Start Listening To: Kiosk

Leeds duo Kiosk talk abrasive beats, desert epiphanies and turning grief into something you can dance to.

Kiosk, the Leeds-based pairing of Maz and Bella, make electronic music that feels equally at home in a DIY basement and under strobes at 2am. Built on drum machines, sequencers and a shared love of jamming things into existence, their sound has shifted from the sleeker edges of debut single ‘dogma’ toward something heavier, sharper and more physical. Their latest double single, Heaven Sent / Sure Shot, captures that evolution: one track born from confronting loss in a house left behind, the other sparked by a moment of awe in the vastness of the Mojave desert. We caught up with the duo to talk improvisation, Leeds’ DIY energy, working with DJ Subaru and why, at the end of it all, the point is simple: go out dancing and don’t stop.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

We’re Maz and Bella aka Kiosk, we’re based in Leeds and we make synthy dancey electroclashy electronic music.

What was the inspiration behind your latest double single, and how do its themes of loss and discovery reflect your personal experiences?

We were moving away from the prettier sounds of our first single “dogma” and wanting to lean into heavier dance beats and experiment with more abrasive sounds.

Bella: The lyrics of Heaven Sent were born out of a trip to my late grandmas house that had been neglected for a few years. It was strange to seeing her life laid out as the sum of by all the things she collected along the way, ultimately left behind to collect dust. The vocals of Sure Shot were improvised in one take and were talking about a time I was driving through the Mojave desert and was struck by how huge the world is, in a way that I’ve not realised before. A similar feeling in two wildly different settings.

Can you share some insights into your creative process when working on Heaven Sent and Sure Shot?

Heaven Sent started with the synth line and grew from there as we jammed, listened back and chopped and changed the other parts around. Sure Shot was originally the outro of Heaven Sent but grew into its own entity when we were in the studio.

How do you collaborate as a duo?

We’re very communicative and constantly feeding back to each other in practice/writing and live, and swapping roles on sequencers, synths and drum machine/DAW stuff. We tend to start off with one or two parts (beat, bassline, synth etc) and songs that we’re referencing and then jam out most of the material for each track. Lots of chopping up older songs and reworking material that we’re not done with too.

How does your involvement in the Leeds DIY scene influence your music and the way you approach live performances?

It’s such a musically diverse and active scene, so many different sounds and artists all gigging all the time and making really fresh and exciting music - it’s very freeing to know that we don’t have to neatly fit into a box or fill any stereotypes about how we should perform or dress or anything like that.

What role does improvisation play in your music?

A lot of our creative process is spent jamming, we’ll often just put the beat on loop in logic or on the drum machine and then play each section for ages experimenting with different sounds and parts and how they work together. Then the fun part: listening back to a million recordings of stuff we played in the moment and grinding out the polishing and structuring and arranging until it’s good enough to play live. We also improv loads of extra noise live which is just fun.

How did it shape the creation of Sure Shot during your studio sessions?

Since Sure Shot started as just an outro it was basically just one riff that we could just jam on, and let the idea develop naturally. Most of the parts in the song were done in one take - we didn’t really have intentions to release it when we first recorded it but I think the fact it was heavily improvised and naturally ebbs and flows ended up making the song.

Can you tell us about the decision to work with DJ Subaru on this release?

We worked with Benny before on our first single and she is the Queen of Leeds-tronica so who else would we work with? Always a pleasure to be back in Subaru Studios!

How did her style impact the final sound of your tracks?

If you listen to her tracks or see her play you’ll know she can get a room dancing their little hearts out, we hope her touch has given our tracks the same effect. There’s definitely a subtle nod to her style of Italo Disco in Heaven Sent, and neither of the tracks would be what they are without her guidance and creative input.

What do you hope fans take away from your upcoming headline show at the Brixton Windmill, and how are you preparing for it?

We hope they take away a record, and maybe a t-shirt too if they’re feeling flush. Cardio and some weights for schlepping our gear around the country.

What do you love right now?

Bella: tambourine bruises that make me feel like a rockstar, pickle martinis, buying my friends’ tapes

Maz: industrial techno, queer club nights, PRIVATE REGCORDS

What do you hate right now?

Bella: Hot takes, men assuming I’m a singer when I say I’m in a band (bit of a tricky once since I am the singer of this band)

Maz: venues closing, all male lineups, butternut squash, alex mulholland

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Bella: Moon Safari by Air is one of those albums that just transports me back to very happy times and places when I was younger, driving down to the sea on holiday with my family.

Maz: Revolver by Paul McCartney and His Beatles, it was on in the car all the time and is still my fave beatles album by a long shot. So crazy for its time and still a masterpiece.

When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?

We want it to remind people to go out dancing and never stop going out and dancing.