biographical info
Ancient Kids formed in the fall of 2010 shortly after Jordan Robson Cramer finished recording the album ‘Odd City‘. Jordan spent the previous three seasons recording alone with Martin Horn on the fifth floor of a commercial loft space in a studio known as Digital Bird.
Some of the songs had been kicking around for two years prior, some
were written during the sessions. The sounds of distant ambulance
sirens and skateboards on the pavement below had an uncanny way of
entering through the windows of the studio, as if they were equal in
volume.
Street noise heard in Digital Bird has the strange quality of being
always present, yet always obfuscated. You have to be paying attention
to know what a certain sound might be. This is the mindset the album
was recorded in; hearing other things in sounds that have grown
familiar.
By September 2010 it became a real band. Fleshed-out and slightly amorphous compared to the recordings. Different.
Jamie Thompson and Jordan would correspond over
the internet for a good three months before ever getting together to
practice. Two months before their first practice Jordan saw him during
an outdoor Omar Souleyman concert but lost him amongst the crowd. An
hour later, pitch-black rainclouds loomed forth and pissed over
everyone. During those months, Jamie would play suitcase percussion in Hidden Words, drum for Socalled, and keep busy while also keeping quiet. He also used to play in Islands and The Unicorns.
Steven Balogh had glued Jordan’s guitars back
together a couple times after he had left them leaning in awkward
positions against the walls of his room. They would fall down and split
like tired trees. A fellow west-coast migrant with a deep drawl,
Steven wrote songs and played Bass VI in a band called Anemones
for some years. He is a french apprentice and one who knows how to
lend a helping hand. Coincidentally, he is also the only one with
straight-hair in the band.
Adam Waito had already played and toured with Jordan back when they were both in Miracle Fortress.
In 2007, they did a show in West Edmonton Mall during the dead of
winter. A year before that, they played a show in Ottawa during a music
festival with one of Jordan’s other bands (Sunset Rubdown).
This particular show was cut short due to a Domino’s pizza party which
took precedence at the club. Sometimes Adam has Jordan play drums in
his other project, Adam and the Amethysts; in Ancient Kids, Adam plays four instruments.