LA band Kiven brings their knack for improv to Bar Pink before taking on South By Southwest

By Logan Broyles | SDUN Reporter

Life can be rough for a young band starting out; it takes years of dedication and hard work to get the sound of your music just right. Los Angles-based indie band Kiven – Entertainment Weekly said the band’s “musical chops exceed their years” – are just beginning to scratch the surface of their potential.

The group is made up of lead singer Tyler Demorest, guitarist Danny Schnair and bassist Matt Cohen. Their friend, Jake Reed, will be joining them on drums for the upcoming show at Bar Pink, Thursday, Feb. 21.

Set to play at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas, the trio first met while studying music and marketing at the University of Southern California.

“The band kind of started forming while we were still in school at USC,” Demorest said. “We released an EP and a single, and we really started putting some full-time effort into it once we graduated.”

Today they all work together in the music marketing industry, but as Schnair said, they are excited about the future. “A year from now our goal is to no longer have day jobs,” he said.

Over the last year, Kiven has been focused on perfecting their sound and finding an identity that combines the modern music they listen to today, with what they listened to growing up.

“You could say we’re a progressive rock band, taking rock sounds from the early 2000s and applying new age sounds to it as well,” Cohn said. “We like to think that we are a collection of all the sounds that influenced us. There’s a mash up of a lot of different genres.”

Calling the band a mix of Radiohead and Muse, Schnair said he agreed with Cohn’s sentiment. “I’d say it’s an amalgamation of everything that we’ve not only listened to recently but also things that we’ve grown up on throughout our careers as budding musicians,” Schnair said.

Schnair comes from a background that is heavy on improvisation in music, having studied Jazz guitar in school. An emphasis on being creative in the moment, like improvisation, makes Kiven’s live shows special.

“Music for us is all about not only creating something that we want to listen to, but creating an exchange between us and the audience members,” Schnair said. “We really pride ourselves on that in our live shows. Not only giving people what they want to hear from the record, but also something new and improvised that’s in the moment, and makes the show a unique memorable experience.”

Though this will be their first show at Bar Pink in North Park, the band has played a few shows at other venues in the area. That is not the only San Diego connection, however. Demorest lived in the city for 12 years, attending Francis Parker School in Mission Hills and Linda Vista before moving away.

The upcoming show is part of a soft touring schedule for the band, as they gear up for their first appearance at SXSW in March. They are also promoting their recently released EP “1840,” which will be available at the show.

“I think ‘1840’ was a big step for us to realize how we want to finish off our songs from the past, because we ended up re-recording a lot of them,” Schnair said. “We’ve really streamlined the process so that we aren’t just cranking out songs to put them out, we’re putting out songs that we really feel are finished quality products.”

The EP isn’t the only release they’ll be putting out in 2013. Demorest said they are in the process of writing and recording their first full-length album, which they expect out sometime this summer.

“We’re about halfway through. The three of us have been writing it together everyday after work,” he said.

Kiven’s Feb. 21 Bar Pink show is at 9 p.m., where the band with play with Hargo. Bar Pink is located at 3829 30th St. For more information visit kivenmusic.com, barpink.com or call 619-564-7194.