An eight-piece squad composed of self-proclaimed weirdos, KINDRED shares their journey to musical synergy and the meanings of their latest track, ‘Lambing.‘
Boybands have been a fixture in the music industry for as long as we can remember, bringing together charming young men with the talent and vocal chops to make our hearts skip a beat. From the legendary Beatles to the global phenomenon that is BTS, boybands have consistently captured the hearts of audiences worldwide and continue to do so today. Here in the Philippines, the rise of P-pop boy groups like SB19, BGYO, and Alamat (among others yet to be discovered) has taken the world by storm, solidifying the boyband trend even further. Yet, even as the music industry evolves, the basic formula for boybands remains the same – a group of talented young men with voices that make us swoon and our hearts flutter.
But what happens when a boyband decides to break away from the conventional mold and the dictates of the mainstream fare? Enter KINDRED, the eight-piece ensemble that’s here to challenge and redefine what it means to be a “Filipino boy band.” Comprised of Slomo Says (Moses Web), nouvul (Jorge Wieneke), Cavill (Obi Intia), VINCED (Vincent Dalida), Punzi (Justin Punzalan), dot.jaime (Jaime San Juan), Fern. (Fern Tan), and Pikunin (Luis Montales), who are all artists in their own right, KINDRED has been carving out their own space in the local alternative music scene; one where they revel in their eclectic style and embrace their unapologetic weirdness. With KINDRED, you can expect the unexpected, and that’s what makes them so exciting to watch.
KINDRED may be new to the music industry, but they’re already making waves and proving that they’re anything but ordinary. What started as a creative studio providing a safe and emancipatory space for like-minded artists has blossomed into a full-fledged label. Their uniquely vibrant branding is a reflection of their bold and daring approach to music, with previous mixtapes Switch On U! and SAY I LOVE defying categorization and taking listeners on a journey through a sonic landscape of endless possibilities. “A culmination of different personal and artistic backgrounds, tastes, and senses,” KINDRED calls themselves. And as their name suggests, this musical squad harnesses their collective power from their differences, united by a singular mission to change the game, one beat at a time.
They may be self-proclaimed weirdos, but they’re the kind of weirdos you can’t help but root for. NYLON Manila had the chance to talk to KINDRED where they share with us their creative process as a diverse collective, the inspiration behind their latest and first Tagalog track Lambing, the power of friendship and kinship, and how everyone can be a popstar of their own. As we dive deeper into the world of KINDRED, it becomes clear that their mission extends far beyond music – they’re on a mission to create a community that celebrates diversity, creativity, and authenticity.
Related: With 2OFU, Rangga Jones And Shye Want You To Take It Easy And Just Be Carefree
As a dynamic group with eight members who all bring something different to the table, how do you balance your individual tastes and senses to create a cohesive sound and vision that represents KINDRED’s music?
Cavill: I see KINDRED as a constantly ongoing Tetris game; it might be random and unpredictable but we all know our roles, shapes, protocols and places we all best fit in and we all really trust each other in terms of executing the combos.
nouvul: Before agreeing to work on the mixtape, we all collectively agree on a set of rules or a “tenet,” which is just basically all of us setting ground rules and boundaries amongst each other so that everyone’s voices are heard and that everyone equally gets a word in. Other than that, we have a sort of internal vetting process that allows us to fine-tune or polish each other’s contributions, which allows us to have a constant quality check for whatever we work on.
Pikunin: Honesty is the most important part. When so many ideas are flying around, some of them can turn out to be really good but some can turn out to be really bad also. Being honest with each other about what we like and don’t like helps in bringing everything together.
VINCED: Clear communication and constant desire to become better as individuals and as a group.
Slomo Says: Creating music with the band is a balance between finding what we unanimously think will serve what we’re creating and constantly coming up with ideas to show each other. [This comes] with the mutual respect and understanding that it takes time and faith in one another to create something great.
dot.jaime: It’s pretty much like a big game of shape sorters where we don’t necessarily follow what shapes are supposed to fit, since most of the time we always get surprised with what ends up working with the elements we come up with in our music despite everything having a set tone or assigned direction.
Punzi: I remember one of the values that we all agreed on when we first started the project stated, “Transparency is key,” which is one of the reasons why our chemistry as a group developed throughout the three years.
Fern.: We just get along very well, we all genuinely have love for each other.
What is the process like when writing and producing your music as a collective?
nouvul: Everyone’s allowed to start a project or a song but the stickiest songs or the ones that elicit the most potent responses from the members tend to be the ones we all mutually gravitate towards. So, a common sight at KINDRED will be a bunch of us working on multiple projects at the same time but eventually grouping up on the ones that we all mutually find sick or dope.
Pikunin: One person usually gets the ball rolling. This could be with an instrumental, a verse, or even a concept. After that, anyone can add to anything.
VINCED: Everyone easily gravitates towards the core of every great song.
Slomo Says: We like to give each other space to create on our own and then converge once a skeleton or rough idea is there for other members to hop on or add to. As one of the band’s rappers, I personally prefer to write on my own and show the rest of the boys what I’ve come up with to get their opinions on the direction I’m going in and workshop it from there.
Punzi: We all have different work processes or rituals when it comes to writing and producing but at the end of the day we all try to connect all our brains to come up with a compromise as to what we all like about the direction of that specific track or demo.
Fern.: I think the most important part of the process is how we understand each other’s workflow. We all work differently but it’s because we understand each other. That’s why it works.
As an eight-piece collective, how do you hope your music will impact your audience and what kind of conversations do you hope to start?
nouvul: In a subtle way, we’re trying to challenge people’s pop sensibilities or standards without being too preachy or alienating but also while having fun with it. We just want to blur a lot of the lines between what’s mainstream, what’s popular, what’s underground, what’s beautiful whilst ultimately trying to open the door for more people like us weirdos, who you would not naturally see as pop stars. We’re doing this for our people; to champion them and to remind people of the power of friendship and kinship too.
Pikunin: Honestly, we’re all a bunch of weirdos. I hope people see us and our music and think that you don’t need to act or look like a popstar to be a popstar. It’s a mentality!
Cavill: All my life, as someone who’s never had any type of support with pursuing music or art. I’ve made it a personal goal to be able to champion being a musician or artist in general in the future as a very viable and feasible career path (especially since we’re in the Philippines). I feel like everyone has this inner need to be felt and eventually, just expressing yourself and finding the people who make you feel safe and seen and also encourage your art is already enough. Little steps first.
VINCED: Would love to see people playing our music on vinyl when we’re 50.
Slomo Says: I want our music to impact people by making them feel whatever our songs elicit them to feel. As an unorthodox boyband by the industry’s standard, I hope inspire people to take a step in pursuing their dreams in music.
Punzi: No matter how deliberate we can be in terms of the direction of our music, we would always stay genuine or authentic to what we want to feel and what we hope for them to feel when listening to our music.
Fern.: We wanna add a new dimension to OPM, something fresh.
What are the challenges of being an eight-piece boyband as you navigate the increasingly competitive local music scene and how do you handle them?
nouvul: I guess it comes with the territory of the band that has a lot of strong personalities in the studio. It’s always a challenge to find our footing and common ground on certain ideas. You’re always bound to have certain disagreements and tensions at times but we always keep in mind to confront or be up-front with each other. I’m proud of how emotionally mature we all are at attacking a problem. I think that’s what keeps us from actually fighting or tearing each other apart. As for the competitive local music scene, we don’t really think that much about the competition. We’d rather focus all our energy on what we want to create.
Pikunin: The challenge is getting the eight of us in the same room without shit going crazy.
Cavill: I feel like the only challenge is to react with grace to whatever reception we get because we do this project with the intention of sparking a renaissance in our “little local scene.”
VINCED: What helps is knowing everyone is always headed towards one specific goal, one step at a time.
Slomo Says: Mostly just lining up our schedules HAHA.
Punzi: As what my fellow bandmate, Pikunin, mentioned, it is more on the debate as to whether we are doing too much or not in terms of our creative process when writing or producing.
Fern.: We handle it by just looking at ourselves. [We] create our music with purpose and not for anything external to what it’s meant to be.
Lambing is your third single and your first Tagalog offering. How did the creative process differ for Lambing compared to your previous works, and what inspired the song’s sound and lyrics?
nouvul: I’d say this song was one of the more intentionally crafted ones among the other songs we had worked on. Drawing a lot of inspiration from Japanese City Pop, OPM, and haranas, we wanted to really create a modern Tagalog love song that everyone could sing and relate to. I guess you could say also that compared to the other songs, this song was written at a time that the boyband had gotten exponentially closer to each other so our collaborative process was more intuitive and fluid as compared to the previously crafted songs.
Pikunin: Whenever someone asks about the creative process of Lambing, I’m automatically transported to that one studio session where Fern. was going crazy trying to crack the song followed by Cavill and me taking over, then also going crazy.
Cavill: Lambing was precise and calculated and I really loved making this song. This was my first time after all of being in that mindset: of wanting to create “the hit” or “THE pop song” in a body of work.
VINCED: It felt like mining diamonds; heavily inspired by lush anime credits.
Punzi: The idea or concept that I had in mind when writing Lambing was more on the nostalgic route but with a fresher take on what a “modern Tagalog pop song” is.
Fern.: This was our attempt to create something more “pop.” I guess it was also a way to open our own minds to unfamiliar things.
What do you hope listeners take away from Lambing, and how do you see it resonating with Filipino audiences specifically?
nouvul: The song is meant to celebrate the tenderness of love in all its different forms and we hope for nothing more but that love to be spread and celebrated through this song.
Pikunin: To love, love in all its forms! Celebrate your loved ones and let them know they are heard.
dot.jaime: It’s really just a simple song talking about a simple gesture that embodies love and affection that we take for granted almost every day. Lambing can be seen in so many ways and we hope the song shares the same impact as the word does.
Cavill: I hope that more people would engrave their initials on trees again after this song.
VINCED: This track is a moment passed, engraved in song, built to last for ages.
Punzi: Never be afraid to love as everyone should know that they are loved (especially by us, the KINDRED Family)
Fern.: I really hope this song becomes a karaoke hit.
How does Lambing fit into your larger vision for the future of KINDRED’s music, and what can fans expect from your upcoming releases?
nouvul: I think Lambing is a good show of range but I do feel like we have yet to show everyone the full spectrum of Kindred since the first few songs are just the tip of the iceberg of what we have to offer. I do advise fans to sit back, relax and enjoy the show coz there’s way more to look forward to.
Pikunin: With Lambing, I think we’ve been able to show another tool in our Inspector Gadget trench coat. For our upcoming releases, it can go any direction. There’s no guessing!
Cavill: Lambing is the ear irrigation song after some moments in the larger scale of things.
VINCED: I can’t wait to see where life takes us as a group.
How do you see your music evolving in the future, both as individuals and as a collective?
nouvul: I feel like it just gonna get weirder from here knowing us. But yes, I feel like we’re headed in a direction where we’re really gonna start making more of what we want to hear.
Pikunin: I always want to keep making music that’s honest to me and honest to the rest of the boys. In the future, I hope we can keep making things that are unapologetically authentic to us.
Cavill: Pikunin speaks for me.
VINCED: It’s the KINDRED in us and it always will be.
Slomo Says: I’m not sure. But I’m always excited for what our music will be like in the near future with new life experiences to pull from as a band and the new musical influences we’ll be bringing to the table individually.
dot.jaime: We’ll only be able to see it evolve as we make more music that means more to what it already is.
Punzi: The future is uncertain in the context of how our music will evolve but one thing for sure is that our dynamic, musicality, and chemistry will be stronger in the upcoming releases.
Fern.: Growth has definitely been the biggest thing in our journey as KINDRED. Not just artistic growth but personal growth as well. These people make me want to become a better person and because I understand myself better, I will for sure create music that will reflect that.
In Lambing, you worked with Filipino rapper Kiyo. Who are some of the artists you would love to work with in the future, and what kind of project would you like to create together?
nouvul: I’d love to work with the KINDRED boys individually on separate projects but also would be interested in working with people who vibe with me on a deeper level.
Pikunin: I would really love to work with BINI, same how Girl’s Generation did that collaboration with Super Junior.
VINCED: Cinderella, APO Hiking Society, VST & Co.
dot.jaime: Artists that aren’t too fixated to what the world says about themselves or how it’s “supposed” to be done.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists who are looking to build a collective or collaborative group, and how can they foster the same sense of unity and authenticity that you’ve achieved as KINDRED?
nouvul: Be honest, stay genuine, find your people and follow your highest excitement. Also, don’t listen to the haters! PANGET SILA!
Pikunin: Don’t be afraid to be yourself! Once you know yourself better, it will be easier to see yourself in other people to work with also.
VINCED: Clear communication and constant desire to become better as individuals and as a group.
Slomo Says: Find friends that wanna make music and don’t look back.
dot.jaime: Family’s not entitled to one household and for sure it’ll come to a point where that’ll arrive cosmically. It’s just your job to keep the same drive going and manifestation to lead you there.
Punzi: Take advantage (yet be cautious) of every opportunity given to you as ideas are one thing but the execution is everything.
Stream KINDRED’s ‘Lambing’ ft. Kiyo here.
Continue Reading: Born To Win: BINI Is In It For The Long Haul
