Kid Savant

You know all those old authority figure axioms like, “You break it, you pay for it”, “Make a mess, clean it up”, “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye?” Well, at least one of em came to skin-blistering reality in the wake of shooting this eye-popping new video from fresh faced alt pop quartet Kid Savant. In order to make their dream video – in which the dudes would toss all manner of garage-sale detritus from an airplane over a portion of the Arizona desert that apparently is just barren enough to safely accommodate such a feat – they only had to agree to clean up the mess they made. Among the items that got the heave-ho: a plant, an easy chair (occupied), a TV, and most stunningly beautifully of all, a grand piano. Sad to see it go, as we do at the end, but quite a sight as it spins in the air. Point is once the shoot was over, the guys spent sixteen hours in the Arizona sun cleaning up.

You be the judge of whether it was worth it, we say yes. While Kid Savant like to tell a story of having pulled off a Brazilian bank heist back in ’05…the fact is the gents are Hoosiers, and after spending a few summer making music in Montreal, made the pilgrimage not too long ago from Indiana to New York. But it’s this trip out west that may be their most spectacular to date. Directed by the band themselves, with the invaluable assistance of some talented aerial cinematographers, our NV Music Video of the Day is “4 Years” from Kid Savant. - Noisevox

Brooklyn’s Kid Savant aka Ryan, John, Kevin and Dene’s jam “4 Years” is pretty stellar. They say on their Facebook page that The Cure and David Bowie are some of their favorite music and you can hear the influence with “4 Years.” With lead vocals that hinge on being a bit Bowie meets Robert Smith (nothing wrong with that!!!!) and a track overall that sounds like the glorious musical love child of Bowie, The Cure and hell I even get a The Killers vibe in this one Kid Savant is a band that knows how to hit all the right marks for me. If you like “4 Years” (you can download it for a name your price value) too and want to hear more from Kid Savant head over to Bandcamp! - Dance Yrself Clean

The Indianapolis rock band Kid Savant was born in 2006 when two Pike High School seniors needed live music for Promstock, a post-prom party they threw for some friends. The then-unnamed project fell dormant when the two graduated and moved away for college- drummer John Sullivan to University of Chicago and front man Ryan Weisberger to Indiana University. “We quickly grew a little jaded of the music scene there- yodelers and violins and too many cowbells and shit,” Sullivan says of his first two years in college. “We wanted to craft songs that made sense; songs that stood out for what they meant, not for their ad hoc attempts at being original.”

Wanting to avoid the inevitable and looming summer internship, the pair reconnected in the summer of 2008 with the spontaneous decision to move to Montreal. Sullivan jokes, “We got to drink legally and party like the dumb Americans we were, but we made lifelong contacts and recorded our first tracks, like 'Cher aKido'.”

A year later, the duo returned, this time as a full band with the addition of Kevin Pariso on guitar and Andrew Wendahl on bass. In Montreal once again, the band worked on lots of new recordings, as well as taking full advantage of the rich networking opportunities in the city’s thriving music scene. One such opportunity led to the band being flown to New York City to open for Smashing Pumpkins' bassist, Melissa Auf der Maur at the famed Knitting Factory- the weekend that Sullivan claims the band’s members fell in love with NYC.

The men of Kid Savant once again returned to college to stay focused on graduation. While riding out a year and a half of classes, they worked relentlessly at building an online fan base. Later, upon completion of school, the band took root in Brooklyn, finally giving in to NYC’s magnetic pull. Not long after the move, Kid Savant met new member and resident Brooklynite, bassist Dene Farrell, who Sullivan says has been a huge musical and social asset to the group of Indiana-natives.

I asked Sullivan the best advice he's received from Farrell in regard to Brooklyn living. "It's two-fold," he explains. "First, to really stand out, don't get a damn tattoo in this city. Seriously, i think we're the only non-tattooed band in the tri-state area. Second, to overbook dates with girls by at least two more than your intended target; he's convinced there's an equation to ensuring you actually land a date in this insane city."

Presently, Kid Savant has been in New York City for nine months. “We feel deeply connected to what's going on Brooklyn. It's a sort of musical mecca, a proving grounds,” says Sullivan of his new home. “We definitely stand out as Hoosiers, but in a way that evokes interest and discussion. Usually our Indiana twang or accent gives us away, but sometimes it's the IU hat Weisberger wears on occasion. Hats are a seeming faux pas in this hip city of Brooklyn, so it's our real chill attitude and dress that make people question, 'Where are you guys from?' We've also had the drunken confusion during an interview 'You're Indie?' 'Yeah, we're from Indy.' 'You're from indie, what, what does that mean?' 'What do YOU mean?'"

Sullivan continues, "Our fan base has really grown up here, nearly selling out the past two shows we've done around town. Despite the ADHDness of the city, we frequently go back home to just bask in forested silence and hear birds, get our laundry done for us, and slip back into our Indiana drawl.”

Kid Savant’s debut EP, "Drop It on the Stereo" is due to release later this fall. The video for the EP’s first single, ‘4 Years’, debuted on Monday. Below, drummer John Sullivan explains why this isn’t your average music video.


NUVO: How was the video’s concept conceived?
SULLIVAN: The kernel of this video was actually born at a rehearsal in Indy while we were visiting our parents for Thanksgiving and prepping for a recording session in California with producer Sylvia Massy. We were eating some leftovers in my kitchen when someone dropped a plate and it broke. [Bassist Andrew] Wendahl was like “We should start dropping shit more often… and do a music video to it.”

NUVO: How did it evolve into pianos falling from the sky?
SULLIVAN: It took a few months to figure out we wanted it to be a skydive based video with an emphasis on free fall, highlighting it's paradox that you're moving at 150 mph, but at relative speed, it's only as if you're floating.

NUVO: What kind of preparation was required?
SULLIVAN: Our singer, Ryan, began intensive training to become a fully licensed skydiver. Acting as our own production team, we reached out to everyone in the industry and got the attention of Emmy Award-winning aerial cinematographers Greg Gasson and Joe Jennings.

NUVO: What was the actual shooting of the video like?
SULLIVAN: We had no director, no producer, and no writer. The band had to fill all three spots with the help of the cinematographers. We were out in the Arizona desert for 16 hours a day, for three days straight, waiting for shit to fall, pick it up to preserve the land, then do it again… all while Ryan was doing acrobatic jumping six times a day back at the real drop zone.

NUVO: What are your feelings on the final product?
SULLIVAN: It’s totally do-it-yourself. It's our first go at a video, and it's to a song that means a lot to us. This will be the first proper sounds and visuals anyone has heard of us...the rest of our stuff are demos in reality. This is the beginning, and we're beyond excited. There’s lots of enthusiasm here in Brooklyn, but Indy is our home and we want to share this more than anything with our friends and fans there. - NUVO

[Music Video] Kid Savant – 4 Years
Posted by The Music Ninja in Alternative/Rock, Electronic on 07 14th, 2011 | no responses

I hate to be so critical on indie artists but when bands opt to do DIY music videos, it usually leads to a corny disaster. Even with a production team, not often do we see the very styles and personality of each group member come across on screen as it does in their music. The brand new music video of Brooklyn’s own indie band Kid Savant, is the perfect example of when things do go right.

Inspired by a plate that fell to the floor at a Thanksgiving dinner, the band decided to create what they call “the worlds first free fall concept music video”. From its playful introduction of a flying piano falling from the sky to the quirky acrobatics and dramatic stares from lead singer Ryan Weisberger, they entire experience is a joy to watch. The video was produced, written and directed by the band with the helps from two aerial cinematographers. Still, when a group of guys have enough talent to come together and produce a memorable song, chances are they have what it takes to make a memorable video.

“4 Years” is the first single off Kid Savant’s upcoming debut EP “Drop It on the Stereo” out October 2011.

Pay-what-you-want: Kid Savant – 4 Years (Bandcamp)

- The Music Ninja

While my musical tastes go across the entire spectrum, I think at this point it’s safe to say that I’ve narrowed down my absolute favorite songs into a very narrow category. These are the songs that start out quiet and subdued and grow into sonic walls as the songs progress. The ones that would work just as well as a slow song, if not for the heavy beats injected in all the right places. The ones that for some reason make you happy and sad at the same time. And I think “Better Side of Paradise” by Kid Savant is yet another great example of this sort of electro/pop/house hybrid that don’t seem to fit into any sort of category. I think in the end, all I need is a good beat, and a great melody. - The Music Ninja

Starting from the lo-fi inspired vocal effect and melodic piano intro, Kid Savants latest "Drop It On The Stereo" bursts with an assortment of soundscapes. From bright electric guitars to sudden buzzes of synths and string arrangements, the song keeps building with layers upon layers of sounds until the final seconds while the band reminds the listener to "slow the fuck down" Kid Savant is definately one band that should be dropping in your stereo. - Frozen Aisle

New York, NY – Esoteric without being weighty and severely melodic while maintaining complex and challenging song structures, Chicago/Indianpolis electronic/dreampop band, KID SAVANT is bringing its heady intellectual smartpunk to the East Coast this month (tour dates below).

“Between the good music that our parents played us in utero and the sounds that we found on our own in the following 20 years, we know that we’ve inherited a good lineage of music—and that, in a sense, our tastes in music have been shaped against our will,” explains vocalist/keyboardist Ryan Weisberger. “This has created a bit of anxiety in what we play as an ‘indie’ band fronted by humans, because know that- in some way – we’re recreating sounds that have been heard already, whether we know this or not. But, as an equally electronic group, we know that technology can manipulate sound in infinite ways such that no human has literally heard before. It’s a bit of contemporary ‘anxiety’ and and its ‘deliverance’ that keeps us creating noise.”

Armed with an independently released EP, three singles, and a slew of new songs planned for release in the near future, Kid Savant have announced a handful of live dates starting in Philadelphia and circling back to their homebase of Chicago. As a precursor to their tour dates, they’re offering up a FREE download of one of their new tracks, “Cher aKido.” a textural, piano-led rhythmic track with a mesmerizing melody. The song is traced back to “the summer of 2008, well before we called ourselves ‘Kid Savant’,” recalls William. “We were loud, nomadic Americans passing the summer in Montreal attempting music as friends (and avoiding college internships). We found ourselves at a show for the city’s Jazz Festival, where local band aKido put on a show with such verve that equally awed us as it did make us envious. We were also communally infatuated with the lead singer, who was this beautifully tall Quebecois woman with a shaved head. We felt like shit for knowing that we’d never meet her. Angsty, we took a taxi to our rehearsal space and came out with the piano riff and drums to the song.” With an ironic twist worthy of Parker Posey film, the band found that “aKido is actually the alias of the group’s MALE composer and boyfriend to said girl…all after he definitely heard our lyrics like ‘you’re an eye and ear affair’ and ‘I only kiss you in the studio.’ Sheer confusion and embarassment, but he loved the song!”

With a powerful and impressive oeuvre that includes the midnight underground club beat of “Ominous Dancefloor”, the propulsive atmospherics of “The Other Side of Paradise” and the liltingly charming “Drop It On the Stereo”, Kid Savant has received plaudits from Chicago Maroon Newspaper who describes their sound as “bringing house, trance, and electronica music into the popular consciousness and merging the feeling of live trance music with the potency of a hit song” to DailyBeatz who likens them to “a symphony of synthesis in every steam-filled window… the pounding bass of a heart so sick with desire that nausea and anticipation merge into the other and build; building, building, break into a harmony on the better side of paradise.”

Kid Savant is Ryan Weisberger (vocals, keyboard), John Sullivan (drums, percussion, programming), Kevin Pariso (guitar, synth) and Andrew Wendahl (bass synthesizer, bass guitar, programming).

KID SAVANT tour dates
Jul 16 @ Fergie’s (Philadelphia, PA)
Jul 18 @ Church w/ Vulture, Sherman Burns, Mrs. Danvers (Boston, MA)
Jul 21 @ DC9 w/ The Honeyguns, Mathpanda (Washington DC)
Jul 22 @ Pianos (New York, NY)
Aug 6 @ Reggie’s w/ Incubator Crimes (Chicago, IL)

To hear more music, please go to: http://www.myspace.com/kidsavant
- Frantikmag.com

This one’s a slow burn, but I couldn’t take my ears off of it. Kid Savant consists of Ryan Weisberger, John Sullivan, Kevin Pariso and Andrew Wendahl, and when they're all put together they make a fusion of pop, electro-rock and synth-riddled tracks that conjure whirlwinds of hypnotic reveries. Once you've listened to them, it should come as no shock that their synth sound was influenced by late-night clubs and DJs, but whereas an addition of rave-like effects can easily create a heavy and repetitious song, Kid Savant's usage creates complexity and depth. "We try to reincorporate certain staple parts of house/techno songs like a breakdown or crawl into our own novel sound."

Oh yeah, and they're all college students. - Guilt Free Pleasures

t’s an addictive formula, tight electro synths, big beats, and smooth vocals, but it’s not that easy to achieve. That is unless you are a savant, Kid Savant that is. Kid Savant consists of Ryan Weisberger, John Sullivan, Kevin Pariso, and Andrew Wendahl. Last year the band released their second ep called Second Servings, and already have begun to put up new tracks on their myspace page. Their sound is densely layered, highly electronic, and heavily danceable. Keep and eye out for this up and coming band.
Published on January 18, 2010

- The Deli Magazine

Kid Savant followed, and the perfectly pitched noise of the Midwesterners put the electricity back in the evening. Their confidence, despite a mic malfunction, pulled in the crowd. Building synth upon synth, bridging industrial ground between Lou Reed and Hot Chip, they finished on a cover of "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" that elicited a huge cheer. After an absorbing, escalating set, the stage darkened and the floor filled for the main act. - My Crazy Music Blog