Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some good old fashioned
surf-rock, most likely a little more than the next guy even.  But it takes a lot to catch my interest and
get me looking into a surf band to be honest, ninety-percent of them sound the same
and that’s just calling it like it is. 
And there’s nothing wrong with that I might add, if people like playing
it and listening to it, and you can make a living performing it, right on and
good for you…  Kill, Baby… Kill! is not
one of those bands though.  It’s hard to
even lump them in with most of the other serious surf stuff that I hear out
there because they bring so much hardcore rock to the table that there are just
about equal measures, take no names, balls to the walls, reverb drenched,
guitar-torching surf and face-melting, heavy rock and hardcore punk influences
as there is surf.  The keys are another
one of the things that sets Kill, Baby… Kill! apart as well, while they do
sometimes simply fill in the empty space that isn’t being stuffed with guitar
licks or the ballsy bass lines here, they also tumble spaciously and unfettered
over the top of the music a good deal of the time, really adding an ambiance
that’s lost in most of the attempted surf hybrids that I’ve heard over the
years.  Let’s face it, combining surf
with most anything else and keeping the integrity of either intact is a feat
unto itself and Kill, Baby… Kill! not only does it while making it sound easy,
they do it while making it sound f*cking good! 
If you’ve ever wondered what it would sound like to be trapped on an
island while fighting giant monsters in some sort of mechanized suit as a bunch
of beach bunnies and a handful of burnouts cheered you on, the world is coming
to an end crumbling around your head, bombs dropping from the sky, the hideous,
grotesque reptilian beast managing to finally pry its way into the hull…  Well you’re in luck!  Kill, Baby… Kill! has got to be the
soundtrack to the dystopian, apocalyptic future that we’re all headed for.  Hunker down and listen for the bombs with
founding member Noah Holt and current drummer Josh Jackson as they answer a
gambit of questions about all things Kill, Baby… Kill!

Listen
while you read: https://www.facebook.com/killbabykillal/app_2405167945

What is Kill,
Baby… Kill!’s current lineup?  Is this
the original lineup or have you all gone through any changes since the band
first started?

Noah:  No, this isn’t
the original lineup, by a long shot. 
Kill, Baby… Kill! originally started as a home studio project for me
back in 2003.  Then, in 2005, I managed
to put together a live lineup that lasted for around four shows.  The members were all quite young, mostly just
finishing high school and had new opportunities ahead of them.  What’s more, I had my first child on the
way.  So it was all put on indefinite
hold and became a studio only project again. 
Finally, in early 2010, life changes allowed time again, so I started
piecing together a lineup featuring musicians I had had my eye on years
earlier, as none of the original players were available or interested in
revisiting the project.  This lineup
started with Josh Jackson on drums, Rye Fannin on Rhythm guitar, and Jeremy
Bagget on bass.  Josh and Rye had been in
a band called Typhoid Mary years earlier and I was a fan.  Jeremy was just a local friend that loved
horror movies and happened to own a bass. 
We played our first show of the revival that October.  After it was over we were approached by Chris
Eagle who had an interest in providing Keys for our music.  I was reluctant, but decided within a few
weeks to give it a shot and we haven’t looked back yet.  This lineup lasted about one year, but Rye
had a teenager type idea of what the ‘rock’n roll’ lifestyle was all about and
really wasn’t up to the real work involved with being in a touring and
recording band.  Even more, the stress it
put on everyone else wasn’t worth it.  So
nearly one year to the date of his first show he was gone.  I would say let go, but it was very much a
mutual decision.  We decided to go
forward without a rhythm guitarist, as the keys did a great job of filling
things in anyway.  Jeremy, within a few
months after the departure of Rye, decided he wanted to pursue other
interests.  He played a few more shows
with us, but we already had a replacement in the fold.  Which brings us to our last addition.  Erek Smith, who had already been playing in
another band with Chris and Josh, stepped in and really filled out the bass
position.  In all honesty, his bass
playing really was the missing link in defining what we are as a band.

The more people I
talk to and the more bands I discover the more I enjoy musical connect the dots,
piecing one member of one band together with another so on and so forth.  Though I must admit, nothing beats cheating
ha-ha!  Are any of you involved with any
other active bands at this point?  Have
you released any music with anyone in the past? 
If so can you share a little bit about that with us?

Noah:  Erek, Chris,
and Josh have another band called Street Shark. 
It’s a post-punk project with heavy roots in that late-80’s/early 90’s
DC Dischord Records sound.  It’s a
fantastic project.  I would be fooling
myself if I stated that much of that sound hasn’t infiltrated the later music
of Kill,Baby…Kill! and that’s a welcome thing. 
While I started this project to be instrumental surf, I have a
twenty-five year background in punk and indie music, and those Dischord artists
are some of the most influential on me. 
As for other projects I’ve recorded with…  I spent the late 80’s through the 1990’s
living in Auburn, Alabama and playing in that music scene.  This is the scene that birthed Man or
Astro-man?, Quadrajets, Immortal Lee County Killers, Pine Hill Haints
etcetera.  I was engulfed in punk rock
through and through during that time. 
With that in mind, I had many bands, but most were of no significance
besides learning how to be in a band.  
My first recording band was called Stuck@Zero.  We were pretty standard early 90’s Pop
Punk.  We managed to put out one 7” on
Arkam Records during that time.  We also
recorded another record for Tooth n Nail Records, but that was never released
due to questionable lyrical content. 
After Stuck@Zero I had a hardcore band called Pedestrians that was
pretty popular on a local level, but never managed to record more than some
demos.  Lastly, I had a stint in Backseat
Virgins that were on Insubordination Records out of Maryland back in the mid
2000’s.

Where are you
originally from?

Noah:  Auburn,
Alabama.

Josh:  Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina.

What was the music
scene like where you grew up?  Did you go
and see a lot of shows when you were younger? 
Do you feel like the music scene there played a large role in forming
your musical tastes or shaping the way that you play today?

Noah:  I touched on it
above, Auburn had a pretty awesome music scene from the late 80’s through the
1990’s.  Now, outside of the bands listed
above, Man or Astro-man?, Pine Hill Haints, Quadrajets, Immortal Lee County
Killers, none of the local bands really managed any success outside of being
popular with the local crowd.  But the
town was full of amazing and creative musicians.  There were tons of local bands and rarely did
they sound remotely like anything that was going on elsewhere.  We used to call it the Auburn Punk Scene, but
the reality was that it was the Auburn Music Scene.  Shows would be Metal, Punk, Pop, Hip Hop,
Country, etcetera, all mixed on the same bill. 
And we loved it that way.  What
was even more, is that the town had an international reputation as a ‘must stop
and play’ for touring bands, so just about any band you would have wanted to
see during the time played there.  Even
more, there wasn’t a real venue there. 
So these bigger bands actually played house shows.  For a few examples, one of my very first house
shows attended (around 1991) was Green Day. 
They played the living room of Stuart Ellis’ house.  The last house show I remember ever seeing
there was Murder City Devils and American Steel.  Let’s see… 
Hoover, Neurosis, Less than Jake, Hot Water Music, Screeching Weasel,
Pansy Division, Avail, All, Chemical Brothers, Four Hour Fogger (pre Mastodon),
Damad…  This list could go on.  I’m not saying that I was at all of these,
but that gives a good idea of the level of bands that used to come
through.  And spending about ten to
twelve years going to shows, sometimes three or four per week, I saw
thousands.  But anyway…  Yes, it was highly influential.  Being surrounded by that much talent inspires
you and pushes you…  The funny thing
was, and that still holds to this day, that it wasn’t so much the touring bands
that I took inspiration from, but rather the local bands.  If you were to ask me for a list of my top
ten favorite bands today then Hematovore and Man or Astro-man? would still be
high on the list.  And that hasn’t
changed since around 1992 or 1993.  Which
isn’t to say that having the high-profile bands you most admire come through
and being able to engage them on such an intimate level wasn’t highly
influential.  It sort of destroyed the
‘bigger than life’ myth to most of us very early in our musical careers.

Josh:  There really
was no music scene being raised in small town Talladega, Alabama.  However, there did happen to be a small, but
very active punk scene twenty or so miles north of us in Anniston,
Alabama.  My friends and I would pile
ourselves in a car and go check out rock shows at our favorite local venue
1213.

What was your home
like when you were growing up?  Was it
very musical?  Were either your parents
or any of your relatives musicians or extremely involved/interested in music?

Noah:  I really didn’t
come from a musical family life at all. Sure, my Brother and Sister were in
Marching Band, but that was the extent of things.  I am told my Grandfather was an accomplished
guitarist but he had lost fingers in an accident before I was born, so I never
got to hear him play.

Josh:  There really wasn’t
much musical influence in my household growing up.  In fact, having been raised in a pretty
strict household, most of the music that I found myself drawn to was heavily
discouraged.  I’ve been told that my
grandfather was a touring lap steel guitar player, but neither myself nor my
father ever had the opportunity to meet him.

What do you
consider your first real exposure to music?

Noah:  That’s a very
good question.  Radio was always on while
growing up.  But at the age of around ten
I had a cousin along with a school acquaintance introduce me to the music that
I would build off of.  I remember my
cousin lending me a copy of Staring at the Sea by The Cure and then the school
acquaintance giving me a mix tape that included Dead Kennedys, DOA, and a
handful of other punk artists of the time. 
That was ‘the beginning of the end’ for me.  It was also around this time that I
discovered the local College Radio Station. 
I recorded hours of it and listened to just about anything I could get
my hands on.

If you had to pick
on defining moment, a moment that opened your eyes to the infinite
possibilities of music and changed everything for you, what would it be?

Noah:  Besides being
given the music I mentioned above, I really couldn’t say what that moment
was.  It wasn’t long after that that I
decided being in a band is what I wanted to do, and it only took a few years
for me to do so.  And as any musician can
tell you, once you get the bug it only infects you more and more.

Josh:  I would have to
say when I was introduced to what would eventually become my first band mates,
we pretty much were the music scene where we’re from.  There were very little musicians around, and
as I said earlier, we would have to travel to a nearby town to find other
likeminded individuals.  The time spent
and lessons learned with those guys was, and still is, priceless to me.

What was your
first musical instrument?  When did you
get it and who gave it to you?

Noah:  I started
playing Trombone at ten for my school.  A
few years later my brother left an acoustic guitar in my bedroom and a few
years after that I realized I knew how to play it.  It wasn’t a conscious effort.  I suppose, I was just meant to do so.  Or, perhaps, I just realized it was a must if
I wanted to one day be in a band.

How did you all
originally meet and what led to the formation of Kill, Baby… Kill!?  When precisely was that?

Noah:  I met Josh back
when I did my short stint with Backseat Virgins.  As I said earlier, he and Rye, our former
rhythm player, were high school kids and playing in a band called Typhoid Mary
that played on the same local bills. 
Chris and Erek had played in another band together, and knew each other
from High School.

I seriously dig
the name and it sounds like a movie reference to me but what does Kill, Baby…
Kill! mean or refer to in the context of your name?  Who came up with the name and how did you go
about choosing it?

Noah:  The name is
most certainly a movie reference.  It’s
the title of a 1960’s Italian Horror Film by Mario Bava that I’m a big fan
of.  I picked it because not only did I
like the ring of it, but it also fit with the original idea of Kill, Baby…
Kill!, which was to be very much a horror themed project.  These days our theme has moved past blatant
horror and more into the apocalyptic subject matter, but the name stays.

Is there any
shared creed, code, ideal or mantra that the band shares or lives by?

Noah:  I don’t really
think so.  We’re just four guys who get
along and play well together.  We all
know how to approach working together with respect and professionalism.  There’s little to no drama within this group
of guys, and that’s why we’re still able to enjoy playing together and
traveling.  We all have pretty separate
lives outside of the band.  We actually
had the discussion last week about how essential that is to longevity.  We meet up to play music and to perform, then
we come home and go about our separate lives. 
I suppose this prevents us from having the opportunity to get on each
other’s nerves.  After all, we are four
very distinct personalities, with our own beliefs and such.  That mix might get volatile if allowed too
much time together.  Music is our common
bond.  Oh, and we have, since day one,
always set realistic goals.  Once they’re
achieved we set new ones.  I have always
felt that it would be better to look back on the band with fondness based upon
what we did do, rather than having a bunch of “what ifs”.  I have seen too many bands aim for the top
from day one and make little headway. 
But so much can be accomplished if you take things one step at a time.

Where’s the band
currently located at?

Noah:  Jacksonville,
Alabama.

How would you
describe the local music scene where you all are at right now?

Noah:  I wouldn’t say
there is one…  At least not of any
unified kind.  There are bands, and we
all know each other, but there’s no organized, or semi-organized, scene
here.  I’m told there once was, but that
was before I moved here.

Are you very
involved in the local music scene?  Do
you book or attend a lot of local shows?

Noah:  A few times per
year we make an attempt to bring some bands through and organize events.  But there really seems to be little interest
here.  Most of the old guard are now
grown, with families and careers.  Even
if they want to be a part of something, life obviously gets in the way.

Do you help to
record and or release any local music? 
If so can you talk a little bit about that?

Noah:  We have a
vanity label called KBK Records.  It
really isn’t active currently.  The
intention was to help release bands we liked in the area, but there just isn’t
anything here that we’re interested in or that we feel would fit with what we
would want for the label.

Do you feel like
the local music scene has played an important or integral part in the history
or sound of Kill Baby… Kill or do you feel like you could have done what you’ve
done and sound the way that you do regardless of your location or surroundings?

Noah:  Perhaps that
old Auburn scene did, as we take heavy influence from Man or Astro-man? and
Hematovore.  But the local scene here has
little to no influence on us.  However,
the other guys grew up in it and might have a different take.

Josh:  Without a doubt
the local scene has played a huge role in my musical taste and styling in
regards to Kill, Baby… Kill!.  Having the
opportunity to see all the great punk, hardcore, and metal acts that came
through Anniston in a sense gave me a pallet to work with.  Being influenced by bands like The Groovie
Ghoulies, The Independents, Teenage Terror and countless others that played
locally plays a huge part in the sound of Kill, Baby… Kill! for me.

I really dig your
guys sound and I always feel like I’m doing a band a grave disservice whenever
I try and describe their sound.  I’m not
to awfully wonderful at it and I always just end up confusing more people than
I inform.  How would you describe Kill,
Baby… Kill’s sound in your own words?

Noah:  We call our
sound ‘Apocalyptic Surf Punk’, but I’m sure that doesn’t really define things
to the uninitiated.  We play instrumental
surf music with a very heavy punk and hardcore influence.  Think The Ventures or Dick Dale, writing
through the filter of Fugazi and Sonic Youth.

Who are your major
musical influences?  What about
influences on the band as a whole rather than individually?

Noah:  I touched on
this above.  Bands like Man or
Astro-man?, Daikaiju, and other instrumental surf bands for sure.  But also punk and indie music like Fugazi,
Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Devo, etcetera.

Can we talk a
little bit about Kill, Baby… Kill’s songwriting process?  Is there someone who comes to the rest of the
band with a riff or more finished product to work out and arrange with the rest
of the band?  Or is it more of a
situation where you all jam together and come up with ideas collectively and
work things out as a band?

Noah:  Most of the
ideas come from me.  I will usually have
parts fleshed out in my little home-studio and then bring them to the band to
build upon.  We aren’t really a jam
writing kind of band, as much as I wish we were, but there have been a few
songs that have been one-hundred percent band written from the ground up.

Do you all enjoy
recording?  As a musician myself I think
that most of us can really appreciate the final product, but getting to the
point where you’re holding that album in your hands, getting everything
recorded, especially as a band can really be a pain.  What’s it like recording with you all?

Noah:  I have a
love/hate relationship with recording.  But
this mostly stems from never having the money to afford the time I would really
like in the studio.  Everything we’ve
done has required a bit more of a rush job that I would prefer.  But when it comes to the final product and
getting to hear ideas fully fleshed out… 
That is the best.

Your first release
that I know of was 2011’s self-released Sometimes They Come Back EP.  Can you talk a little bit about the recording
of the material for that EP?  When was it
recorded?  Who recorded it?  Where was that at?  What kind of equipment was used?  How was that album originally released and
distributed?  Is that still in print at
this point?  If not are there any plans
to make that material available again in the future?

Noah:  Sometimes They
Come Back was self-recorded and self-released on KBK records back in 2011.  It was a very fair representation of, what
was then, a very young complete band with minimal experience collectively.  We recorded that in Atlanta, Georgia at a
studio called The Factory that happened to be Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez’s former
dance rehearsal studio.  Dan Dixon was
the Engineer on it.  We were also lucky
enough to have Joe Queer, the singer for seminal punk band The Queers, handle
production duties.  We cringe a bit
hearing those recordings now, as there’s a lot we would have done differently
had we had the time and knowledge.  But
it has served us well and seems to be well regarded among surf fans.  We were able to re-record the entire EP as part
of our latest album, and I believe all of the songs benefited from being revisited.  The EP is still available in digital format,
and I’m sure there are hard copies floating around on Amazon and CDbaby, but we
have personally taken it out of print.

In 2012 there was
a Kickstarter campaign for what looked to be an absolutely killer 12”
compilation of Alabama garage and surf bands. 
I know it reached its funding goal and that there were some other
completely sick bands on there, including Daikaiju who I just think slay!  The coolest thing about the project was that
all of the 12”s that were pressed that didn’t sell as part of the Kickstarter
campaign were going to be given to the bands so that they could make some much
deserved and needed money.  Did that
project ever come to fruition?  If so,
were you all included on the final version of the comp and what track did you
contribute?

Noah:  That project is
still on the slate.  I actually spoke
with the organizer last week and, pending what he says as true, the test
pressings have been approved.  All he is
waiting on is correction on a sleeve printing issue.  I really do hope this sees the light of day
soon as there was a lot of support for the project.  I never heard the final lineup for it, but
rumor was that Man or Astro-man? might have been contributing a live
track.  The track we contributed is
“Occupation of the Body Snatchers” and while this song is also included on our
latest album, the version on the comp. is a completely different mix.

KBK Records
announced in early 2012 that you were also going to be releasing a tour single
on that label in May of 2012.  Did that
ever happen?  If so can you tell us about
the details of that release and how that material was recorded?

Noah:  That never
happened, much like a lot of our recording and release ambitions.  Frankly, time and money is always a
contributing factor in things either coming to fruition or not.  The first two years this incarnation was
together were a whirlwind.  We toured
about ten-thousand miles each year, filling every free moment we had.  So stopping long enough to record was at
times impossible.

You released three
tracks around the Holiday season of 2013 that are only available digitally and
haven’t been offered anywhere else to the best of my knowledge; “Vincent Price
in the Deli Section of a Publix” (Live), “Haulin Hearse” (Rough
Demo) and “Exit Sandman” (Live). 
Are there any plans to make that material available in any other
fashion?  I know they’re still streaming
at this point for people to listen to either way on your Soundcloud page.

Noah:  They are still
streaming, but are no longer available for download.  That was just a little Christmas gift to
those that cared.  The two live songs
were from the 2005 lineup of the band and are songs we never brought into the
2010 and forward lineup.  Both are songs
I believe had strong points but need heavy re-workings, but I thought it would
be interesting to give people a glimpse into what was going on back then.  “Haulin Hearse” is a quick demo we threw down
at the end of recording our last album. 
It’s a cover of a song by The Ghastly Ones that we did some heavy
reworking of.  It’s been a staple of our
live set for some years now.  However,
there’s some controversy between one of the members of The Ghastly Ones and
Kill, Baby… Kill!.  Let’s just say that he
was unhappy with our reworking and threatened legal action if we ever released
it.  If these songs ever see an official
release they will be in reworked forms.

You all released
your debut full-length, Corridor X last year (2013) on Deep Eddy Records.  Can you share some of your memories of
recording that album?  Was it a fun,
pleasurable experience for you all?  When
and where was that material recorded? 
Who recorded it?  What kind of
equipment was used?

Noah:  Memories?  Rushed and underfunded, as usual…  We, once again, recorded that with Dan Dixon
handling Engineering duties.  However, it
was at a different makeshift studio in Atlanta. 
Our friend Chad Shivers, best known for his guitar work in The Mystery
Men?, Sorry No Ferrari, and The Squares, was brought on board for
production.  We have long admired him as
a musician and song writer, and he holds that same respect for our band, so we
knew he would come in with a lot of ideas for the songs that would only elevate
them.  It was a tedious, yet relatively
quick process of recording the album. 
For the most part we are very proud of it, but hope to do a re-mastering
upon the next pressing, as some of the volume levels seem low.  It was also a pleasure to finally provide a
complete album to Deep Eddy Records.  The
label had decided to take us on within a month or so of having self-released
our first EP.  That was in 2011.  So it took us a while to finally feel we were
ready to do a full-length album.  It goes
to show that Deep Eddy Records, while small, is a fantastic label to work
with.  They don’t ask any questions or
really suggest anything.  Their
confidence is in us, and I am happy to say that we are one of the fastest
selling bands released by the label since its inception in the early 1990’s.

Does Kill, Baby…
Kill have any music that we haven’t talked about yet, maybe a song on a
compilation or a single that I might have missed?

Noah:  Not
really.  We have a decent amount of
compilation appearances, but all of those are album tracks.  The only “rare” material we have, other than
the previously mentioned Christmas tracks, is a demo of the song “Trioxin
Twist”.  The studio version appears on
our latest album, but we did a demo a few years ago while playing in Memphis,
Tennessee.  We threw it on the yearly
SurfGuitar101.com members compilation, which I believe is available for free
download on archive.org.

You guys have
several digital only and compilation tracks that are unavailable or out of
print at this point.  Are there any plans
for a possible compilation of your out of print or unavailable material?

Noah:  I’m sure there
will be a compilation of some of this “rare” material at some point, if only
for our own archives.  But as of now
there are no immediate plans.

With the release
of Corridor X last year (2013) are there any other releases in the works at
this point?

Noah:  We actually
have a handful of releases planned for 2014, one is something very special and
completely out of character.  However,
organizing schedules with the person we are going to collaborate with has
proven difficult.  I’m not going to
advertise it until everything is set in stone, as we’ve promised too many
things that never happened.  The second,
and most important, thing we are doing in 2014 is releasing a series of
two-song digital singles through Deep Eddy Records.  We thought like this was a good way to not
only maintain focus and goals, but also to try out some different recording
studios.  Even more, it means more new
material, more often, for those that might want it.  I hope the first of these are released before
the end of April.

Where’s the best
place for our US readers to pick up copies of your album?

Noah:  Deep Eddy
Records, Double Crown Records, Amazon, Itunes, Spotify, CDbaby, and a slew of
other retailers.  Our album and EP are
not hard to find.  Hell, I believe you
can even get them through Kmart online.

With the
completely insane international postage rate increases this past year I try to
provide our readers with as many options for picking up imports as I possibly
can.  Where’s the best place for our
international and overseas readers to pick up your stuff?

Noah:  Foreign
distribution exists.  Of course Amazon,
Itunes, etcetera all have our material available all over the world.  But I know Surfer Joe in Italy just picked us
up, and there is a South American distributor that has our material, but their
name is slipping my mind.

Does Kill, Baby…
Kill have any major goals that you’re looking to accomplish in 2014?

Noah:  Honestly,
outside of the digital releases, 2014 will be more of the same.  We will play most of the major
surf/instrumental festivals and probably tour the Southeast.  It would be great to make it back northeast
or to the Midwest, but we’ll have to see if life will allow it this year.

Do you remember
what the first song that Kill, Baby… Kill ever played was?  Where and when was that?

Noah:  Played or that
was written for the band?  If you mean
written, “Psycho Beach Party 3000” was the first song I wrote for the
project.  It was a home studio demo from
2003.  I had long tinkered with the idea
of doing a surf band, but this song, although completely unplanned, was the
song that let me know that it needed to be pursued.

Do you all spend a
lot of time on the road touring?  Do you
all enjoy touring?  What’s life like on
the road for Kill, Baby… Kill? What, if anything, do you have planned as far as
touring goes for 2014 so far?

Noah:  Some of us have
children, as well as wives, girlfriends, and careers.  But with all of that in mind, we managed over
one-hundred dates, averaging about ten-thousand miles per year, over the past
three years.  So…  Yeah… 
We tour a decent amount.  We’ve
never been further than the Midwest and northeast, despite offers to go out
west and to Europe being made pretty regularly. 
I believe we all enjoy touring, but we all realize that it can be pretty
grueling.  It is a lot of work and
boredom.  Endless stretches of road are
driven in order to show up to a venue, wait around for hours, play for
forty-five minutes, pack up, sleep on someone’s floor, and then get up and do
it all over again.  The gist of that is
that if we didn’t like it then we wouldn’t do it.  It takes a special kind of person to trudge
through the rigors of touring and still see the beauty in it.  Life on the road is pretty sedate for the
guys in Kill, Baby… Kill!.  None of us
are much for partying and we’re all pretty responsible guys.  Take that for what it’s worth.

Who are some of
your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to share a bill with so
far?

Noah:  Daikaiju;
brothers in surf, good friends, and still one of our collective favorite
bands.  The Men, one of Erek’s favorite
bands.  The Madeira (Ivan is a God of the
genre).  We have a list of every band we
have played with and the number is large. 
So many have been great, and a lot are bands that we greatly admire.  But after so many, they start to run
together.

Josh:  Switchblade
Kid, Daikaiju, Concrete Rivals, The Nowhere Squares, and The Green Seed to name
just a few.

In your dreams,
who are you on tour with?

Noah:  In my
dreams?  So that means it could be bands
that no longer exist?  Fugazi…  Without a doubt.  Sonic Youth… 
Devo, The Cramps, Dead Kennedys, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet…

Do you have any
funny or interesting stories from live shows or performances that you’d like to
share here with our readers?

Noah:  Our funny
stories are all ‘you had to be there’ moments. 
I fear they would lose any sense of humor being retold.

Do you give a lot
of thought to visual aspect of the band, the art of flyers, posters, covers and
the like?  Do you have any defacto artist
that you go to for your artwork needs? 
If so, who is that and how did you originally get hooked up with them?

Noah:  There’s a
decent amount of thought to the visual art direction of the band.  However, we’ve really struggled to find the
right direction over the years.  Starting
off very much as a horror band, we used the classic movie poster aesthetic
quite a bit.  But we quickly realized how
overused that was.  We also realized that
we were progressing past the horror idea. 
Thematically we are very tied up in the end of the world concept, and
much of the art design has moved in that direction.  I suppose my inspiration for that is rooted
in movie imagery.  Not really the Mad Max
kind of apocalyptic imagery, but more the Children of Men imagery.  I feel that takes away the camp and brings in
the war torn reality and that really fits the sound of what we write.  It isn’t fun or campy music.  It’s pretty intense and serious.  As far as artists go, we don’t have a set
one, but we do know that we like the look of inked comics.  So far we have worked with John Deitrich for
our first EP, he does work for the Rat Fink brand these days and is very talented,
and our album Corridor X was done by our friend Graves Stones up in
Chicago.  He plays with the band Alder
Kings and is a very talented Comic artist. 
I threw the concept at him and he came back a few days later with a
sketch that was exactly what I was viewing in my head.

With all of the
various mediums of release that are available to artists today I’m always
curious why people choose and prefer the various mediums that they do.  Do you have a preferred medium of release
when it comes to putting out your own stuff? 
What about when you’re listening to and or purchasing music?  If you do have a preference can you talk a
little bit about why?

Noah:  In an ideal
world people wouldn’t get too caught up in formats and just appreciate that
there’s music out there.  Most arguments
I hear over what sound better are pretty much bullshit anyway.  I love vinyl, but that love comes from my
days of buying punk 7” records at shows. 
But bands pressed vinyl because it was the most cost effective means to
put out music.  It was half of what CD
production cost.  It wasn’t because of
some belief it sounded better.  But these
days vinyl is priced through the roof. 
Our label doesn’t do vinyl, so we’re out of luck.  But it never fails that we’re asked by
someone at every show if we have vinyl. 
When we say we don’t, they walk away. 
I can’t help but think how fucking shitty that is.  The music is what you’re supposed to be
buying, and they are right here on this fucking CD.  It sort of cheapens our efforts in my mind.

Do you have a
music collection at all?  If so can you
tell us a little bit about it?

Noah:  I have crates
of 7” vinyl dating back to the late 80’s, most of which I bought from bands
touring through town.  I have hundreds of
CDs, hundreds of vinyl albums, and I am sure there is a drawer of cassettes
tapes from local bands in the late 80’s. 
That physical collection is mostly punk music.  My real collection is all digital these days
and spans about anything you can imagine. 
I just love music.  I don’t search
out new things the way I used to, but I listen to some of everything.

I grew up around a
fairly large collection of music and I was encouraged to listen to whatever I
wanted from a pretty young age.  I would
gran something completely at random off of the shelf, stick it into the player,
kick back in the beanie bag, read the liner notes, stare at the artwork and
just let the music carry me off to another place.  As a result I developed a pretty deep
appreciation for physically released music from a young age, something I don’t
think I’ll ever fully shake or give up. 
Do you have any such connection with physically released music?  If so can you talk about that a small bit?

Noah:  As much as I
love having my collection in digital format, there is a lot to be said for
physical product.  I’m not going to get
in to cassettes, as they start off bad and just get worse with age.  Tape doesn’t last for archiving music, but
CD’s and vinyl do; despite vinyl deteriorating with each play.  And all of those albums, 7”s and CD’s I have
tucked away will be there in ten, twenty, or thirty years if I or my children
ever want to visit them.  Who knows what
I will lose if I have an unexpected hard-drive crash.

As much as I love
my music collection portability really has been an issue for me.  I love taking music with me when I go out on
road trips and no matter how much time I would spend burning and packing CDs or
making mix tapes there was always that one album or song that I forgot to bring
that just drove me nuts!  Digital music
has all but eliminated that problem overnight. 
I can carry more music on my phone that I could have stuffed into the
trunk of my car a few years back.  The
internet has also been a real game changer, especially when teamed with digital
music.  Together they’ve exposed people
to an entire world of music that they otherwise would never have been exposed
to, and for independent artists willing to promote and harbor a healthy online
presence it’s really levelled the playing field.  Nothing is ever black and white though and with
the good comes the bad.  Illegal
downloading is running rampant in the industry right now and while people may
being exposed to a lot of new stuff, not only are they not always paying for
music but it’s harder and harder to get listeners attention these days.  As an artist during the reign of the digital
era, what’s your opinion on digital music and distribution?

Noah:  Digital
distribution is a great thing, as it has allowed a lot of the cost associated
with releasing music to go away, allowing smaller bands to push their
product.  But, like you said, it isn’t
all black and white.  There used to be a
process to obtaining music that limited what you could consume.  With this, I believe came an appreciation for
what you could afford and or obtain.  Now
we’re overexposed with endless access to almost anything and I believe that has
cheapened our appreciation of music as a whole. 
Maybe it’s limited our attention spans a bit?  I equate it to the same reason why when
you’re looking through your Netflix cue and “can’t find anything to watch”
because there are simply too many options. I remember well, anticipating a new
release and then finally getting it.  It
would spend weeks, and sometimes months, in my CD or cassette player.  By the time I had grown tired of it or
purchased something new I would know it back and forth.  But today, and I am guilty of this myself,
pirate downloads, endless albums at our fingertips on iPods and such, have led
us to never stopping long enough to really appreciate one thing.

I try to keep up
with as much good music as I possibly can. 
I spend more time than I would like to admit here listening to random
stuff online, flipping through the bins at the local shop and talking to just
about anyone I think has good taste mining for listening tips.  I make sure to ask everyone I talk to this
questions so please feel free to list as many or as few as you would like, but
is there anyone from your local scene or area that you should be listening to
that I might not have heard of before? 
What about nationally and internationally?

Noah:  There is tons
out there and we play with so many great bands, but narrowing it down is
difficult.  At the moment some of my
favorites are This Machine Kills Robots from Canada, Daikaiju, The Mystery Men?
from Atlanta and Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion from Boston…

Thanks so much for
taking the time to do this, it’s been fun for me learning all about the band
and I hope it’s been fun for you all looking back on everything you’ve done and
managed to accomplish; I know it wasn’t easy and there had to be some brain
wracking involved!  Before we sign off
and call it a day, is there anything that I might have missed or that you’d
just like to take this opportunity to talk about?

Noah:  You pretty much
covered it.  This was an extensive list of
questions…

DISCOGRAPHY

(2011)  Kill, Baby…
Kill! – Sometimes They Come Back EP – CD – Self-Released

(2011)  Various
Artists – Surfguitar101.com 2011 Compilation – digital – Surfguitar101.com
(Kill, Baby… Kill! contributes the track “Trioxin Twist” (Original Demo)

(2012)  Various
Artists – Continental Magazine #19 Compilation – CD – Continental Magazine
(Kill, Baby… Kill! contributes the song “Love Theme for a Twisted Mind”)

(2012)  Various
Artists – Radical Waves Compilation – CD – Deep Eddy Records (Kill, Baby… Kill!
contributes the song “Love Theme for a Twisted Mind”)

(2013)  Kill, Baby…
Kill! – Corridor X – CD – Deep Eddy Records

(2013)  Various
Artists – Continental Magazine #21 Compilation – CD – Continental Magazine
(Kill, Baby… Kill! Contributes the track “Corridor X” from their Corridor X
album)

(2014)  Various
Artists – Monsters Of Surf Guitar – CD – Dingdong Records (Kill, Baby… Kill!
contributes the track “Duck And Cover” from their Corridor X album)

Interview made by Roman Rathert/2014

© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2014