Virgin Records are proud to announce the debut E.P by To Kill A King entitled ‘My Crooked Saint E.P’ released on 17th October 2011.
You’ll want to meet To Kill A King and their magnificent songwriter Ralph Pelleymounter. Their songs are lyrically dense; stories that explore complicated emotional landscapes, yet they remain direct and their harmonies simple. Their music has the quiet, powerful reserve of The National or even Red House Painters, but it’s a reserve mixed with a liquid, rhythmical, joyous touch that recalls Arcade Fire, or the raw, euphoric drive of Mumford And Sons. The startling part of it all though is that at any one moment, they can sound like all of them or none of them. They are unique, and as a consequence, quite stunning. Best of all, they’ve only just begun.
The band formed in early 2010. Lead vocalist Ralph Pelleymounter met Ian Dudfield and Josh Platman whilst studying at Leeds University. After playing in bands in various guises the founding members moved to London where they were joined by Jon Willoughby and Ben Jackson and the line up was complete. With regards to the band’s name Ralph says, “It came from a line in Hamlet. I liked the idea of Claudius killing King Hamlet by pouring poison into his ear – and how that relates to music.”
Within months they had made a video for a track called ‘Cold Skin’ and recorded their recently released debut single entitled ‘Fictional State’. Management and record labels began getting in touch almost immediately. They played a few stellar shows at the Communion label nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club, run by Mumford and Sons’ keyboardist Ben Lovett and Cherbourg bassist Kevin Jones and it was Communion who released their debut single, the aforementioned ‘Fictional State’, a brutally beautiful tale of refusing to face the biggest responsibility of all.
Now there are the songs on the glorious ‘My Crooked Saint E.P’; Bloody Shirt, We Used To Protest, Family and Wrecking Crew, four stunning tales articulating Ralph’s unique observations of life.
To Kill a King are an extraordinary band; bold haunting vocals, outstanding harmonies, and powerful emotive storytelling lyrics, this is a band that will get under your skin.
