Kim Bingham

This is the article for the Canadian singer, for the American goalkeeper see Kimberly Bingham.
Kim Bingham is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and composer. She began her career as front-woman of the Montreal third wave ska band Me Mom and Morgentaler, and started her solo career in 1994 as Mudgirl. She released her debut album in 1996, and shortly after reformed as The Kim Band. She has released solo albums and singles in both French and English, and her 2012 album Up! was recorded with Canadian co-producer John Kastner. The video for the song "Up!" was a winner for Best Short Form Video at the 2013 Independent Music Awards.
She has worked as a guitarist and backing vocalist for musicians such as David Usher and Nelly Furtado, also collaborating with Bran Van 3000. Bingham wrote the score for the TV show Les Invincibles, and in 2007 was nominated for Best Original Score at Québec's Prix Gémeaux television awards, where she won Best Theme Song. She continues to act as president of the independent label Mudgirl Music Group.

Kim Bingham was born and raised in Montreal, Québec, Canada. As early as the age of eight she had an interest in entertainment and the arts, and soon picked up singing and guitar.

Me Mom and Morgentaler

Kingham began her career in music as a member of the Montreal, Quebec third wave ska band Me Mom and Morgentaler, formed in 1990. The band became known for elaborate live performances, spectacles of vaudevillian-styled performance art. Me Mom and Morgentaler briefly reformed in 2007 for a reunion, before disbanding more permanently.

1994-99: Mudgirl

In 1994 Bingham left Me Mom & Morgentaler and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she married then-fiancee (now ex-husband) Steven Drake of the Odds and formed the solo project Mudgirl. Her moniker Mudgirl was chosen based on "the title of a short story she wrote about a waif made of mud," intended for children. She stated “Mudgirl is an extension of myself where I get to be cartoony and a bit surreal.” Musical members of the Mudgirl band included drummer/vocalist Glenn Kruger (The Paperboys, Bloody Chicletts, Tariq), bassist/vocalist Russell Less (The Ground), and guitarist Lucas Truman. Stated Nicholas Jennings, the band "leavens crunching guitars and slamming drums with a sunny, buoyant chorus on songs like the rocking 'This Day.'"

As Mudgirl she recorded and released the debut five-song CD First Book in 1996 and had Canadian radio hits that year with "This Day" and "Adjusted." She also produced a handful of popular videos featured on MuchMusic, and performed on some Lilith Fair dates in the U.S., including a July 1996 performance with Mudgirl at Lilith Fair. In January 1997 Mudgirl was opened for Moist and sharing the stage with I Mother Earth.

1999-06: The Kim Band

However, in 1999, she dissolved Mudgirl and created The Kim Band, with a rotating collective of musicians in which Bingham herself was the sole constant. She has stated, "I outgrew Mudgirl. With Mudgirl, I thought I could hide behind the guise of a band and make it seem like a collective. What ended up happening was that the guys in the band would be asked all these questions about where the band was headed, but they had no idea. I was the one doing everything. So I decided to take the bull by the horns. I think I'm ready to take on the responsibility."

The Kim Band's debut album, Girlology, was released in 2001. About the album's concept, "it stemmed from Bingham's work on a Web site devoted to the mind-boggling science of trying to figure out girls." Canoe.ca called it a "sweet, spry rock record that sounds like The Runaways rumbling with The Shangri-Las." "What a Drag" was the first single off Girlology, and like the rest of the album was produced by Steven Drake; the song reached No. 1 in Montreal. She then released three French versions of songs off the album to radio stations in Quebec. These included "Quel Dommage," which reached No. 1, "Au Saint-Valentin", which reached Top 10, and "Femmologie," which reached Top 20. The Kim Band continued to tour in 2002. In 2003, she released a French language single "Coeur de Sable", which was a popular Top 40 hit in Quebec. As of 2004 she continued to tour with The Kim Band, setting up her own gigs.

2000-03: Touring, bands

From 2001 until 2003, Bingham also worked with Canadian singer David Usher as a guitarist and backing vocalist. Black Black Heart is a song written by Usher and Jeff Pearce and released as a second single off Usher's 2001 album Morning Orbit. The female vocal is provided by Bingham, while the chorus samples The Flower Duet (Sous le dôme épais), a famous duet for sopranos from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé, as a hook. "Black Black Heart" won two MuchMusic Video Awards for Best Post-Production and Best Pop Video in 2002.

In 2003 Bingham was involved with the concert series Classic Albums Live. Also that year and early 2004, she toured Europe and the U.S. with pop singer Nelly Furtado as a guitarist and backing vocalist in Furtado's band. Beyond Furtado, she has also collaborated with the artists Bran Van 3000. She has also written songs recorded by JackSoul and Serial Joe, as well as the Belgian bands Spark and Eden. The latter's cover of Bingham's unreleased song "Party Girl" reached the Top Ten pop chart in Belgium.

In 2006, Bingham relocated to Los Angeles and formed the all-female rock trio Kamikaze Pilot. She collaborated with Bran Van 3000's James DiSalvio in Los Angeles, appearing on the band's album Rosé (2008).

2005-09: Les Invincibles

From 2005 to 2009, Bingham wrote the score for the three seasons of the SRC primetime series Les Invincibles. In 2007, Bingham was nominated for Best Original Score at Québec's Prix Gémeaux television awards and won the Prix Gémeaux with Jean-Francois Rivard (co-creator/director of Les Invincibles for Best Theme Song ("The Heroes Take").

In 2007, Bingham released the album Les Invincibles TV soundtrack (Warner Music Canada), and in 2009, she composed the music for the first two seasons of the Franco-German of production Les Invincibles (broadcast on Arte, March 2010).

2007-14: Recent years

L-R: Jayne Hill, Sara Johnston, Gary McKenzi, Nick Hynes, Kim Bingham & Stephane Moraille, at the Bran Van 3000 Concert @ Montreal Jazz Festival 2008

In 2007 Bingham released French-language mini-album Intermede on Musik 2 Musik in Canada. The following year she performed a series of dates in Canada with Bran Van 3000, including the main outdoor show at the Montreal International Jazz Festival which attracted more than 140,000 spectators. That summer she also released the single "Ticket pour l'amour".

Her solo album Up! was released on May 22, 2012, on her own Mudgirl Music Group label. Written in Paris, the pop and rock songs were recorded in Los Angeles with Canadian co-producer John Kastner. Musicians included Gene Trautmann (Queens Of The Stone Age), Jason Falkner (Jellyfish), and Chris Thorn (Blind Melon). Other musicians included George Donoso and Martin Pelland, both formerly of The Dears. Creature, a band from Montreal, also has a cameo and created a remix. The video for the song "Up!" was a winner for Best Short Form Video at the 2013 Independent Music Awards.

To promote the album, in January 2013 Bingham attended the MIDEM music and technology conference held annually in Cannes, France. As of October 2012 she continued to record and perform in both English and French, and that month her band at that point consisted of Sheenah Ko (keyboards/vocals), Serge Capistran (guitar/vocals), PO Rioux (bass/vocals) and Lydia Champagne (drums).

In October 2013 she spoke at MEOW Con as a representative of Mudgirl Music Group. She continues to act as president of the label, which beyond her solo albums, has released other bilingual artists as well. The independent label and production house is based in Montreal. As recently as 2014 she was touring in Europe, chiefly in Italy. In July 2014 she opened the Suoni di Marca festival in Treviso, Italy, with her backing band in the country including Alberto Rigoni on bass, Steve Silenzi on guitars, and Denis Novello on drums.

According to The Spokesman-Review, Bingham "plays a musical style modeled after the eclectic pop of The The.

Bingham is based in Montreal, Quebec. and engaged with an Italian barber

With Me Mom and Morgentaler

Albums

• 1991: Clown Heaven and Hell EP
• 1993: Shiva Space Machine
• 1994: We Are Revolting: Live & Obscure 1990-1994 (live)

Solo material

Albums

Singles

TV scores

• 2005-09: Les Invincibles (Canada) - composer
• 2008-10: Les Invincibles (France-Germany) - composer

Guest appearances