The Interview: Kill it Kid

I saw this young band at Blissfields festival earlier this month, and despite knowing very little about them, I was impressed. Then they were announced to play the Communion Flowerpot Takeover, so I got to speak to Kill It Kid during a very very exciting week. The Takeover is pretty much Ruckus heaven – many of our favourite International musicians were taking part, such as Lissie, The Ryan O’Reilly Band, members of Mumford & Sons, Alan Pownall, Mt Desolation, Matthew & The Atlas etc etc. During the day, the musicians came together to collaborate recordings and then performed the music in the evening at The Flowerpot, mine and Sheena’s favourite pub. Kill it Kid, signed to One Little Indian, are an awesome Americana/Blues band. I adored their guitar numbers mixed with excellent fiddle playing and keys at Blissfields, and so I sat down with them on the roof of the Flowerpot pub, next to a tortoise, for a chat to introduce the band to The Ruckus readers. As I was introduced to the band, the guitarist, Chris recognised me and it took us a few minutes to realise we went to school together – ah the life and times of living on the British Isles…

Where does the name come from? What kid are you influencing to kill?
Chris: There’s a song by an Atlanta blues player, Blind Willie McTell and he has a song called ‘Kill It Kid’ that tells the story of how he used to play in a bar in New York and a barfly would shout at him ‘Kill it Kid’ as he was about to play. So we kind of stole it. It’s used quite regularly, if you search for ‘Kill it Kid’ on twitter, it seems a phrase that a lot of people use. (side note, Kill It Kid’s actual Twitter is here).

It’s a pretty stand out name, not just another ‘The’ band. Can you tell me some of your musical influences?
Steph: Generally, we all love Blues music but we all have very different tastes in music though. Marc, the drummer is into quite heavy stuff, like Rage Against the Machine.
Chris: I’m into really early Blues, that’s where the slide playing came from. Steph likes the female Blues type music too. We meet in the middle with bands like The Black Keys.

And how long have you been together?
Chris: Two years now. We met at Uni in Bath. Me and Adam got together and were playing as a 2 piece acoustic blues guitar outfit. I backed Steph too, and then I played with Steph on some jazz concerts. Rich did some sessions and got involved there. And Marc approached me after a solo show. And in the end we just pulled it all together.

Have you ever played at Communion before?
Steph: No

How did you get involved this time?
Well we were playing a really cool festival, Live at Leeds and one of the guys that A&R’s for Communion saw us and just said ‘come along’ and we got offered to come along and collaborate.

It’s a really exciting night, have you ever been to a Communion night before?
Steph: No, we’ve not had the chance.

You should go to the Bristol Communion, I hear they have great noodles there. So have you been writing and recording today?
Steph: Yeah, we’ve been collaborating with The Joker & The Thief.

How’d that go? Where did you record?
Steph: Really good, VERY loud…It sounded quite cool.
Chris: Yeah quite hectic could sum it up, we have been recording everywhere – even that corridor. It’s quite different to the other bands that have been collaborating. We put a song together and then made it gigantic and recorded it in the afternoon and we’ll record an acoustic song after the show.

So normally you have Chris on guitar and vocals, Steph on piano and vocals, Richard on fiddle and vocals, Marc on drums and Adam on bass and banjo. But I spotted a cello on the stage, is this a new additions?
Steph: No the cello and viola is a one off, just a treat for us tonight. We’ve never played with a Cello player before.

When I saw you guys at Blissfields, I kind of thought Americana-Blues-Alt Folk.
Chris: Yeah, it’s American music.

Have you played the States at all?
Chris: We recorded the album in Seattle, we were out there for about a month. And we recently did SXSW Festival too. And we have plans to go back over there.

SXSW is a huge achievement, musically…
Chris: It was an amazing time.

What do you think about the music scene out Bath way?
Chris: It’s great, it’s definitely growing.
Steph: It’s very acoustic.
Chris: Yeah there’s a lot of live music at Moles Porter, we’re die hard fans of the venue.

Favourite venue you’ve played?
Chris: Ooh. It’s recently changed. What’s your favourite Steph?
Steph: Mine is as of recently, Hop Farm Festival.
Chris: Yeah we had a ridiculously good slot in the big tent at Hop Farm. So we’re a bit obsessed with the experience we had there. It’s the biggest crowd we had played to and the tent was packed. We also played in Amsterdam recently in a three tiered Cathedral and that was amazing, a great gig.

Dream world venue if you could play anywhere?
Chris: I like the idea of random shows, a guerilla gig at the back of a carpark would be good, a random gig where you’d get people to come to you. The odd shows are the best. If you strip a band down to just the guitar, it shows they have talent.

Okay so similarly, if you had the choice of filling out a massive arena or a small intimate gig where you could see everyone’s faces, what would you choose?
Steph: Arena, our sound is quite heavy now. And acoustic means we’d have to lose Marc and he’s an amazing drummer, so definitely an arena.

Guilty music pleasures?
Chris: Oh yeah, Tom Petty!

That’s not that bad! It’s not like it’s Steps or Take That.
Chris: It’s pretty guilty. But Steph has quite a few.
Steph: I listen to the radio station, Kiss100 quite a lot. I’ll leave it there.

What would you say in 5 years would mean that you’ve personally ‘made it’?
Chris:I said the other day that I was about 10 metres from Bob Dylan in the flesh, so that’s probably it for me.

What’s your favourite cheese? (It’s a question I like to ask from time to time)
Steph: Goat’s Cheese
Chris: Camembert

How do you feel about Earl Grey tea vs Normal Person’s Tea?
Steph: I like Lady Grey tea
Chris: Builders tea, normal tea.

How do you feel about Marmite then?
Steph: Really like Marmite.
Chris: Not a fan.

If you could be asked one question in an interview what would you want to be asked?
Steph: What’s your favourite cheese?
Chris: How’s it feel being the best band in the world?
Steph: How does it feel to have just played Wembley?

What’s next for you guys musically?
Chris: The next album, we’ve demoed almost 10 songs for the next record. We’re excited about the new direction, the last album was very acoustic and Americana and now we’re really pushing to the blues vein. It’s a lot heavier and we’re really excited by it. We want to thank Communion for having us, it’s quite cool because we’re more bluesy and they’re slightly more acoustic, so it’s nice that they’re having us get involved.

It’s hugely important to note that Communion don’t just stick to the acoustic folkie type artists and promote music they feel deserves to be. I love that Kill It Kid are all early 20′s but they are so passionate about a genre which has never been mainstream in the UK. Their Blues sound is bigger and polished, they clearly have a great deal of music knowledge between them and use this to produce such a gigantic sound. I am not always exposed to more plugged in music so I’m definitely glad I got to experience this mix of Americana and the added use of the fiddle and keys persuaded me that I do indeed for once, like a bigger, more plugged in sound.

Please do check out Kill It Kid’s Myspace and of course Communion.