Coming Home with Purpose: Kid Kapichi
KATE SHAW AND VERA BELL
Kid Kapichi played their last big concert at De La Warr Pavilion earlier this year, having announced that Ben Beetham and George Macdonald were leaving the group. The new line-up now faces a whirlwind of travel, rehearsals, and massive crowds.
They are probably one of the most nationally well-known groups to come out of the fertile Hastings stable; their mix of driving, loud, insistent chords, lyrics that could almost be described as post-apocalyptic [It could be better/it could be worse/But when time’s done we all end up as food for the worms/Are you scared of your fearless nature?/Vitamin D and echinacea/Does it crawl up your spine like an eight legged creature?/Or does it dangle from above waiting to greet you?] and true-grit vocals, have a broad appeal, and while the numbers of people streaming their music isn’t quite at the level of, say, (um..) Adele, there are a healthy 4 million (on Spotify alone) streams of New England, the explosive song they recorded with rap duo Bob Vylan. Though recent Glastonbury events involving Vylan may have something to do with this, that song alone is undeniably significant.
Amidst the chaos, front man Jack Wilson found time to share a conversation about home, evolution, and the drive to stay true to your roots. We met ahead of their return to The Piper in St Leonards – a venue that holds special appeal for the band. “We don’t get the opportunity to do these sorts of things that often – especially acoustic,” Jack told me. “We still just really enjoy playing music and doing things differently when we can… and that’s a great experience for us.”
What stood out wasn’t just their commitment to mixing things up. It was the raw love for Hastings – not just a tour stop, but home. “The Piper is always the reason we can come back and just do something. It’s so much fun. It is home. It will always be home.”
That idea of home also ties into the band’s evolution. I asked about the split earlier this year. “It was totally friendly, amicable, for all the right reasons,” Jack says, of the transfer from four to two. “It’s like being in a relationship with three other people for 10 years. Sometimes some of you just don’t want to do it anymore, but it was done in the right way.”
Now performing live as a two-piece with Lee Martin on guitar and Miles Gill on drums joining them for the tour, the new lineup hasn’t slowed them down. If anything, it’s re-energized them. “Being in front of people in a live capacity is where you really learn how to play music with each other.” With a new album on the way and their latest single Stainless Steel released on 7 August, the band is leaning into a sound that is both creatively liberated and more introspective.
When I asked about their change in expression, Jack didn’t hesitate. “People will hear with the new stuff that it is definitely different. This is an incredibly vulnerable period for the band, full of huge change and personal growth. It has a more mature feel, but I still think it’s punk inspired… more like an ethos than a sound. And I think that ethos is properly instilled in us – probably because we’re from Hastings. It was a very cathartic experience recording this album.” His description of punk as an ethos stuck with me. Punk not as noise or rebellion, but as a principle, an attitude.
In this time, when music often feels overproduced and distant, Kid Kapichi is leaning closer to who they are – and inviting their audience to do the same. There’s something quietly radical about that. And for me, this was a reminder that behind every track, there’s a story. Behind every show, a reason to return. Sometimes, it’s just to play a venue you love. Sometimes, it’s because it still feels like home.
As the opening line of Stainless Steel goes…no one said it’d be painless.
Kid Kapichi will play a semi-acoustic set at The Piper, Norman Road on 27 and 28 September.
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