The Kitchen Sink Band are a Brighton-formed five-piece, half London-based. Sometimes six. Made up of Greg (Vocals and Synth), Louie (Synth), Rhys (Sink), Cris (Guitar), Theo (Drums), and occasionally joined by Dave, ‘The Black Monk’ (Percussion). Drawing from Krautrock’s driving rhythms, the off-kilter charm of The Fall and a peculiarly British strain of humour and absurdism, an amalgamation that could affectionately be referred to as ‘Coastmische Musik’.
We’d heard about the band through word of mouth, with a lot of chatter about them being a live presence to see. Their October 2025 show at The George Tavern shot by Lou Smith, an ardent documentarian of the London circuit, confirmed that to be true. Having now caught them twice ourselves, both at The Old Blue Last and upstairs at Patterns during The Great Escape, we can second that sentiment. With proclivities for the zany, the avant-garde and the humorous, their live antics contain almost as much domestic chaos as the Kitchen Sink Drama movement they cite as an influence.
After some back and forth deliberating over dates, we sat down with Louie and Rhys at The Royal George in Deptford on the afternoon of Saturday 9th May 2026. Frontman Greg later joined remotely to weigh in on the questions and add his own perspective.
Louie initially arrived solo before disappearing on a cigarette run. Around forty minutes later he reappeared with Rhys and a new find: a lightly stained Panama hat picked up from the street, which he joked was straight from a crime scene. An offering of 99p chilli and lime corn nuts was given with apologies. Both sat opposite me in circular framed shades, which slowly dropped lower as we ran through the questions.
We spoke about the band’s origins, influences, writing process, and the philosophy of the sink.
Their debut single ‘THE HUMAN CAN OPENER’ will be out 10th July, and they have an upcoming single release show at the Moth Club on the 13th July alongside some special guests.
Who is the K.S.B and what is the tale of your formation?
Rhys – I mean we weren’t even in it when it started. Neither of us.
Louie – Thankfully, I feel.
Rhys – The Kitchen Sink Band currently is an electronic band but it was sort of a post-punky thing prior, many members, many many members have gone through the Kitchen Sink Band.
Louie – Yeah it was just a jam band in Brighton really, a jam band with a massive ego. They played like one show a year. When we knew Greg and that then I wasn’t even living in Brighton, I would meet up with Cris and he’d be like “we did fucking tits” and they’d literally have one show at the Pipeline.
Rhys – I moved in with them with the intention of playing with them. I remember they asked if I wanted to start a Krautrock band and then they started a Krautrock band and just didn’t invite me to join. They played at The Fiddler’s Elbow in Brighton and I was really drunk and was like “ah I should be playing with these guys” and I left and I think I cried?
Louie – At least we’re not a toxic masculine band. We’re men with feelings. What’s a band that’s men with feelings?
Rhys – The Smiths? But now yeah, we’ve all been friends for a very long time. Most of us have been friends since college except for Theo who we met pretty early on when moving to Brighton, now half of us live in London.
What musical background do you each come from and how does that influence making music together?
Louie – I mean I have no musical background at all really.
Rhys – I studied music journalism, so not really much either. I played in a few bands before this. Greg and Theo are probably the only two who are actually trained.
Louie – They know their stuff or have been playing since they were young. I started playing when I was like 18? And then I joined Fat Concubine for a bit. I don’t know if you know that band, good band. That’s the first time I ever played music live, then I fell into this band.
Was that on synths as well?
Louie – No, that was on guitar [laughs]. I’ve just been winging it for a long time, just turning some knobs.
Rhys – I mean what I do doesn’t really require me to have any musical background.
Louie – It’s still sonic exploration.
Rhys – You’ve got to know what a delay is and what a tremolo is.
What inspires you musically, or more broadly?
Rhys – I think a lot of it is comedy. The whole thing is comedy, it’s a black comedy.
Louie – Yeah, I think seeing bands that take themselves really seriously. You can still do it and be aware it’s a really fucking ridiculous thing to do.
Rhys – It’s a performance art kind of thing in a way. We all like things like The Bonzo [Dog] Band. Ivor Cutler.
Louie – Captain Beefheart.
Rhys – All of that old English kind of stuff. All of that, it’s hilarious. The lyrics are kind of silly. With the performance side of it, we’re trying to be funny. It’s very self-deprecating.
What’s the significance of the kitchen sink to you?
Rhys – We kind of have to have one because of the name really.
Louie – It’s to humiliate Rhys for his sins.
Rhys – It very much is, it’s horrible. When you’re hungover, moving it around, it’s awful. I’ve sat cursing it before because it’s just a horrible embarrassing thing to do. And the more pedals you attach to it the more embarrassing it becomes. When I first started playing it it was literally just turning a delay on and off which you can only really make sound different in two kinds of ways. And 10 minutes into the set you are just stood there like a dickhead, just doing something over and over again.
Louie – I get a sick joy out of seeing like, the rest of us are getting on the bus carrying our instruments, and then I look round and Rhys is just carrying the sink on. Everyone’s just staring at him like he’s some kind of freak. He’s banging it off of chairs and shit on a crowded bus on the way to a gig that’s attended by like 7 people.
Rhys – “Oh he’s only gone and brought the kitchen sink!” In Brighton people didn’t really bat an eyelid when you’re carrying it around, but in London people are annoyed that it’s clanging around in the station. Many times before, like in a day I’ve had the Kitchen Sink comment, or I’ve had that joke like four/five times in a day.
So did the name come before the sink?
Rhys – Yeah the name came first. Zu Fuß they were called or fußsoldat, which meant on foot or footsoldier. Then they changed the name to The Kitchen Sink Band because of kitchen sink dramas.
Louie – Yeah but actually using a kitchen sink is a subversion because you know how a lot of bands, their name is referential for something, but it’s just referential to a household object in the end.
I remember when I first met you, I said I thought you guys were like an electronic skiffle band.
Rhys – Electro-skiffle, that’s hard. People have confused it with being a washboard.
Louie – Well, we are washed.
It also reminded me of Neubaten, using found materials as instruments or like Faust with their cement mixer.
[We are briefly interrupted by a man leaning over asking for filters]
Rhys – It kind of works like that because you can get the sound out of hitting it. But it’s also a continuous stream of noise because it works by just turning on distortion. Contact mic then the main sound is the distortion coming out of it. And then you’re just manipulating the sound of that with every pedal that comes out of it. So it’s kind of like a synthesizer that’s just constantly on. Not like musique concrète, it’s more just like industrial noise in a way.
I was going to say do you see yourselves in that lineage and have you had any strange reactions to the sink, but you’ve already answered that.
Rhys – People are taken with it. It’s nice that we have a gimmick. I’d like to think that people are taken by the fact there’s something unconventional going on stage. But generally I think we’re all pretty proud of what we make.
Louie – I don’t see any lineage. I hope there’s no lineage involved in it.
Rhys – It’s a new sound. 10 years from now everyone will be playing with a kitchen appliance.
Your performances feel somewhere between a gig and performance art. How conscious are you of theatricality when you play live?
I liked the air freshener bit. [Referring to the spraying of a can of air freshener at The Old Blue Last show]
Louie – Oh yeah, that actually had real world ramifications that day as Rhys was stinking, he needed it.
Rhys – That was utilitarian, but it nearly caused you to die! I forgot you were asthmatic and I sprayed it directly in your face.
Louie – I’m not that asthmatic. We were flying close to the sun I think. No, I really enjoyed that show.
Are there any gig spaces, or event series you are excited about, could be in London or anywhere?
Rhys – I mean all of the regular ones people just do, they are all pretty good.
Louie – The Endeavour in Deptford that was a good one. We took like 2 hours to do the soundcheck, it’s really grassroots, not a lot of equipment there. We kind of demand a bit more equipment because of our setup. When we played it was a really good one and we had a good reception from the audience.
Rhys – People seem kinda taken by the idiocy of us trying to set up.
Do you feel a part of a scene?
Rhys – Maybe we don’t want to be a part of a scene.
Louie – We want to be seen.
What about any contemporaries, any bands we should check out?
Louie – Fat Concubine.
Rhys – I think we sound a lot like Snapped Ankles, not that we really are in that kind of league, but we sound a bit like them.
Louie – You can’t say that!
Rhys – They’re good friends of ours, they love us.
What’s a genre or scene we would be surprised you would be into musically?
Louie – Donk.
Rhys – We love a bit of donk.
Looking forward, how do you think your sound will progress?
Louie- I think it will regress, more primitive.
Rhys- I’m looking forward to our all acoustic album.
What would be the setup?
Rhys – I’m going to put strings in the basin of the sink, running across and I’ll play it like a lute.
Louie – I would love to learn the bodhrán, the drum. My girlfriend, she has one.
[ Frontman Greg joins the interview remotely over WhatsApp video after missing the call earlier, also wearing a panama hat (Louie said he was currently on a Burroughs kick), he sat smoking. I was asked to wear the Panama hat too, as we ran through questions. I guess it was a silent condition of the interview. ]
Any final words of wisdom?
Louie – We are not wise men, and there’s not just three of us, and it’s not Christmas.
Greg – Never get involved in a boy and girl fight… Is that a panama hat on the table?
Rhys – Yeah Louie found it on the street.
Panama business… Greg, who is the K.S.B and what is the tale of your formation?
Greg – What did the other guys say?
Rhys – We said we weren’t really there from the start, so we don’t really know the tale of the formation. I mentioned I cried. I burst into tears. I ran away, when you guys were playing the Fiddlers.
Greg – Yes, Rhys begged to be in the band and he was crying. We actually had someone do that once, didn’t we? We won’t name and shame.
Rhys – We are that good that someone cried to gain access.
Louie – They cried because they couldn’t leave [laughs]
Greg – I think that’s an answer, we all cried.
Rhys – And we are still crying now.
What musical background do you each come from and how does that influence making music together?
Greg – Err I actually don’t know what musical backgrounds any of you guys have actually come from at all.
Louie – I said none for me.
Rhys – You went to Berkeley didn’t you Greg?
[ Greg says something unintelligible ]
What did he say?
Louie – Greg said he classically trained at Berkeley in California.
Greg – Yeah, and these guys are my understudies.
What inspires you musically, or more broadly?
Rhys – I spoke about a vein of like comedy that runs through it, that kind of old English shit, you know Ivor Cutler, Bonzo Band.
Greg – Yeah The Bonzo Dog Doo-Da Band inspires me day to day.
Louie – [Captain] Beefheart, I think.
Rhys – There is a big performance aspect to it and it is kind of humorous, we are all trying to entertain each other.
Louie – I wanted to be in Weezer.
Greg – I suppose nothing to do. When you’ve got fuck all to do and you don’t work. You kind of have to do something.
Louie – We are all friends you know.
How to win friends and influence people.
Louie – We haven’t won any friends or influenced anyone yet but.
Greg – No.
Rhys – We’ve lost friends.
Louie – How to lose friends and influence no one.
Greg – Yeah. We like Machiavelli and his rise to power.
TKSB @ Patterns (Upstairs) 15.05.26
What’s the significance of the kitchen sink for you, the physical sink?
Greg – It’s just a farce, and now it’s gotten out of hand and we don’t know how to stop it.
Rhys – They’ve tried kicking me out.
There’s a deep philosophical meaning in there somewhere?
Rhys – We will reveal that meaning on our third album.
Louie – I said it was sadistic to make Rhys humiliated for his sins.
Rhys- It’s my cross, my crucifix.
Greg – Yeah we joked about that for a while, yeah. Having to watch Rhys walk across London Bridge at rush hour with thousands of businessmen with them all giving him disapproving looks. We have to listen to him complain about it constantly, which is kinda worse. We thought it would be funny to punish him but then he complains so much it’s actually became a punishment for us.
Rhys- It’s of no musical significance, it’s purely for pain that entertains these guys.
Greg – Did you mention the art movement kitchen sink, kitchen sink drama? How kind of stupid [the actual sink] is? I suppose it’s kind of our mascot, and sort of a mascot/manifesto kind of thing.
Rhys – Our gimmick.
Greg – Do not ever call it a gimmick.
I didn’t ask this one earlier. How do you actually approach creating together – is it structured composition, long improvisation, or discovering pieces through repetition and accidents?
Greg – Yeah I suppose it started off like, we used to never play gigs and rehearse in this abandoned guardianship they had a rehearsal studio in the basement. And we used to just play down there. None of these guys were in the band then. Theo was in the band. Cris was. And we used to play repetitive stuff over and over again and try and work out how to go from there.
[ We realise the phone we’re using to call Greg is about to die so swap him onto another one ]
Greg – I liked it when I could see all of you… I’m currently sat on a chaise longue.
Louie – Like the Wet Legs!
Rhys – You look comfortable.
Greg- Yes.
Your performances feel somewhere between a gig and performance art… is it performance art?
Greg – Certainly not. I wouldn’t call it performance art. Is it us really performing or is it us breaking down. Malfunctioning. There’s a lot of malfunctioning.
Louie – You’re kind of malfunctioning now.
Greg – Yeah. There is so much malfunction that you can’t really call it a performance really.
Rhys – We are barely a band.
Greg – We were joking about the fact, if you are a real fan of the band you wouldn’t come to the gig you would come to see the soundcheck. Cause the soundcheck is just so fucking chaotic and ridiculous, half the time. For a long time sound engineers didn’t know what to do with the sink, and we’d show up to these gig with the sound engineers and they’d go “What the fuck, oh, you’ve actually got a sink. What am I doing with that?” And Rhys wouldn’t know how to use it, or he would pretend to not know how to use it. And he would wind them up.
Louie – Rhys knows how to use it. There’s your performance art question answered haha.
Greg – Antagonistic performance art. How to wind up a sound engineer. In an hour long soundcheck, until everyone is having a mental breakdown literally shouting at each other. And they’re like: “Get off the stage now! The next band have to fucking soundcheck!”
I wouldn’t call it performance art then.
Louie – I wouldn’t even call it art.
Greg – It’s very low brow, very low brow art.
Are there any gig spaces, or event series you are excited about. They said Endeavour in Deptford.
Greg – I quite like the Endeavour, that’s always fucking crazy though… We’ve played there like 3 times, and the soundcheck has progressively gotten longer and worse. The last one before Christmas was supposed to be a pantomime, a nativity play.
Rhys – It would be nice to get to the point where venues just let us soundcheck and we don’t have to play.
Do you feel a part of a scene?
Greg – Ahh interesting. I mean, I’ve felt so alienated and excluded from any music scene for so long that I’m suspicious of any scene, you know? I don’t think a scene really exists. I think it’s just certain little cliques that people call a scene, but its cliques of friends who like to play together. That maybe becomes a scene when you look back on it, reflect on it, historically. Did they call it the scene in the 70s when all the bands hated each other? I don’t think John Lydon would have said: “Ah yeah it’s the scene, I love the boys in The Clash.”
Good answer.
Greg – Thank you.
Louie – I thought it was a shit answer.
What’s a genre we would be surprised you would be into musically?
Greg – I would say Gamelan. Yeah, I could get into a bit of Gamelan. Pitch percussion or drone. Or French Troubadour.
What about Jacques Brel?
Greg – Yeah exactly. Or what’s his name, Georges Brassens.
Looking forward, how do you think your sound will progress?
Greg – Erm well first we’ve got to put out the first album and then we’ve got to put out the second album which will sound slightly different. After that we’ll hopefully get to a third and that will sound, you know two steps away from the first.
Do you think you will record on an iPhone like you told me before?
Greg – If I’m honest all of our recordings sound better on the iPhone. We’ve recorded in some really fancy studios and we’ve took a lot of time to make records, to try and put a record out. We’ve listened back to them and said you know what, it’s good, it’s good but we’d rather it sound like this. And it’s a shitty iPhone recording from a rehearsal.
Are there any contemporaries that you have that you like, or would you say you had any contemporaries?
Greg – Yeah loads actually. We’ve got a load of friends making really good music. There are a load of bands I like.
Louie- Divorce Attorney, as they’ve been nice to me.
Greg- I really like Alex. Yeah, I really like all those guys. They’re kinda elusive if anything. They play so much, but they’ve always eluded me.
Louie – The Clash?
Greg- Haha yeah. Angine du Poitrine?
Louie – Yeah, polkadots. Any band with polkadots on.
Greg – Francis Pig who are on tour at the minute.
Rhys – They look a lot like The Velvet Underground.
Louie – The Strokes, you know?
Greg- Bathing Suits are great. We’ve played with them a couple times now. We did the Old Blue with them the other day. I think they’re a great band.
Rhys – We played with jawharp once.
Louie – Oh yeah they are pretty good.
Rhys – Proper interesting.
Greg – …I wish I could be there with you guys
Where are you calling from?
Greg – Dubai, I’d thought I’d take a holiday. I’ve got to go post a pair of trousers.
