I don’t think I’m necessarily the best for this but I will try!!
(i’m going to call them all sweethearts warning you now)
To Kill a King was formerly:
(from l-r) Ben Jackson, Josh Platman, Jon Willoughby(drums), Ralph Pelleymounter, and ♥Ian Dudfield♥ (guitar, varyious horns)
In September 2013, Ian and Jon announced they were leaving and reappeared like a month-ish ago with a new band called Childcare (the band is mainly focused around Ian ((Ed now))) (the vid is also NSFW)
SO WE HAVE THE BAND NOW:
Ralph, Josh P, Ben, Grant McNeill, and Josh Taffel (called Taffel)
RALPH PELLEYMOUNTER (October 31, 1984):
Ralph is an angel with a large beard (not seen here) and formerly two piercings (now just one. RIP in peace :(). He writes all the songs and plays guitar and has a lovely lovely voice (he’s the singer). He’s recently grown attached to this newsboy cap, I have no idea why. I have not seen more than one pic of him without it since they got to the US. IDK what the deal is.
Best tidbit/’tit bit’: he’s BFFs with Dan Smith of Bastille (I’m assuming that’s how you found them). They met in uni, had a band or two together (Ralph&Dan, Randalph (maybe), and Annie Oakley Hanging). Dan constantly pimps out TKAK whenever possible cos that’s what BFFs dO.
BEN JACKSON (January 28, 1985):
Ben is also an angel who is really, really loooooong. That’s just my observation. He plays piano/does synths and has a lovely voice too (he sings backup). Fun fact from the band is that he doesn’t rush anywhere: “Our keyboard player hasn’t rushed for anything in over 3 years. If there’s a bus, he won’t run for it. He’ll walk and if he misses it he misses it. It can be quite infuriating, but it means he’s exceptionally relaxed. I hope that’s surprising.“ He’s very sweet and I love his accent a lot. He’s rapped about tea before (read the comments people take their tea so fucking seriously it’s hilarious.)
Also this cracks me up so fucking much:
(here’s where it gets kinda iffy cos I don’t know too too much about the rest of them I’m really sorry)
JOSH PLATMAN (October 01, 1985)
Armed with an illustrious quiff and is the shortest in the band, Josh is.
you guessed it.
a sweetheart.
He plays bass and during acoustic sets he can’t do much so he sings back up and claps (sometimes he plays the double bass) (or cello) (idk what its called i get the big ones mixed up) (the thing in the first pic). Yeah. If you buy their merch he’s the one that sends them out and writes out the packages. When I saw them he was wearing the cute cardigan oh my heart.
Apparently there’s ‘Bosh’ (shipping Ben/Josh). Not entirely sure how real it is on the shipping front but there is this precious gif so who cares. (The link to that gif is also the link to a blog that probably knows way more than I do, if you still want more info after this)
He’s also quite the artist:
GRANT MCNEILL (April 26, 1991):
(Disregard the picture he’s actually a puppy) (And he’s wearing a bastille lanyard my heart)
He’s 22, making him the youngest in the band. He plays guitar along with Ralph and sings backup. They all sing backup. He’s one of the newbies so I’m unable to really say more about him and I’m really sorry about that friend. Here’s a pic to further prove he’s actually a puppy
JOSH TAFFEL (TAFFEL) (November 09, 1990):
Taffel is also a newbie and he’s the drummer. He’s like my second fave member cos we defo had a moment at my show (aka we sat next to each other during a band and our knees touched). He was also cute he introduced himself as Josh but everywhere else I’ve seen he’s called Taffel. He used to wear his hair in a sick ponytail or man bun but he’s opted to keep it down. (America does things).
Speaking of America doing things, he got a drunk tattoo. (read more about it here)
Is it better than Will’s? IMO, yes. Way better. A little SXSW souvenir.
ALSO, he had to miss out on the European tour because he fractured his arm ‘heroically moving a fridge in slippers.’ I’m not kidding.
MUSIC
A popular thing that was going on (until Ralph moved) was Ralph’s Balcony! Ralph basically got a bunch of friends every once in a while and they’d perform songs on his balcony. Here’s the youtube playlist of mostly all of them. (it’s also made by the band’s youtube so click on that and you’ll get a bunch of their other videos) Here’s their amazing cover of Video Games
They have a couple EPs out, Word of Mouth, and My Crooked Saint (you can download that one for free how bout dem apples)
They have one LP that’s out in the UK and it’s being released in the US on April 22 of this year and it’s called Cannibals with Cutlery. It’s fucking amazing it’s one of my favorite LPs in existence and no I’m no over-exaggerating.
So yeah. That’s all I got. I hope this helps!!!
Ian’s name in hearts=flawless