9 October 2006 -

EXCLUSIVE Interview: KissKill Destroyer
Chuck Norton, DeadJournalist.com

During the past five years, KissKill Destroyer has evolved from an indie band (then known as the Jaded Set) playing around the Pacific Northwest to a dark wave/dance rock band based out of Baltimore.

The band’s transition to programmed sounds was born out of necessity when the band lost its drummer before touring in support of its second album as the Jaded Set.

Armed with a new sound and living in a new city, the band changed its name to KissKill Destroyer in 2005. The band’s two members, Kristn Destroyer and Maria Destroyer, share vocal and instrumental duties.

The band will release Dance Party Massacre in February 2007 and will be touring in support of the new album.

For more information on KissKill Destroyer, visit their Web site at www.kisskilldestroyer.net or their MySpace.com page at www.myspace.com/kisskilldestroyer.

DeadJournalist.com brings you this exclusive interview with Kristn Destroyer of KissKill Destroyer.

What led to the band's relocation to Baltimore from Olympia in 2002?

We gave up our apartment and jobs and went on a D.I.Y tour in August 2001 and returned in late November. We looked for work for about a month- everyday waking up to soggy carpet and damp laundry in the van. It was the rainy season in the Northwest and I don't remember a dry day for that whole month.  

We each had different feelings about Olympia. I liked it and Maria didn't.  It was suppose to be about “Community”, but it was just like anywhere else. If you weren't in with the right crowd, people wouldn't support you or your band.  

Anyway, the main reason we moved back, is that we were in a rough spot and had the opportunity to buy this house in Baltimore, for super cheap. Plus, we knew we could find work there in a matter of days. We figured we'd buy this house and be able to afford to tour as much as we wanted. And we figured we'd have more flexibility and be able to concentrate on music and touring.

So we stood around our storage unit for three hours in the rain and debated whether or not to make the move back. We started the drive back that night and made it back X-Mas eve.

How would you describe the band's sound?

Ever evolving and versatile. We don't really feel limited as to what we can do. Sometimes it's rock, sometimes it's dance rock, sometimes it's indie. Having a male and female singer and songwriter with two completely different styles of doing things has made for a lot of beautiful confusion.

Your sound has changed significantly since starting out as the Jaded Set. What was the biggest change the band had to undertake to get to your current sound?

We started out as more of an indie rock kind of band. Maybe Sonic Youth meets Built to Spill. We had Maria's songs that were a few years old and a drummer. I switched off from bass to guitar depending on the song.

Just before recording our second record and then touring, the drummer quit. We spent a lot of time setting up the tour, so there was no way we were going to not see it through.

We had no prior experience with programming music, but we started to program drums for our existing songs and on then a few new songs popped up along the way. We did it on an 8-Track at home. That became the new album, The Way the West Was Won which was very low fi and completely different from the first album.  

As time went on we were able to learn more and buy better recording equipment. We are still nowhere near where could be in terms of our sound.

What people will hear when the new record comes out is where we were two or three years ago.  

Who influenced you as musicians?

The great thing about that question is that I can say Sonic Youth and Faster Pussycat in the same sentence. But I would say for me it's not so much who, as much as what.

I love music that sounds big, fat and sexy. Oasis for example sounds huge- layers and layers of guitar. A lot of people think we are into My Bloody Valentine, which is totally false.  

I think the big drum sound of the 80's is a huge influence. The drums of W.A.S.P and Motley just make anything less seem like there is something missing.

I love minimal stuff that doesn't sound huge, but with my music- there has to be a huge drum sound. And I love fat sounding keys and synths. Stuff like The Crystal Method is just so smooth and sexy.  

But the darkness of early Sonic Youth and the hugeness of their early 90's stuff is key for me. The rock n' roll basics, vocals and sexual energy of a band like Faster Pussycat is also huge. Their new record is awesome and I wish that was us, but it's not.

Are there plans for a national tour?

I would say in February but it's tough. Clubs have to make money and when you're nobody without a booking agent it's really hard to put together a productive tour.

It's hard to get an answer from booking agents. They will throw you on at the last minute if it's convenient for them, when you can't even promote the show and then wonder why nobody showed up.

That's if you're lucky.

But you're more likely to call or email them forty times and not get an answer- and that's after you send them a fancy press kit.  We have the mindset to do small places and basements, but I really don't think that is our scene at this point. We have a lot of equipment and a stage show and that is problematic for some venues/people.

We also have the attitude of always going all out. If you're going to spend gas money and quit your job, why not go all out and do at least two months?  

We could spend the next year doing weekends and building up the contacts to make it easier in setting up a more productive tour, but I don't see that happening. We've want to tour pretty much non-stop, but it's very expensive and will set you back financially for quite a while.

We're trying not to be counter productive and make the same mistake twice.

What can people expect from a KissKill Destroyer live performance?

They can expect to not hear what the album sounds like. The live band and the recorded band are entirely different. The live set is much heavier and noisier. We still mix in some of the old stuff that people haven't heard.

Plus, I sing a few songs live that haven't been released and the new
album is entirely Maria's vocals except some backgrounds.

We would probably attract more of an indie-rock crowd sound wise but live, we mix in the huge rock show, with lots of amps, guitars, lights and fog.

In 1996, to what artists were you listening?

I was into mostly post punk stuff like Steel Pole Bathtub, Quicksand and a bunch of local Baltimore Punk bands- mainly Blank, Onespot, U.O.A. and The Great Unraveling.

I also listened to a lot of Nirvana and Modest Mouse. I'm pretty sure that Maria was listening to Sonic Youth. Archers of Loaf and a bunch of local stuff, too.

KissKill Destroyer