INTRODUCING: NEW CITY KINGS

By Lais

New City Kings – lead vocalist/guitarist Mark Konstantinovic, lead guitarist/vocalist (and Mark’s brother) Ben Konstantinovic, bassist/vocalist Charlie Roberts and drummer/vocalist Ben Nyari – are an alternative four-piece from Essex, and they’re going somewhere. Despite only forming in 2013, they’ve managed to achieve a hell of a lot already: Bestival, SXSW and a sold out show at the Borderline, just to name a few of their achievements.

But first, let’s go back to the beginning: how did New City Kings form? Lead vocalist Mark Konstantinovic says: “Me and Ben (my brother) entered a competition on a radio station for bands to perform at a festival in Brighton. It was just the two of us so we produced this track ourselves and didn’t tell them. I played drums/keys and Ben did the guitars. Turns out we won the thing and had to find a band within a week. 15 minutes on Gumtree and we found our drummer Ben and our bassist Charlie.”

And since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength. Describing themselves as having “modern influences, with roots in old school rock and blues”, their music is incredibly infectious in the best way. This is exactly why they’ve managed to get themselves such great gigs so early in their career. When asked about playing SXSW, Bestival etc, Mark says, “It was great, mostly because it taught us from the outset just how great the talent is in the world. It makes you realise how hard you have to work to bring something worth listening to the game.”

They’ve recently released a new EP, ‘Change’. Mark says, “‘Change’ is a great introduction to New City Kings. It’s a big sound with some honest songs and it’s a sign of more things to come. I think we’ve got a lot of work to do before we look at a full-length, but it’s definitely part of the plan.”

Their favourite gig they’ve played so far is KOKO in London recently, and the rest of 2014 is set to be busy for them. “We’re in the studio next month recording another EP,” says Mark. “We’ll be doing a few UK festivals and there are some talks of heading to the US. We’ll be putting together an EU tour later in the year and hopefully meeting a lot of new fans.”

And the endgame? “In five years, we’d like to see ourselves headlining Glastonbury.” And if they keep going this way, they might just do that.

LAIS MW

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