Victory Kicks

Victory Kicks is the long-running recording project of London-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Sibley - a quiet, consistent presence in the UK’s indie underground since 2013. What began as a way to stay creatively engaged between day jobs and late-night sessions in rented rehearsal rooms has grown into an extensive and evolving body of work: melodic, melancholic yet feel-good, home-recorded indie rock that wears its influences lightly - The National, Spoon, Kurt Vile, Wilco, Guided by Voices - while sounding like nothing but itself.

Recorded almost entirely in makeshift home studios with contributions from friends and bandmates from other projects, Victory Kicks occupies the fertile middle ground between solo project and collective. Across seven albums and six EPs, Sibley has carved out a niche as a prolific craftsman of shimmering, loosely structured, emotionally resonant guitar pop: music that feels intimate and expansive all at once, full of fuzzy textures, jangling riffs, and unhurried atmosphere.

Over the years, his output has earned quiet acclaim from blogs, college radio, and transatlantic corners of the indie press - drawn to the immediacy of the songwriting and the no-frills authenticity of the recordings. Victory Kicks doesn’t chase trends or algorithmic success; it exists in its own time zone, tapping into the same DIY spirit that fuelled early lo-fi pioneers, but with a melodic sensibility and sonic ambition that feels very much of the now.