The Kairos Effect

With years of performance experience all over Virginia under its belt, The Kairos Effect (TKE) launches into its first record label deal and a developing career in the music industry.

A Charlottesville grown Christian, Alternative Rock band with roots in AHS, TKE produces original songs that resonate with “those who are looked down upon” and communicate its band members’ beliefs.

“We all are very expressive, and we all have a vision and a belief that there is something bigger than just us,” senior lead vocalist and guitarist Peyton Alley said. The band’s music and lyrics also serve a connection with the listener. “Our music is relational more so than trying to fix someone’s problem,” Alley said.

An even larger concern of TKE, however, has been recording and traveling with an album of their own. They are currently in the midst of beginning that journey.

“When I was 15, I saw this Tate Music label coming through Roanoke looking for artists that are on the middle ground, so I submitted something to them online and they bought into that,” Alley said. After years of pursuing that label, The Kairos Effect signed with Tate Music Group in Oklahoma City.

On May 9, TKE left for OK, touring on the trip down and back. When there, the group recorded their album, “Eternal Sound Within.” Tate then supplies the band with radio promotion, sending their songs out to about 400 different stations, and music management including a deal with iTunes.

“We should have the record with artwork and everything, wrapped, within a month or two months following. So beginning of fall is when the album comes out, and then we’ll try to do a fall and winter tour with that album in mind,” Alley said.

The other three band members of TKE include lead guitarist Josiah Ragland, drummer Tyler Morris, and bass guitarist and vocalist Kirt Gray, all of whom graduated from Albemarle in 2012. The four enjoyed coalescing with each other at an early age, bonding their talent and interest in music.

The band’s name followed, originating from the two kinds of Greek time: Kronos and Kairos. “Kronos is chronological [time], and Kairos is the time that we can’t really define, and I’m a big believer that we don’t really know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Alley said. “Living in the moment. That’s what Kairos is.”

Alley, who does most of the band’s songwriting, regards originality as one of the most important aspects of their music.

“We like other people hearing our own art instead of someone else’s. That’s the way art should be,” Alley said. “The biggest thing for me in songwriting is the idea of melody and lyric coming together and writing songs not necessarily focussing on the singing part as much as the feeling with melody and lyric, and believing in those lyrics.”

Choosing a favorite piece, however, is not as simple. “All of the songs that I write as far as lyric wise and that we write together, I see them almost as children. I know that sounds really weird,” Alley said. “All of the songs to me are like my children, or our children. You don’t really have a favorite child, but you have ones that are just different than other songs. You might have the rebellious child song or you might have the more laid back, or more popular one.”

Singles such as “Let Light Be Found” and “Across the Street” are songs that Alley feels are most popular among fans.

“Individually we are all pretty talented players, but I think that as a group, with the songs that we write together…we are seen as more of an entity more so than just four individuals, and we like that idea,” Alley said.

Click here to find The Kairos Effect on Facebook!

Click here to listen to TKE’s single, “Tide of Love”!