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If you saw us at the recent performances in the NYC area, THANK YOU for your support! Opening for Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, Gogol Bordello...what?!

You might have also seen us, for 30 seconds, on some Coke ads last year...yup, that was us! The ad was directed and shot by artist extraordinaire Lance Acord. The song for the ad was one of ours, which we worked on with Mike Viola to incorporate his lyrics "love is pain."

The original members of the band KIEV, Maïa Vidal, bassist-vocalist, Taylor Quan, guitar, Anna Leicter, guitar, and Sylvie Froncek, drums, met playing classical music as high school freshmen, in Ithaca, NY. Learning to play together, forging a band identity, losing band members* and working with makeshift equipment were part of their basement band experience.

Once they had enough material to put together a CD, they enlisted fellow rocker Park Doing of Atomic Forces to help produce their first recordings in their basement practice room. Get Out of My Basement, their first CD, sold-out in a week. The band experience continued with homemade graphics, logo, stickers, flyers and a website.

While many of their early gigs were with other high-school bands, Kiev also had opportunities to play in local bars to adult audiences. A positive nod from fellow Ithacan Greg Graffin of Bad Religion led to a spot on the 2004 Warped Tour. After holding their own with legendary bands on the tour, the girls landed a gig at New York City’s Knitting Factory gaining out-of-town fans, Internet fans, and a roadie. Meanwhile, political events in Kiev, Ukraine rocked the world as well.

The band discovered that their chosen name, KIEV, was also in use by a West Coast band, so they changed their name to Kievan Rus. Last year, Kievan Rus performed over 30 shows while keeping up with school, chores, after-school jobs, and studying for the SATs.

* Anna left to New Zealand, Rafi joined and left, Sylvie left, Ryan joined...Mike filled in on some key concerts and recordings, Ryan left, Mike joined....

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© kievan rus, 2003-2006. all rights reserved.
buy our cds and no one gets hurt.