either subconsciously or through conscious effort. Being a product of a post-industrial city like St. Louis, our sound reflects within it the lost futures and deep sense of yearning that haunts the landscape. Promises of grand tomorrows that crumble to dust under the weight of hefty todays. But it also reflects the resiliency of life to resist decay, the beauty of hope in the face of near certain demise. There is almost a vital necessity to creating art in a place where twisted metal and crumbling bricks dominate the backdrop of the city.
Your live album Late Night at the Nick captures the essence of your live performances. What made The Nick in Birmingham, AL the right place to record this album?
The Nick is a super grimy, dark, long established dive bar that operates 24 hours a day. It is one of the only places like it that we’ve ever seen. The dark, grimy atmosphere compliments the moodiness of our music and elevates the experience to another level. Two of us are originally from Birmingham, so we can always count on good energy in the crowd from friendly faces and long time friends.
The album features five original tracks, some of which were previously unreleased. Can you share the stories behind one or two of these tracks?
“Processes” is the third song on the album and it is one of our first compositions as a trio. The track is built around a series of vocal samples from Rupert Sheldrake’s lecture “A Conscious Universe?”. The samples refer to how matter can be seen has having wave like qualities, tying into the idea that everything is a process in time, rather than a fixed unchangeable object. We came up with the main theme while improvising at practice and soon realized it paired perfectly with the samples.
How does the experience of playing live compare to recording in the studio for Kirkos? Do you approach them differently?
Our music is very emotionally expressive and relies heavily on our collective feel, especially in our solo or improvisational sections. In the studio, we always try to capture the essence of our live performance by recording primarily single-pass full takes, all together at once as a band. We don’t record with click tracks or backing tracks so we make sure that we have a good line of sight on each other to communicate with physical, as well as musical cues. However, the energy from a live show can never be fully matched or replicated in the studio as each live show is influenced heavily by the crowd response, the history of the given venue, and all of the intangible factors that play in to that. To get the full Kirkos experience, you have to come to a show.
Your music is often described as cinematic and emotive. Do you draw inspiration from films or visual art when composing your soundscapes?
We are very heavily influenced by visual media including but not limited to film, art, photography, & cinema. Some of our biggest influences in film include but are not limited to David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, John Carpenter, Paul Thomas Anderson, Adam Curtis and more, as well as the film scores of Angelo Badalamenti, Phillip Glass, John Williams, and OneOhTrix Point Never.
The mix of post-rock, doom, and jazz fusion in your music is unconventional. Were there any specific bands or artists that influenced this eclectic direction?
We’ve always felt naturally drawn to emotive, introspective, and existential sounding music that makes you think and feel, regardless of individual genre classifications. This leads us into a diverse range of influences that span multiple genres, such as Weather Report, Return To Forever, & Uzeb from a more strictly fusion background, to artist that warp boundaries and mix genres such as Tortoise, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Dopapod, Nels Cline, Club d’ Elf, Swami LatePlate, Critters Buggin, Primus, Free Nelson ManDoomJazz, Jacob Fred Jazz Oddessy, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets as well as darker electronic works from artists like Burial, Boards of Canada, Shlohmo, and Aphex Twin.
Your music is said to reflect the decay of the modern age. Is there a specific message or theme you aim to convey through this lens?
We try to highlight the contrasting emotions that arise when trying to find beauty in the bleak, hope in the midst of decay, and love in the face of hate. We aim to reflect the problems and strife that many experience in the modern age, so that we can meet people where they are and resonate with their current experience. But we also hope to portray a different, more hopeful outlook that can take people on a journey out of that state, to find the strength to build a better future, to inspire internal changes of heart and emotion, and bring about a more connected consciousness.
Kirkos seems to take listeners on an emotional journey with each performance. How do you structure your setlists to create this dynamic experience?
We try to remain conscious of the emotional content of each song we add to a setlist when planning a set in order to curate a listening experience that can traverse all extremes of human emotion. We also always remain open to changing the setlist on the fly in the midst of a live show, responding to the organic energy that arises in the midst of playing.
What were some memorable moments from your 2024 fall tour that stood out to you as a band?
We hit the road with anther band who are close friends with us, named Secret Formula (from Omaha, NE) and played several shows in cities that neither of us had been before. We also got the chance to introduce them to many familiar faces in places like Birmingham (where we recorded our most recent live album).
As a trio, how do you approach songwriting and arranging your music? Does each member bring a specific element to the table?
We all contribute to the writing process through our individual instrumentation as well as lived experience and creative vision. The song writing process differs from track to track, with songs sometimes emerging out of collective improv at practice sessions, sometimes coming from one of our individual minds as an initial groove or progression that we introduce to the group, or fully fledged with music and lyrics from one person alone. Even when we don’t write them collectively as a unit, the experience of playing with each other for so long influences the compositions we create individually because we are envisioning each other’s playing styles as we write.
Progressive music often emphasizes technical prowess. How do you balance complexity with emotional depth in your compositions?
We try to always prioritize authentic emotional expression as the main guide in our creative process, making sure that we remain true to each of our artistic visions and individual personalities. With that as the main guide, we continue to hone our technical abilities so that we are always ready to physically follow where the heart wants to go. We don’t believe there has to be a dichotomy between technical complexity & emotional expression, as they are often complimentary pieces of the same puzzle.
What’s next for Kirkos in 2025? Are there any projects, tours, or collaborations on the horizon?
We have lots of new music we are itching to get out. Expect several studio releases through the year, as well as more live albums as we continue to tour. 2025 will be our most ambitious year yet with tour stops in the North East (USA) and Atlantic coast for the first time, as well as returning to familiar cities and venues in regions already within our touring territory.
Visit Kirkos’ Bandcamp for music, and follow the band on Instagram or Facebook.
