Kiiōtō is the musical project of ethereal singer-songwriter Lou Rhodes and enigmatic, award-winning musician Rohan Heath. The couple have recently released their second album, ‘Black Salt’ – a richly layered, broken-beat and jazz-infused, intelligent treasury. As Kiiōtō will be gracing the stage of Newcastle venue Cluny 2 this April, Kayleigh Mattson caught up with them for a little chat.
Congratulations on the new album. The first single taken from the album is ‘Butterfly’, followed by the second release ‘Moth’. Is there a recurring theme there? And what inspired its creation?
It’s often strange looking back on the making of an album as it’s about to emerge into the world and be heard outside of the studio. It’s almost like a birthing process, with all the blood, sweat and tears…and love – definitely love. ‘Black Salt’ was, in many ways, a rite of passage; the ‘difficult’ second album and all that. Having returned to music after a long hiatus to make our debut, ‘As Dust We Rise’, our new album brought all the grit to the surface and is, we think, all the stronger for it. You mentioned the first single, ‘Butterfly’; its title suggests the natural world, but its subject matter is perhaps counter to this, depicting a narcissist fuelled by avarice. The second single, ‘Moth’, on the other hand, tells of a passion that defies logic and the blissful surrender that this brings. In contrast, ‘Zero Gravity’ zooms out into space, reflecting on the transformational experience of orbiting Earth. ‘Little Axe’ tells of the challenges of raising young men amidst the threat of violence in urban life, while ‘White Noise’ highlights the hold of social media on the modern mind. ‘Lost Map’, for us, is the nucleus of the album, alluding to the results of DNA tests we both took in the hope of a better understanding of who we are and where we came from.
As fellow musicians and real-life partners, what would you say is key to attaining balance in creating music together?
Working and living together as partners definitely has its challenges, but we totally love what we do. We’re not sure we always attain balance, as we’re basically immersed in this project 24/7, but there’s a huge satisfaction in making music together and living it to the full.
I’m delighted you’ll be performing at Cluny 2. How important is playing live in these highly digitised days?
To kick off this year’s UK touring schedule in Newcastle is an honour for us, and it will be the first time we play songs from our new album live. The city has always welcomed us warmly, and its audiences are among the best. Playing live is at the heart of what we do -perhaps even more essential in a digital age in which so much music is artificially generated. Our songs take on new life when we play them live, and we try to let that process feed back into our songwriting too.
What might gig-goers expect from a Kiiōtō show?
Our shows are dynamic, moving between up-tempo and more stripped-back songs, with Rohan on keyboards, piano and harmonica, Lou on vocals and occasional guitar, and both of us playing live percussion. We’ll also have the wonderful Jon Thorne, Lamb’s original bassist, on double bass for the upcoming UK shows, which will be an extra-special treat.
We’ll be selling copies of our new album, along with a few remaining copies of our debut album, and of course, it will be a pleasure to meet people and sign albums after the show.
Tickets for Kiiōtō’s Cluny show, priced at £15.00 in advance, are available at thecluny.com.
