Pittsburgh local music spotlight: New Kink

New Kink, a Pittsburgh indie band formed in the past few years, released their debut album, “Canon,” earlier this month.

“We’ve put a lot of work into this album and we’re really proud of it,” singer Victoria Susan said. “We set out to create a sound that is something that people might not hear a lot. We’re five very opinionated artists, and we each bring a unique piece to each of the songs and we just hope people enjoy listening and want to hear more.”

The group, which features former members of Fallen Monument, Fire at the Point, A Prior I and Kind Eyes, will be celebrating the new album with a release show on June 14 at the Funhouse at Mr. Smalls in Millvale.

The band filled in TribLive on what else we should know about New Kink:

Band: New Kink

Band members: Dan (bass, guitar); Bill (guitar); Matt (guitar, backing vocals); Marcus (drums); Victoria (vocals)

Founding story: Marcus, Matt and Bill have been playing music together for years in previous bands. They met Victoria while playing in their previous band, Fire at the Point, when they featured her vocals on a song. Sadly, that band eventually split ways, but Matt, Marcus and Bill kept in contact with Victoria. Bill had been working with Victoria on her solo album, and when they wanted to start a new band, she was the perfect choice to be the singer. Bill and Dan are old friends and a natural fit to the sound the band was after. They’ve spent the last few years dancing around life to find time to write and practice, building the sound and the songs on this debut album.

Origin of band’s name: It was a long and sometimes ridiculous process and the word “kink” came up. Nonetheless, getting five people to agree to anything is a nearly impossible task. The short story is that there isn’t any real origin, but we think Victoria came up with New Kink.

For fans of: Dreamy, indie, alternative, garage rock.

Influences: We are individually influenced by a lot of different bands and genres, but some that are common for all of us are: The Flaming Lips, David Bowie, The Cranberries, Nirvana, Talking Heads, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Ramones, The Cure, The War On Drugs and the Beatles. We also draw a lot of influence from the great bands we see playing around Pittsburgh.

Release: Debut album “Canon,” June 2025

Next shows: June 14, album release show at the Funhouse at Mr. Smalls with Thick Magician and Love Ethic; July 12 at Poetry Lounge with Right on Warriors and Egomyth; Aug. 9 at 222 Ormsby for Saturn Rise’s album release show with Grawlix and The Richard Move

How to find them: New Kink’s details can be found on their Linktree as well as Instagram.

Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: Saturn Rise, Redlines and Paging Doctor Moon are three great bands with some great friends in them.

Favorite pizza shop: Tough call, Fiori’s is pretty hard to beat.

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