Kingsfoil interview

It was a cold November day when I decided to sit down with Jordan Davis to talk about his band.  We met in a local Starbucks, and as he walked in, there was no one screaming his name or acting like he was Brad Pitt. He was just an average guy that was in a local, unsigned band. He and his band, Kingsfoil, are based in York, Pennsylvania, and they have quite a fan base.  For having no record label to support them, it is remarkable how many people come out to support them. They are involved in the music because it is their passion.  Though the money would be nice, surely that is not their sole motivation. Comprised of Tristan Martin (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Joe Cipollini (drums), Tim Warren (bass), and Davis (vocals, guitar), Kingsfoil is a force to be reckoned with. As I talked with Davis, it became apparent that they are doing their thing in hopes that more people will find out about them. This is what he had to say about growing up, the music, and life being in a band.


Growing up, what inspired you to get into music? Like, was it always around you?

JD: It was always around. My dad’s a piano tuner, and my parents used to sing to us a lot to us in the car to me and my sister. I would always sing and annoy everyone else. I’d sing all the time and everyone kind of hated it. I would make up my own melodies and just sing to myself. When I was growing up, my parents played a lot of Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and The Beatles, so I really got into that. I love Bonnie Raitt. Also, I had a different growing up experience than most people do, and that affected my writing a little bit. I was home schooled so it was like I had so much time to be in my head like I think the music was different. My early songs kind of reflected that. There was a lot of trying to figure out who I was, but in a different light than someone that might have gone to high school. That’s not to say that I was a geek, well, maybe a little bit.

Fair enough! Who came up with the band name and where did it come from? I actually read this today, but I’ll let you answer it.

Ah yes, it’s from Lord of the Rings. Tristan actually came to me with it and he had found it in there-read it in there and kind of liked the sound of it you know, and I liked the sound of it. And that was before the movies came out a long time ago. I like the feeling that it gives when you say it.

How did the band start? That’s a loaded question, I think.

Tristan was actually in another band. I was in a band with two other guys called Essence, I think. Horrible band name. And that band broke up, and me and Tristan started doing stuff but he was still in this other band. It was actually with Chris Merritt. Tristan used to play drums for him. At that point, he was doing two bands and it was kind of rough for him, so finally, he quit Chris Merritt. Me and him just started playing a lot of acoustic shows, and then from then we added Joe and Darren, our old bass player. That was roughly 3 or 4 years ago. And then Darren left and we added Tim just less than 3 years ago. Something like that. You probably know this better than I do.

How did Joe come into the picture?

Joe was in a band called Squeeze Theorem that was out of Millersville and my sister went to Millersville so we used to play a lot of shows there. When that band broke up, we were like “let’s try it out” and at first didn’t want to play full band because we liked the acoustic thing. It was a really big step for us. It was horrible at first but then it got better.

How did Tim come to be the new bass player?

Tim found our “looking for a bass player” flyer in a music store near him and sent us an email. And he turned out to be the perfect fit. We’re super lucky.

How do you feel about being with a major label, and do you think that it changes bands for better or worse or not at all?

That’s actually a cool question. I think it can definitely change you for the worst if you’re not careful. A good example might be Death Cab for Cutie. They released a lot of CDs on their own label, a small label, and then they released their last CD on a major label and they still were able to keep their creativity and their freedom. So as long as you don’t sell out, or let them dictate how you’re gonna do it and how you’re gonna write, then it’s not a bad thing. But that happens so much and it definitely can affect you in a bad way.

You cater to a younger audience. What do you think the reason is?

I think it’s just Tim’s good looks (laughs). No, I think we’ve always written about stuff that’s accessible to younger crowds. A lot of relationship type stuff and we’ve always been sort of open with our fans and like you know we want to be able to talk to them and be friends with them. As much as they’re our fans they should be our friends. In that way, a lot of young people were kind of drawn to us. We also started out pretty young doing this and we were like 14 or 15 so you know there’s people that age that were there when we were that age. They’ve grown up with us but as we’ve grown we still get younger fans. It’s really awesome that our young fans from long ago are still coming to shows and there are new young fans thrown in there too.

How do you react then to “star struck fans”? Does it bother you when there are a lot of people asking for photos and signatures?

No, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s flattering obviously and we never want to let it get to our heads. It’s something we’ve always said because there’s always somebody better than you. We just feel lucky that people do like our music, and we try to do whatever we can to help them and make them happy. Make them feel like we gave them some time. So it’s not annoying at all. And I don’t want us to ever come off like we’re too cool for school. We’re gonna try to cater to them because they spent the money and time to come out and appreciate us and listen to us, so the least we can do is talk to them and say thank you.

How far has the band traveled geographically? Who did you tour with?

As far as me and Tristan, we went to the west coast. That was our first tour as a duo. As a full band, though, we went to Florida and back. But the thing with us is that we’re in a good position location-wise with New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Baltimore all being so close. We can drive there on the weekend without spending a whole lot on gas, or hotels, or anything else.

You didn’t have a TV as a kid, right? How has that influenced you and your writing and musical ability?

It was just a different childhood. One of the main things is that I ended up reading a lot, I was read to a lot, and I liked reading a lot more than most so that had a big impact one me. I got to read a lot of books and learned a lot from it. You can’t really get that from television. I love television. I still don’t have one though. I think it made me a little more unique basically.

How would you describe the band’s sound?

We’ve always had trouble with that. It’s hard to compare us to people. There’ve been random comparisons like Coldplay. I think we’re just indie rock that likes melody. The melody is important to us. We play indie pop rock. The pop is the melody part, not the pop candy stuff. That’s what we want pop to mean-the melody that someone wants to sing, that we feel good singing.

Why should people give your music a listen?

Besides being awesome? No, it’s genuine and not at all put together or staged or coerced at all. We’re proud of our music and it’s exactly what we want. We don’t cater to anything, and we don’t copy anything. We just play what feels right and it shows. You can tell when bands aren’t being real, and people still listen to them. But, if you’re smart, you’re gonna know. Anyone’s gonna know. You don’t have to have some amazing musical taste to know. You just feel it. When it’s good it’s good and you don’t have to know anything about music. You just know if your heart, you’re like, “this is good.”