Premiere: Kirklandd unveils The Live Divide, a live interpretation of his breakout debut EP

Canberra-based musician Kirklandd is someone that's really taken us by surprise this year. After catching our attention with a collection of tracks littered from around 2015 to 2017, it's seemed the multi-faceted and multi-talented genre-sweeper has really doubled down on his craft in the past few years; a no-doubt tiring experience that proves triumphant when taking a look at his past twelve months, and the strengths on strengths that he's achieved throughout the year.

A big part of that comes in the form of his debut EP The Love Divide, a six-track exploration of his talents as he sweeps between hip-hop, R&B, pop and indie with the reflection and grace of acts like Genesis Owusu and Moses Sumney; past-collaborators and, in the case of Sumney, hopefully future collaborators that mirror Kirklandd's charm and energy, and how he takes intimate moments of his life and turns them into rich sonic explorations of wide-ranging influences and inspiration - something that really all comes together with The Love Divide.

Over the last few months, he's been furthering The Love Divide experience with a tease of a new live show, built and practised over the course of lockdown with the hopes of touring the debut EP across the country as soon as it's allowed. We got a taste of it a few months ago with the premiere of SIIYE, brought to life in the live realm with the help of Lucy Sugerman (Citizen Kay and Genesis Owusu also feature in the performance), and the creativity of someone whose masterclass of a debut EP has been a long time coming.

Now, ahead of its unveiling on December 18th, we're proud to bring you The Live Divide, available to stream exclusively on Pilerats as Kirklandd says goodbye to the year by giving back to those who have helped elevate him, and move onwards to 2021. The nine-track live EP centers around The Love Divide but brings in a few old favourites too, showing how Kirklandd has been able to not just remaster the tools of the live performance, but to completely build it back from the ground-up - something that must've proved quite difficult with changing restrictions.

"The Live Divide is the final element to release in The Love Divide project, and to me it presents an immersive final chapter world of the EP: through a paired visual and audio experience, we’re bringing our fans into the world of The Love Divide with a distinct musical tone," he introduces the project, before further explaining. "The live album version of The Love Divide was recorded when we shot the performance that’s streaming on Bandcamp this Sunday, and it presents the tracks on the EP in a totally different light; SIIYE becomes a full-blown punk anthem, Feel Alive offers an extended sax outro, and Too Late becomes a cheeky blend of live synths, bass and guitars."

It offers the genre-fleeting musicality you'd expect from Kirklandd, and as mentioned, gives nods to those that have long supported and elevated Kirklandd in the past. "On the live album we’ve also got Citizen Kay and Lucy Sugerman bringing some great vocal performances to the bonus tracks on the record, and Genesis Owusu is featured on both the live album and live stream. He brought a real dope vibe to the performance, and this is definitely the most high energy set we’ve done in these virtual shows – it ends on a crazy climax for RISE, featuring the full 8-piece band as we end The Love Divide on a serious high with some wild violin and sax solos."

The live album debuts tomorrow on streaming services and then, next week, the performance will air on Bandcamp with all donations going to Support Act. In the meantime, however, take a dive into The Live Divide experience below:

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