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Dr. D:
For such an upbeat sounding album, there seems
to be a lot of dark lyrical subject matter dealing
with such things as paranoia, fear, loneliness,
fitting in and the recurring theme of running away all
awhile retaining a slight sense of optimism.
R.C.
Yeah, there is definite irony in the record,
being such an upbeat record and having Jeff write the
lyrics coming from a very isolated place. I think
there are glimpses of optimism but I think generally
Jeff (lead singer/songwriter) was feeling quite lonely
at the time but I think there is a small speck of
light in there somewhere.
Dr. D:
It would appear that Jeff is the catalyst
behind that band, how much musical input did the rest
of the band have in the studio or when preparing the
album?
R.C.
Well essentially what happened is the rest of
the band comes from other bands in the Los Angeles or
Southern California area. The bass player and I used
to play together in a band and we used to bill with
Rock Kills Kid all the time and we also had the same
manager about 5 years ago when Rock Kills Kid first
started ,so I have been in the band a year and a half
and Sean has been in the band 2 and a half years.
Essentially after the first Rock Kills Kid EP came
out, Jeff started writing songs and I don’t want to
speak for Jeff but I think he was reacting against
that EP trying or knowing where he wanted to take
the band. So really before any of us were in the band,
Jeff had been working on a bunch of songs for whatever
that was going to be, a record or just to write. So
Shawn Daily (Bass) and Sean Stopnik (Guitarist) were
the first to join the band and they had a little input
and Sean wrote some of the bass lines and Sean wrote a
couple of songs near the end of recording. I joined
near the end of recording while the band was in full
effect and I kind of hung around until the album was
done recording and then started practicing for playing
live with them.
So I
never had anything to do with the album, Sean and Sean
had a little bit, but basically we are looking at this
record as we don’t know if it will continue to
operate like this but we have had opportunity to write
together, there is a whole untapped world for this
band but right now we look at this as Jeff’s baby.
Dr. D:
“Rock Kills Kid” seems to wear their
influences on their sleeves a lot more than other
bands being lumped into this "Dance / Rock"
genre, was this intentional?
R.C.
No, I think that is a big misconception of the
band. I know Jeff through the whole writing process
wrote close to a hundred songs, he intentionally did
not listen to any music. We get asked a lot of what
genre we fit into and people will throw you into
whatever genre they identify with and right now there
is this genre called “Dance-Rock” or the “New
wave revival” or whatever they are calling it.
It’s not important to us who we sound like as long
as we are true to ourselves and having seen from the
inside the making of the music, I can tell you that it
comes from a totally pure place without ripping things
off and I know Jeff tried to free himself from all his
influences and it just kind of came out very upbeat
and people will naturally lump us in with the
“Dance-Rock” genre which is fine with us... it
doesn’t bother us.
Dr. D:
The first single "Paralyzed" has
gotten crazy microwave rotation where I live, how's
radio been responding in the U.S.?
R.C.
It’s been great. I think we are 19 on the
Modern Rock stations and every week it’s been going
up 3-6 spots and obviously we are excited and
hopefully it will continue to get better.
Dr. D:
You recently had a tour with The Subways
cancelled due to illness with the lead singer of The
Subways. Did that leave the band scrambling... you
must have been disappointed?
R.C.
(Laughs) yeah it left us scrambling but you
know there was nothing anyone could of done. Obviously
we had that period of time booked and with a week
before we were supposed to leave suddenly we had
nothing to do for a month and a half and to say we
were scrambling would be an understatement.
Dr. D:
Unlike a lot of albums coming out that sound
similar to "Rock Kills Kid" more than half
the album could be possible singles on "Are You
Nervous?" Are there any early contenders for the
next single?
R.C.
I can’t really answer that question because
we have to talk to our label, but judging from the
attention that “Hideaway” has gotten, that may be
one of the strong choices.
Dr. D:
Speaking of which, are singles picked by the
band or is this a total label choice?
R.C.
The label amazingly allows us to be involved
and let us say what we want. It’s a collaborative
effort but I think if we really wanted a certain song
to be the next single they would listen to us for
sure. To be honest with you, I agree with you that
there is more than 2 singles on the album but as far
as when singles come out… why and when, I don’t pay
attention to that side of things. I just worry about
getting ready for the show that night and putting on a
great show.
Dr. D:
Touring plans for the rest of the year, do you
plan on headlining or maybe getting an opening slot
with someone else?
R.C.
I think there is a big hope that we will be
headlining by the end of the year, whether or not that
happens, there is a lot of factors involved. I mean we
don’t want to headline and play to 40 people a night
so we have to wait for the right time to do that.
When
I say we were scrambling earlier, we are lucky to have
a great team behind us and we have been busy. We have
the Craig Ferguson show today, next week we do Carson
Daily, then we fly out to Boston to do some dates
there. We are pretty much booked for the rest of the
year and we might hit Japan and Europe by the end of
the year as well.
Dr. D:
Any touring plans for Canada? And you do
realize that a Canadian tour is a lot more than just
Toronto and Montreal right?
R.C.
Yeah, I mean on most of our tours we have hit
Canada but we have problems getting across the border
with a couple members having convictions in their past,
so they wanna charge us a ton of money to get across
the border. And even though it’s a pain to play up
there, every opportunity we have had we have gone up
there and played. On the Electric Six tour I think we
did 3 or 4 dates in Canada.
Dr. D:
Have you had to play any of those radio
sponsored all day festivals yet? And what's your
feeling on those type of shows where you are kind of
obligated to play, or the station might not play your
single?
R.C.
Yeah I mean that’s all we have been doing is
playing those shows. When the Subways tour got
cancelled we booked a whole bunch of those dates and
it kind of is like we are on this festival tour
almost. It’s kinda weird playing during the daytime
cause you feel kinda naked up there.
Dr. D:
I know it is early days yet but has the band
been jamming around new songs and thinking about the
next album?
R.C.
We just actually recorded 7 b-sides for the
record, so whatever Jeff had left over we went in and
recorded. Right now I think we are all excited to work
on new material but literally it’s been non-stop and
Christmas has been the only break we had. We just
played 2 months with the Electric Six and you need 4
or 5 days of just doing nothing and we ended up with a
week break. In the van we are working on stuff and
Jeff has a Pro-Tools rig on the road set up so we can
throw down ideas when we can.
Dr. D:
Speaking of the Electric Six, what was it like
touring with them and was (singer / front man) Dick
Valentine up to anything interesting?
R.C.
(Laughs) Those guys are all characters if you
know them at all. We kind of became buddies with them
and kind of like little brothers and we just had a
blast every night. The musicianship in that band is so
amazing. We would just stand side stage every night
and watch them put on an amazing show.
Dr. D:
As we speak, you are heading to the “Craig
Ferguson Show”
to prepare for your appearance tonight, is this
your first national television appearance and how are
they treating you?
R.C.
Yeah,
I think for all of us it is. We have all played in
bands and some of us with major labels but nothing to
the point of playing national television. It will be a
new experience for all of us.
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