Underwood Milk is the new single by Kieran Leonard & The Horses. It is released digitally and on beer mat (a beer mat!!) as part of fierce panda’s reborn singles ‘club’ on June 29th, and it sounds like a whirl of ragged alt.rock glories with a shimmer of slacker guitar and a glimmer of melodic hope. Suitably, the video sees an eminently grungy Kieran wandering around the late Stanley Kubrick’s house in Hertfordshire, where he has been recording his forthcoming sophomore album ‘Good Luck, Everybody’.
Such is the exotic, erratic life with this troubadour whose creative muse was ignited by being forced by his mum to watch a David Bowie retrospective on the telly as a 13 year-old, and who most recently spent a fair chunk of 2015 touring with Father John Misty. Indeed, Kieran’s choice of ‘Holy Shit’ as the b-side is a Father John Misty song actually written at his wedding that Kieran attended in Big Sur last year.
Between having his childhood synapses blown by Bowie and supporting Father John Kieran has seemingly devoted his life to musical mayhem and a lyrical output which draws widely from Beckett & Burroughs to Shakespeare & Marlowe. The ability to blend the poetic with the political in a patchwork of broad ideas was exemplified by the 2011 single ‘Jerusalem’, which not only inadvertently soundtracked the ‘Occupy’ and ‘Uncut’ movements but also got picked up for Ridley Scott’s ‘Life In A Day’ documentary.
Throw in 2012’s ‘Out Of Work Astronaut’ album, a slew of singles and EP releases and a barrage of live appearances everywhere from Glastonbury to SXSW. Then consider that over the past two years he has played the same stage in support of Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, Adam Green, Billy Bragg, Carl Barat, Graham Coxon, Fionn Reagan and Pete Doherty and it’s little wonder that Kieran once said “It’s my ambition to smoke the first Benson & Hedges on the moon.”
A man who clearly believes in living his principles, Kieran set up in 2012 “The Chance To Fail Foundation’, created to help young people develop an understanding of the relationship between music, literature and song-writing as a tool for comment and social change, as well as what he describes as “the unbridled and sacred redemption of just singing a good song.”
Verily, this is a rock’n’roller whose Wiki page has a section called ‘Charity Work’. Kieran Leonard & The Horses hereby join the cast of a few who’ve recently helped reactivate the infamous fierce panda one-off singles ‘club’ for the first time in nine years.
KIERAN LEONARD TOUR DATES
Sun 24th May – Hear No Evil, London Fields Brewery (on stage 9pm)
Wed 27th May – Notting Hill Arts Club – (on stage 9.50pm)
Thurs 18th June – BST Strokes support Hyde park
Tue 23rd June – The Waiting Room – Stoke Newington
Wed 24th June – Soyoung magazine / private party at Old Blue Last (with Public Access TV)
Fri 31st July – Standon Calling festival
Sun 2nd Aug – Port Elliot festival
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http://www.kieranleonardmusic.co.uk/