The Key Studio Sessions: Kississippi

Think of them as Philly’s existential pop band that could. In the beginning, it was just Zoë Reynolds singing and strumming and making haunting, emotional lo-fi recordings at home to share with her friends.

As word spread, and Kississippi began to evolve from a free-time project to a full-fledged band – one that caught the ear of our Skye Leppo just about a year ago. And after the release of I Can Feel You In My Hair Still, Reynolds linked up with Jake Ewald from Modern Baseball, who worked with the band on their label debut, We Have No Future, We’re All Doomed, released last November on Soft Speak Records.

The EP is a sonic step forward for Kississippi, bringing Reynolds’ arresting voice to the forefront and surrounding it in lush, beautiful arrangements of slinky clean-tone guitar and measured drumming. It recalls a lot of bands from the sadcore 90s; central PA favorites The Innocence Mission, as well as NYC duo Ida and of course The Sundays.

If you ask Reynolds, though, her personal influences are decidedly more contemporary, and the band absolutely #slay with their cover of “It’s Okay” by Montreal cult faves Land of Talk during this week’s Key Studio Session. 

Also performed are selections from Future that are more stripped down in arrangement but no less moving, from the poppy melancholy of opener “Indigo” to the lovelorn ache of “Googly Eyes” – the lyric “I think longing’s another thing I share with you / but not for me like I for you” gets me every time. We also hear an incredible new one called “Nativities,” which seems to deal a lot with death and the fallicies of faith. “Believing in God is such a beautiful thing,” sings Reynolds. “It hurts to know it won’t happen to me.” Wow.

Watch a video of Kississippi performing in our studio via VuHaus and stream the full session below, grab a free download at Soundcloud and catch the band live at PhilaMOCA tomorrow night on their winter tour send-off show with Straw Hats and Friendship; more information on the show can be found at Facebook.

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