Singer Thanya Iyer sat in her car with her bandmates, thinking about her close friends from the band, And The Kids. She had developed a tight relationship with the Massachusetts trio five years ago. While some people may arrange a coffee date to catch up, Iyer and these three planned a tour.  

And The Kids will perform in Syracuse at the Spark Contemporary Art Space Saturday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert starts at 7:30 p.m. And The Kids, an indie rock band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, consists of three members Hannah Mohan, Rebecca Lasaponaro and Taliana Katz.  

“They are just so wonderful to see every night and they are such great people and so lighthearted,” Iyer said about her friends. 

Thanya Iyer is a band, self-titled after the lead singer, Thanya Iyer. It’s an experimental pop group with both electronic and acoustic musical influences. They are currently finishing up a new album which is set to be released sometime in the next year.   

In the meantime, they’ll be taking their music on the road — opening for And The Kids in Syracuse. 

When Thanya Iyer takes the stage for And The Kids, the band’s setlist will consist of mostly newer material. Iyer said audiences will hear some of their older music too and should “expect the unexpected.” 

“The sets tend to change every night” Iyer said. “We do a lot of improvisation and are trying to work more on being freer on stage.”  

And The Kids came to prominence after the New England trio performed in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2015. The short 14-minute digital show highlighted tracks from their very first album “Turn to Each Other.” 

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Since Mohan and Lasaponaro’s middle school days, they have always collaborated on music together. This is where And The Kids got its start. Then, in 2011, they decided to add percussionist Megan Miller. Due to issues with her visa, Miller has not been able to perform with the rest of the band in the United States over the past few years, Lasaponaro said.  

Four years and two albums later, the band is more confident in their own music than ever, Lasaponaro said. Their third album “When This Life Is Over” was released in this past February.  

“We’ve always experimented in different ways when we’ve gone into the studio, but this time we were more relaxed,” Lasaponaro said.  

The new album has more confidence, said Lasaponaro, with several bedroom demo tracks that gave the group more creative freedom. Including the demos solidifies the band as a group that focuses on the music and allows the creative process to happen organically. The band has reached a moment in their careers where they have the capability to do whatever they want, Lasaponaro said.  

The songs “Get To That Place,” “Somethings (Are) Good” and the title track, “When This Life Is Over,” were all initially recorded as demo tracks, and they recorded “2003” themselves, Lasaponaro said.  

This time around, the band wanted to approach the music for this record a bit differently. Usually the group’s music is based with effects, but with this record, they experiment in achieving more of a live sound.

Published on April 29, 2019 at 10:57 pm

Contact Kerri: kmcanene@syr.edu