ACM-Kiran-Revival

Kiran and the Revival – Down by the River

04 Jun 2018

This post was written more than two years ago. The content or information below may no longer be accurate.

What happens when you combine a love for classic Zeppelin, Dylan’s Folk, 90’s Grunge and noughties Pop-Punk?

…give Kiran and the Revival’s ‘Down by the River’ a spin and find out for yourselves! Carry on reading to meet the guys and listen to the band’s latest release…

Introduce yourselves.

“Kiran and the Revival is formed of Kiran Evetts (Vocals, Guitar), Ewan Ridell (Bass) and Dan Harrington (Drums). We met individually about a year ago, after Kiran who is on the Music Technology Diploma produced some of the bands that Ewan and Dan (both Music Performance diploma) used to play in. Nothing much came of it until December 2017 when Kiran went out to form a band in order to develop and play the songs he had written over the past year. After one jam session with all the members and the realisation of shared goals and aims over the next few months, the connection was immediate and we decided to form a band.”

What influences do you each bring to the band?

“We have quite an unusual pool of influences but somehow everything comes together really nicely. Kiran is really into older music from the 60’s and 70’s, but also a lot of modern music that is perhaps less processed and often involving less electronic instruments and effects. His guitar playing and singing is very much influenced by artists such as Led Zeppelin and Jeff Buckley, but a lot of the lyrical inspiration comes from folk artists like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Ewan and Dan have a lot of influence from Pop-Punk and this is were the energy and more modern-sounding rhythm section in our music comes from. Ewan is also really into 90’s Grunge and this really inspires a certain aggression in some of the songs. One influence we can all agree on is Fleetwood Mac, who we look to for ideas on production and shaping the arrangement and structure of our songs.”

Tell us about the writing process behind Down By The River?

“Down by the River was written and developed like a lot of the songs we’re currently working on. After becoming exacerbated with the process of writing and recording songs almost entirely on Logic, Kiran decided to start writing songs with just an acoustic guitar and vocals in order to follow a more traditional and minimalistic songwriting technique. The thought process behind this is that a song needs to be well-written to sound good with just one acoustic instrument and singer, so it forced him to get the composition right rather than making up for it with effects and complex instrumentation.

The song itself was written in one evening and all the different parts seemed to come at once. After the main riff was written, Kiran just improvised a stream of consciousness for the lyrics and worked out the different sections by simply following the song where it wanted to go and letting it develop naturally. After the lyrics and chords were written, the band played and developed it by cutting out unnecessary sections to refine it and exploring the dynamics and interplay between instrumentation. Every few weeks a small detail changed so after playing it for several months there are lots of small hooks and ideas developed by the band that really make the song.”


“A live EP performed, recorded and released within 24 hours.”

What does the rest of 2018 hold for the band?

“Following our recent single release gig featuring The Estevans, Latino Booty Sunrise and Love Family Robinson at the Holroyd Arms, we’re going to head straight to the studio and record an EP we have been rehearsing for months. This will be out by July, and will hopefully be followed up with a tour over summer.”

Follow Kiran and the Revival : Facebook // Instagram // SoundCloud


If you’d like to study at ACM and follow in the footsteps of our students like Kiran, Ewan and Dan, please call our Admissions Team on 01483 500 841 or visit www.acm.ac.uk/open-days to book a place on an ACM Open Day today.

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