INTERVIEW with THE WEEKENDER

by Thom Shubilla

When thinking of the town of Tamaqua, bands and music may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Unfortunately, for many, nothing comes to mind. But indie garage rock band Kite Party may change some people's perception of their hometown of Tamaqua.

Although Kite Party will only be playing its second show on Saturday, March 1 at Cafe Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre, Tim Jordan (bass, guitar, keyboard), Justin Fox (bass, guitar, keyboard.), Pete Knepper (drums) and Russell Edling (guitar, vocals) have been close friends for a long time, and three of the members are no stranger to sharing the stage together.

"We've known each other forever," said Fox. "Russ and Pete met in kindergarten, and Russ and I played soccer together in third grade. We all met Tim when he moved here from Arizona when he was in fifth grade. We all would skate and film each other jumping over stuff when we were in middle school. Around 10th grade, Pete, Russ and I started playing music together, and we started The Mother/Daughter Team with Dave Miller when we were in 11th grade. We were together for about two years but then broke up at the end of last summer.

"Around that time, Tim started his own thing called Carlos: King of the Sea that I was a part of. After The Mother/Daughter Team broke up, Russ and Pete kept playing music together, and Tim and I kept going with Carlos, and eventually we merged the two bands together into Kite Party. That's where we're at now."

The layover between bands for members of Kite Party has only been several months. But the band can not wait to get back into the game and start playing as much as it possibly can.

"We're super excited," said Fox. "It's been a couple months since any of us have played shows, so it's definitely going to feel great to be playing again. We're planning on going on a tour this summer, but other than that, we just want to play as many shows locally and make as many friends as we can."

Speaking of friends of the band, Kite Party has made friends with two other local bands, Tigers Jaw and Three Man Cannon, who the band always looks forward to playing with whenever the opportunity arises.

"Brian Langan from the Sw!ms told me about Tigers Jaw when The Mother/Daughter Team was still going, so we got in contact with them and played a couple shows," explained Fox. "The first show we played with Tigers Jaw was at Metro with Three Man Cannon, so we met them there. A little bit later they all came to Tamaqua to play a show with us at a skateshop, and from there we just started playing together a lot and became really close friends. It's great to be playing again because it gives us an excuse to make the hour-long drive to all hang out again."

Although the band may seem embarrassed to give the cliche answer of what inspires its music, the members are not afraid to admit that they keep their sound strictly original.

"I guess everything is an inspiration," admitted Fox. "That sounds kind of lame, but it's true. We don't really listen to bands and then try to emulate them in any way, which I think is what a lot of bands try to do. For us, we just sort of write what comes natural to us when all four of us are playing together, and I think that each of us have our ways of playing that inspire one another to push the songs forward. Probably the biggest outward influences, though, is the feeling of knowing that our friends and even people we don't know are into what we are doing. That kind of support makes it really easy to go into the writing process with a positive attitude that is more conducive to writing original sounding music."

The band currently has two songs available for play on MySpace, "Cowboy Hat" and "Frogmarch." Although the tracks are admittedly rough, Kite Party does have plans to make improved recordings. As for now, the songs are doing a good job with helping the band get booked for shows.

"We recorded the songs on our MySpace with our friend Brian Gogal at this studio in the basement of a movie theatre in Coaldale called The Angela," said Fox. "We aren't really done mixing the songs we have up; we just put them up to help with getting shows. We definitely plan on recording more stuff and finishing what we have in the pretty near future, though probably around mid-March."

(February 2008, www.theweekender.com)

BACK


	BACK INTERVIEW with THE WEEKENDER by Thom Shubilla When thinking of the town of Tamaqua, bands and music may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Unfortunately, for many, nothing comes to mind. But indie garage rock band Kite Party may change some people's perception of their hometown of Tamaqua. Although Kite Party will only be playing its second show on Saturday, March 1 at Cafe Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre, Tim Jordan (bass, guitar, keyboard), Justin Fox (bass, guitar, keyboard.), Pete Knepper (drums) and Russell Edling (guitar, vocals) have been close friends for a long time, and three of the members are no stranger to sharing the stage together. "We've known each other forever," said Fox. "Russ and Pete met in kindergarten, and Russ and I played soccer together in third grade. We all met Tim when he moved here from Arizona when he was in fifth grade. We all would skate and film each other jumping over stuff when we were in middle school. Around 10th grade, Pete, Russ and I started playing music together, and we started The Mother/Daughter Team with Dave Miller when we were in 11th grade. We were together for about two years but then broke up at the end of last summer. "Around that time, Tim started his own thing called Carlos: King of the Sea that I was a part of. After The Mother/Daughter Team broke up, Russ and Pete kept playing music together, and Tim and I kept going with Carlos, and eventually we merged the two bands together into Kite Party. That's where we're at now." The layover between bands for members of Kite Party has only been several months. But the band can not wait to get back into the game and start playing as much as it possibly can. "We're super excited," said Fox. "It's been a couple months since any of us have played shows, so it's definitely going to feel great to be playing again. We're planning on going on a tour this summer, but other than that, we just want to play as many shows locally and make as many friends as we can." Speaking of friends of the band, Kite Party has made friends with two other local bands, Tigers Jaw and Three Man Cannon, who the band always looks forward to playing with whenever the opportunity arises. "Brian Langan from the Sw!ms told me about Tigers Jaw when The Mother/Daughter Team was still going, so we got in contact with them and played a couple shows," explained Fox. "The first show we played with Tigers Jaw was at Metro with Three Man Cannon, so we met them there. A little bit later they all came to Tamaqua to play a show with us at a skateshop, and from there we just started playing together a lot and became really close friends. It's great to be playing again because it gives us an excuse to make the hour-long drive to all hang out again." Although the band may seem embarrassed to give the cliche answer of what inspires its music, the members are not afraid to admit that they keep their sound strictly original. "I guess everything is an inspiration," admitted Fox. "That sounds kind of lame, but it's true. We don't really listen to bands and then try to emulate them in any way, which I think is what a lot of bands try to do. For us, we just sort of write what comes natural to us when all four of us are playing together, and I think that each of us have our ways of playing that inspire one another to push the songs forward. Probably the biggest outward influences, though, is the feeling of knowing that our friends and even people we don't know are into what we are doing. That kind of support makes it really easy to go into the writing process with a positive attitude that is more conducive to writing original sounding music." The band currently has two songs available for play on MySpace, "Cowboy Hat" and "Frogmarch." Although the tracks are admittedly rough, Kite Party does have plans to make improved recordings. As for now, the songs are doing a good job with helping the band get booked for shows. "We recorded the songs on our MySpace with our friend Brian Gogal at this studio in the basement of a movie theatre in Coaldale called The Angela," said Fox. "We aren't really done mixing the songs we have up; we just put them up to help with getting shows. We definitely plan on recording more stuff and finishing what we have in the pretty near future, though probably around mid-March." (February 2008, www.theweekender.com) BACK
(c) 2008 KITE PARTY website design: RUSSELL EDLING