KissKissKilling It In Lockdown
What does a band do when it has nothing to do? It keeps doing things, obviously. That’s a particular problem for bands in 2020 as social distancing guidelines make it difficult to get together to write and rehearse, much less play any live gigs. But here is a band that have tried their hardest to make it work for them.
Image Credit: Grace Clarke
KissKissKill are a five-piece band from York consisting of Gemma Keane on vocals, Mickey Moran and Eddie Stock on guitars, Fin on bass and Richee Mathwin on loan behind the drum kit. To pass the time in 2020 they’ve put out vlogs, filmed a lockdown music video, and even re-purposed a BBC radio session to their advantage.
Despite being filmed before lockdown, this vlog is a great example of the content the band are capable of. This one was filmed around their appearance on Minster FM, which can be seen as a valuable source of information for bands who want to know what goes on behind the scenes in such a venue. As well as this, the band have reviewed the gear they use, including a guitar pedal used by Mickey and guitar-hunting for Ed. Lately, KissKissKill have taken to filming reaction videos of other artist’s work with amusing results.
Outside of the vlogs, the band have kept their social media up to date, teasing demo and live recordings on their instagram where they regularly interact with their fanbase. As I scrolled through I saw the band had posted a photo celebrating Valentine’s Day with a particularly revealing photo of Ed. No I’m not reposting it you filthy people (sign up to my mailing list for the link). All of this aside, what about the music?
Recorded live for BBC Radio Humberside on the Introducing programme, KissKissKill asked for their recordings made on this session in order to release their own video, and luckily they had cameras set up to capture it! ‘Money To Burn’ features a great guitar solo from Mickey Moran and opens with a real thick and nasty guitar riff from Ed Stock. The band drops out while Fin holds the fort with steady bass playing, which I imagine would be a brilliant moment in the band’s live set to build momentum. Mickey cycles through guitar pedals, with reverb and wah making a solid appearance. It’s interesting to have a live performance of the band even if they’re without an audience present, I can only imagine what they’d do in a full-blown gig.
Later in the summer, KissKissKill released a lockdown video for their track ‘L.S.R.S.’, featuring all of the band in the comfort of their own homes. Eddie can be seen lifting weights, Gemma is drinking gin and Richee’s son even puts in a surprise appearance on the drums (who was also behind one of the cameras for the BBC session!). The song itself shows another side to KissKissKill with a taste of studio production. The drums are noticeably crisper, bringing a punch that backs up the guitars well. Gemma’s voice has more room to shine with multiple vocal layers, a much better representation than their BBC session recording. Mickey even gets a lead guitar cam this time and Eddie’s melodic rhythm lines during the breakdown are a welcome break from the heavier verses and choruses. The lyrical content is easy on the ear with a message that was perfect for lockdown at the time – just enjoy life, and continue to enjoy it when the restrictions lift. Six months later in Lockdown v.2.0, I think we can all live by that message.
1. Your band-name is pretty sinister, who came up with KissKissKill?
Mickey Moran: The name came out of a fumbling of words when talking about a band name years ago, we’d just started looking at being a female fronted act and wanted something that played into that as we wanted a glamourous yet edgy image at the time. We’ve evolved into a more light-hearted fun group since then but the name just stuck as the logo is too good to ditch!
2. Let's go back to the beginning, how did KissKissKill come to be?
Mickey: Myself and Fin (Bass) were part of another band before this called Tidal Fury, had a few good support slots but the live music scene was a lot bigger back then (talking 10 years ago). After the singer of that group decided it was time for him to move on, we looked for something a bit different and found a lady singer from a band we’d played with before as Tidal Fury. A few line-up changes and a bit of step away from things until we found Gemma a couple of years ago and we’re as you see us now.
3. During lockdown, you made a video for your track 'L.S.R.S.', what was it like filming your parts and who edited it together?
Mickey: It was fun, it was nice to not have to worry about playing and just be seen to be playing/singing. It’s really where we just allowed our personalities to shine through. Richee (Drummer) is actually a Media worker for his profession so I took a lot of tips from him when editing, I wanted it to be as DIY as possible and had NO idea what I was going to get when I got the footage through. Richee’s son, Roman was a lovely surprise hijacking his kit there.
4. Gemma, how does the band write a song? Do they present you an instrumental to write lyrics to?
Gemma Keane: Usually, Mickey or Ed will come with a catchy hook line on the guitar, this turns into a riff or a melody over time and songs usually go one of two ways, we all work on the idea in a rehearsal space and build it up and let it naturally evolve, or Mickey will work out the whole track based off everyone’s previous ideas and come up with a demo, we all kind of change our own parts to suit ourselves from there and we have a song. His voice isn’t the best at singing in my range so some of the things I get are hilariously awful but it’s enough for me to work with. As for lyrics, we either all work them out and brainstorm a theme or Mickey will just write around a theme. We usually try to be generally relatable in song lyrics.
5. There are plenty of examples of your live performances on YouTube, what equipment does everyone use when playing live?
Mickey: Whatever we can get our hands on. If it’s OUR show we have standard amps/cabs and pedals for the guitars, nothing exceptional without getting very audio nerdy. We don’t use tracks, which are kind of standard for high quality live bands these days, so if we want a sound to be included, we have to work out a way to it which might involve an extra bit of something on Ed’s or my guitar pedal boards. The amps we use are Marshalls for that big boxy rock sound and Fin has a GK Bass rig. There’s always new little bits being added to make the sound.
6. The band played for BBC Introducing Humberside earlier this year, what was that experience like?
Mickey: Possibly the last time an act was allowed in their studio before the first lock down. No physical contact but social distancing wasn’t really a thing yet neither were masks. As for the set up and performance, pretty good – nice clear sound check, good performance and audio capture. BBC were kind enough to give us the audio stems from the session to mix and put out as singles which we did for Money to Burn and if we ever find the audio from the 3rd track, that can go out too. Overall it was a fun professional experience and we hope to go back there soon once we release something and are allowed out again.
7. Richee, you were previously filling in behind the drums for KissKissKill, is this a permanent gig for you now?
Richee Mathwin: Mick didn’t pay me enough in cakes and Haribo to stay around, but since he’s too lazy to find anyone else, I’ll stick around if they need me to but I have my own project in the works that I’m very excited about.
8. The alternative content on your YouTube channel is a great idea, who came up with that?
Mickey: Think that was discussed at a rare “Band meeting” (we met up during lockdown restrictions being lifted and discussed things we can do to stay active without recording/getting together too often). We wanted to put more of our personalities out there and do whatever we could as long as it related to the band somehow. There’s still more to come in the way of reactions to stuff we usually wouldn’t listen to and general discussions on stuff.
9. Mickey you recently reviewed the t.c.electronic Quintessense, are there more gear reviews to come?
Mickey: Might have to make a separate channel for it but there’s a LOT of stuff the band uses that I could happily spend hours talking about.
10. Fin, if you were to do one of the alternative videos for the band, what would you do and why?
Fin: Dunno, really. I would just get involved in things everyone else was doing and see how it goes.
11. You've said you have some unusual photoshoots in the works, is there anything you can tell us about those?
Mickey: Sadly not because Mr BJ decided to lock us all up again. We were just finalising dates when Lockdown 2 happened. The ideas are in the brain of Rich Gibbs, the photographer we’d have been working with so, who knows!?
12. Like a lot of artists, you guys posted about Eddie Van Halen's passing recently, what does his and his band's music mean to you?
Mickey: Hearing Van Halen for this first time is where 90% of guitarists have their first “oh Sh*t....That’s insane” moment. It was for me and Ed, I’m sure. It stung when this news broke and it’s not a great deal easier now. His son, Wolfgang actually released a tribute song to him which is hard to get through emotionally, even if you’re not a guitarist or a VH fan.
13. Are we likely to see more lingerie shots from Ed? A 2021 calender perhaps?
Ed Stock: HA F*ck No! This bellend *points to Mickey* was supposed to take that sh*t down!
14. You've previously teased some live demos on your instagram account, could those see a release in the future?
Mickey: Those were reference videos when Gemma first got together with us all to see if it worked (obviously now we know it did). We were thinking about maybe, if people are interested, putting those on a more special behind the scenes collection somewhere when it comes to getting an album funded down the line.
For now, we’re concentrating on doing what we can, where we can. We all have jobs that haven’t been massively affected by what’s going on so didn’t have the extra time to get together. Seeing other acts jump on that and get things out has been mint, but we’re working on things to be ready to go when everything gets a little bit less crazy.
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Follow KissKissKill on instagram @xxkofficial and on facebook @kisskisskill.
