Chadwick "Chad" Gardner Daniel Steele Zach Boyd John McNeill JJ Kim Beserat Tafesse
Past members
John Platter Zack Walkingstick Zawadi Morrow Blake Strickland Jared Buck Nadia Essenpreis Lindsay Gardner Julianne Smith Andrew Nyte Mark Palfreeman Eric Shoubridge Ryan Ponten
Kings Kaleidoscope is an American Christian rock band based in Seattle, with Chadwick "Chad" Gardner as its only constant member. Their music features an eclectic range of electronic, woodwind, string and brass instruments, with a musical style described as "indie rock meets hip hop production with a sprinkle of Disney". Kings Kaleidoscope has recorded four EPs and six LPs, as well as a series of live studio sessions.
Background
Based out of Seattle, Washington, Kings Kaleidoscope formed in 2010 at a Mars Hill Church plant on the campus of the University of Washington, where Gardner was a worship leader.[3] Drawing on a variety of influences from math rock and hip-hop, to the dense sound of Canadian indie outfit Broken Social Scene, they recorded their first live EP, Sin, at a Good Friday service in 2011.[citation needed] A year later, they released the studio EP, Asaph's Arrows, followed by a Christmas EP, Joy Has Dawned.
In late 2013, Gardner and the band announced they were leaving Mars Hill,[4] where they had served as worship leaders and artists on the church's label. Their fourth EP, 2014's Live in Color, was released by BadChristian Music. Working with BadChristian Music and well-established indie label Tooth & Nail Records, they released their debut LP, Becoming Who We Are, on October 27, 2014. Their second studio album Beyond Control was released June 24, 2016, and was the band's most commercially successful release to date.[citation needed]
On August 17, 2017, the band released a mixtape, The Beauty Between, that includes several collaborations with hip-hop artists and producers, including Propaganda, Andy Mineo, Beautiful Eulogy, Derek Minor, Beleaf and DSTL. Their third studio album, Zeal, was released on April 5, 2019.
After taking a touring hiatus due to the 2020 COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, and in response to the increasing politicization of the American church during the election year, they dropped the three-song "Power Perfect" EP on October 30th, 2020, which contains the rousing "W.D.Y.K.A.G?" featuring frequent collaborator Propaganda, a call to "Burn Babylon Down", referring to the co-opting of the government world systems or "Babylons" that sometimes influence the church more than Jesus does, and will be destroyed at His second coming (Revelation 18:21).
More than two years later, Kings announced that they were working on their fourth studio album "Baptized Imagination", a work that they crafted and edited while on tour throughout 2022, finally culminating in a November 2022 release. The following year they released their fifth studio and first self-titled album "Kings Kaleidoscope", also drawing from the 2022 tour creation process.
Band members
Kings Kaleidoscope is a project led by Chadwick "Chad" Gardner with a large rotating cast of collaborators. During the band's early years as a worship band, the band featured local college students and church volunteers, some of whom included Mark Palfreeman, Beth Vander Pol, and Eric Shoubridge, who all contributed to the Asaph's Arrows EP.
By Becoming What We Are, the band solidified into an 'original' line up of Gardner and 9 core members - Andrew Nyte, John Platter, Zach Walkingstick, Nadia Ifland Essenpreis, Lindsay Gardner, Julianne Smith, Zawadi Morrow, Blake Strickland and Jared Buck.[5]
After Beyond Control and The Beauty Between, the band underwent a major transition, as most of the original band members - many of whom never intended to be professional musicians - could no longer commit to touring and full-time membership.[6] A new core lineup was formed in 2019 with Daniel Steele, Zach Boyd, John McNeill, JJ Kim and Beserat Tafesse.[7] The door remains open for original band members to return; Platter, Morrow, and Nyte have returned often, and over a dozen new and old band members united on stage for a performance of Becoming Who We Are on the album's 10th anniversary in 2024.[8][9]
Beyond these core members, Brian Eichelberger and Zach Bolen of Citizens have extensive writing and performance credits on Kings Kaleidoscope songs; Eichelberger also mixes the band's releases and performs live occasionally. Max Gaver of OLY has contributed to albums from Zeal onward and performs on all three Live from Kamp Kaleidoscope albums. Jess Alldredge has appeared on multiple albums and tours, and Ryan Ponten and Lauren McShane have credits on two albums each. Family members and friends of the band are heard on many songs.
Other significant collaborators include Matthew Warren and Zac Schweit, who direct visuals for the band, Propaganda, and Andy Mineo.
^"The Incredible Uncomfortable Moment in "A Prayer" at a Live Show". Substack. Retrieved 29 October 2024. You've got this group of people that are church volunteers that, you know, make a record together, sort of... And then, we put it out and, you know, there's like ten people coming in and out of the band at that point. They weren't all gonna go have a career in music. So, there was that slow trickle... I think about half of that group was already going to be on the way out.
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