Gather ‘Round For a Sit Down With Kids Table
Right before their debut New York City performance, Pleaser met up with rising indie band Kids Table to see how they came to be, who inspires their sound, and what a live show really means to them.
PHOTOS BY EMMA FISCHER
Pleaser’s newest friends Amy Smith (lead vocals), Max Wooten (bass guitar/backup vocals), Bryan Truong or BT (keyboard), Mike Weaver (guitar), Ryan Thomas (trumpet), and Andy King (drums) make up Kids Table, your next favorite indie band. Inspired by groups like Lake Street Drive and Couch the Band (hello, Pleaser fave), Kids Table has started to develop their own sound outside of their highly successful cover work. What remains the same? They’re still a group of friends who love to perform, and they’re not stopping any time soon. Welcome to the Kids Table. Take a seat, stay a while.
Hailing from Washington D.C., all six band members attended UNC Chapel Hill but were not acquainted with each other during their college years. Wooten explained that he and Weaver became friends through Thomas, and the three of them played music together occasionally. “It was nothing crazy, then,” he said. Wooten knew of Smith through his now fiance, who was roommates with Smith at UNC. Wooten got her contact info and introduced her to the group. As they picked up speed, they added King and BT to the mix. “We needed more flavor,” Wooten remarked.
Now with six single releases since December 2024, they’re finding their flavor one day at a time. Each song’s creation process includes Smith or BT developing a framework of chords, lyrics or melody to set the foundation. They’ll fill it out with an acoustic guitar section, then send everyone off to write their individual part. Once everyone does their homework, they’ll bring it together and tease out any transitions or points of friction.
Despite what their deeply personal and effortlessly catchy lyrics might suggest, Kids Table is Smith's first go at songwriting. It was actually BT who pushed the band to deviate from cover work into their own writing, which didn’t happen until about eight months after their conception. Now, both BT and Smith contribute to the creation of originals.
Before the band, Smith’s music career was a blend of choir and a capella, where there’s usually not a ton of room for writing. So far, she said her lyrics explore the classic theme of interpersonal relationships, whether that be platonic, romantic or familial. “It’s mostly interpreting those from various perspectives,” she explained. Further, she noted that some songs are retrospective, an analysis of past experiences that needed another glance. “They’re relationships that I am so over and don’t really care about. But then after reflecting on it I was like, ‘Oh yeah, you know, that was kind of f*cked up.’” Hindsight is 20/20.
As she continued to write, the challenge for Smith had been getting used to the new discomfort songwriting presents: sharing parts of yourself you maybe don’t want to share. “I think that’s what kept me from songwriting until recently,” she said. To help her cope with her inner thoughts, Smith came to an understanding that an audience automatically takes her lyrics and draws parallels to their own lives. Rarely do they consider the story of the singer, and instead consider how those exposed moments make them feel less alone.
In terms of songs to relate to, “Between the Lines” summarizes a scenario many of us have found ourselves in: a situationship dragged out past its prime. The lyrics explore a need for commitment, or at least a sign pointing in that direction. Our narrator thinks this is something more serious, but the other person hasn’t made a move. Or indicated their feelings one way or another. We love general ambiguity. The chorus expands:
Get it through your head /
The only bed that you’ve been /
Sleeping in is mine /
And what’s been said can all be /
Read as just an /
Unconvincing lie.
Sonically, it reminds me of the music scattered through the most recent season of Severance. The playful and energetic sound mixed with staccato keyboard clicks and quick high hat taps sound like the scenes where Mark is walking through the parking lot, onto the elevator, or down the hallway towards Macrodata Refinement. Minus the eerie, something-bad-will-happen quality of the Severance soundtrack.
“Between the Lines,” was second on the set list at Kids Tables’ New York City show. If one thing was clear, it was that this group of five (you were missed, Andy!) loves to perform. During our interview, the group declared unanimously that playing together on stage was where their love for the band really blossomed. And it’s still their favorite part of being in a band.
“We started as a group of friends who wanted to play music together, and that's what we still are at the end of the day.” Smith said.
In her ideal world, the band will grow to a size where their originals are what draws fans in, keeping them afloat independently. For now, like they did in NYC, they’ll continue to perform a mix of originals and covers because it allows them to get on stage.
Thomas added that he loves to play it all, but he feels most connected to the originals they perform. “These songs have meaning to me, beyond what I can even conceptualize. We’ve spent time sitting in our apartments, piecing them together. Having all those memories of playing them at shows is something I’ll show my kids one day,” he said. How heartfelt.
The crowd that filled the small basement of Berlin in the Lower East Side were notably elated to be at a Kids Table show. The cover choices were electric: “Bags” by Clairo, “Archie, Marry Me” by Alvvays and “Sedona” by Houndmouth. What more could a girl ask for? For “Sedona”, the band brought out opener Justin McClure to sing the male part. It reminded me of how much I love a cover, I even spoke about it in my review of Grace Gardner’s cover of "Champagne Supernova” last year. To lovingly quote myself, “Hearing a new artist sing an overplayed song draws out the truth of lyrics that have been muddled over time.” The same was true for this rendition of “Sedona”. I’d never quite captured the meaning before, but I truly heard them this time. It’s a reflection on something that used to be. A bulb that burned so bright now dimmed and dulled.
The song, literally, it’s about Sedona, Arizona, which used to be a popular movie film site, but was replaced by Hollywood. The remnants of what was sit idle in town, a constant reminder that things have changed. That might not be clear if you listen to Houndmouth’s version, as the upbeat melody and high energy sound buoy the message. On stage at Berlin, though, the emotion seeped into the crowd as Kids Table slowed things down and let the message sink in. In case you need a reminder of the chorus:
Well hey little Hollywood /
You’re gone but you’re not forgot /
You got the cash but your credit’s no good /
You flipped the script and you shot the plot /
And I remember, I remember when the neon used to burn so bright and pink.
PHOTOS BY EMMA FISCHER
Speaking of covers, Kids Table posted their version of “Drops of Jupiter” from Porch Fest in Washington D.C. on Instagram and TikTok, and it absolutely blew up. Currently sitting at almost 600k views on Instagram and over 1 million views on TikTok, their accounts have grown to over 50,000 followers just in the past month. Wooten said the band’s interactions with social media, like many up-and-coming bands I interview, can best be described as love/hate. “There's definitely this evil feeling of, ‘I can't stop looking at my screen, because I like watching the number go up,’” he explained. But, on the positive side, “it's the main way that you get your name out there.” Other than BT’s passion for creating cool music videos for YouTube, the group generally just posts as a marketing tactic.
“Drops of Jupiter” also happened to be the encore at Berlin, and it was just as fun live as it was on TikTok. The singing voice of the audience was completely warmed up by this point. Shyness stripped away, we leaned into our parts heavily. Dare I say, we sounded excellent.
Kids Table has plenty of new singles in the pipeline, most recently with the release of “Done” on May 29. The next single will debut at the end of June, followed by another at the end of July. Finally, their DEBUT ALBUM will be released in August. Don’t miss it!
