...brilliant, brilliant songs. Like a brummie Jeff Buckley singing the words of Nina Simone. Vijay's luscious acoustic folk is as divine as Simon Cowell in a motorway pile-up.
NME
He has a beautiful mesmerizing voice that connects immediately. A rare and special artist ,catch him live.
RECORD OF THE DAY
There isn't a thesaurus in the world that contains enough superlatives to describe the talent of Vijay Kishore.
THE FLY
Brilliant… I think he's an amazing talent with the voice of an angel
JANICE LONG(BBC RADIO 2)
He has the ability to shut up even the loudest person in the room, he's incredible, the best singer I've ever heard in my life
SCOTT MATTHEWS,(Artist, Ivor Novello winner)
Vijay has one of the most emotive voices I have ever heard in a male singer live, the way he is able to lose himself in the music is awe inspiring...a great artist.
TOM ROBINSON( 6 MUSIC )
Born and raised in the Handsworth district of Birmingham of Indian parentage singer songwriter Vijay Kishore has quietly been causing something of a stir musically with his ambiguous folk-tinged fusion of his anglo asian heritage .Bringing favourable comparisons from listeners to everything from the sufi infused tones of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to Thom Yorke,Jeff Buckley or even Nina Simone and PJ Harvey.
A guerilla gig in a clothes store in Manchester around the time of the In The City festival of 2005 is where industry interest in Vijay began (after being spotted by his now manager Rob Mckenzie playing at a friends party in Birmingham earlier in the year),word spread from the lucky few that witnessed this performance, and his off schedule show the next day had curious label scouts in attendance.
Having quit his factory job to pursue his musical ambitions word quickly spread within sections of the A & R community, with many in attendance at subsequent shows.All agreeing that there was a definite talent there but how do we 'market ' him ? Kishore doesn't easily fit into any of the prescribed boxes .
Since those early fledgling but still breathtaking shows Vijay has gone on to support the likes of Ray Davies, Nizlopi, Sebastien Tellier, Lou Rhodes, Blackbud and Mr Hudson and The Library .Whilst also sharing billing with the likes of Jamie T, Tiny Dancers, Scott Matthews, Eugene Mcguiness, Fink ,Laura Izibor, Newton Faulkner and Karima Francis amongst others, winning over new supporters wherever he goes.
Kishore eventually signed to Imagem Music Publishing (Formerly Zomba-home to Jamie T, Mystery Jets ,MIA ,Vampire Weekend ) in mid 07. The debut EP 'Done it Again' soon after, producing it himself before assigning mixing duties to rising mix engineer Finn Eiles (Mystery Jets Fionn Regan, Jack Penate,) and the mastering to the renowned Bunt Stafford Clark (Radiohead,The Verve, Bat for Lashes etc ).
A remote Cotswold cottage was chosen as the recording HQ for Vijay's debut album ,a far cry away from Kishore's usual urban surroundings . With extra recording equipment ( having spent part of the 'recording fund' from his publishers on kitting out his own studio) and instruments borrowed from friends and acquaintances the tracking and basis of the albums songs were laid down over a long winter month .rather than the backdrop of passing traffic(the norm in Kishore's Birmingham studio) the only distinguishable noise being that of the night owls, lending the recording sessions an atmospheric feel that perhaps can be heard on the record. These recording were then left to 'settle' whilst Kishore went out on the road to promote his EP before coming back to them to mix and overdub the tracks (this time mixing done by Kishore himself).
Opting to embelish his acoustic guitar based live sound with extra instrumentation and host of guest musicians (Kishore is incidentaly a classically trained violinist_,a tabla player , cellist ,sitar player and a Mumbai based Sarangi player were selected to add to the record's musical landscape, the aim Kishore states was " to make an album that would stand up to repeated listening, it was always going to be somewhat different to what I do live " explains Kishore some songs needed to be taken somewhere else, others left pretty simple .Having the time to try things was a great experience for me".
Recently returned from an AIM (Association of Independent Music) trade mission to Canada and North America that took in showcase slots at Canadian Music Week, playing to a select audience at the British Consulates Residence in New York ,and performing one of the talked about shows at Austin, Texas's South by South West, attention is now firmly back on UK shores with the imminent release of his debut through the production company set up by Kishore and Mckenzie .
DEBUT ALBUM- '13 ROUNDS...' 13 JULY 2009
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