Rock Kills Kid

Rock Kills Kid - Kirk

  • April 4th, 2003
  • Phone

Bobby: Alright, starting with the basics, please state your name and what you do in Rock Kills Kid.

Kirk: My name is Kirk, and I play the bass guitar in Rock Kills Kid.

Bobby: How did you guys all meet?

Kirk: Well I’ve known Jeff for about 3 or 4 years. We’ve been playing in bands together for a while. Jeff and I started this band up and we met up with Chris and Devon I’d say 8 or 9 months ago and then from then on we just started practicing together and finished recording our EP and started getting ready to play live shows.

Bobby: OK, what are your reactions to the war on Iraq?

Kirk: Well, the thing its really hard for us to really think about it because we’ve been on, like basically this is it: the day we went to war was the day we went to tour. We haven’t had the chance to watch television at all and our radio in our van doesn’t work so it feels like we are isolated from the outside world. The only times we really hear what’s going on is when we call home and talk to our families. I don’t any of us really, you know, support war. It’s difficult you know, because we’re not politicians and we can’t really come up with solutions to any of theses problems. And I mean it’s like what’s going on right I think they are doing if for a reason but at the same time I don’t know if we all necessarily agree with what they are doing you know.

Bobby: Ya, ok, Rock Kills Kid, where did you guys come up with that name?

Kirk: The band name came from one of our friends named Jeff Watson. Who came up with the name, Rock Music Kills Kid. We liked the name and we decided to shorten it down a bit to Rock Kills Kid.

Bobby: Cool. What’s your favorite song on the EP?

Kirk: My favorite song would have to be, let’s see… The second song on the EP, which would be Miracle. I don’t know, I like that son a lot because I think it has a lot of energy and it’s my favorite song to play live.

Bobby: Cool, how does it feel to have a CD released with you on it?

Kirk: Umm, it’s weird actually. Like, you know, its just kinda neat. I mean you get to see all the hard work you put into something and then going into a store across the country from your house and seeing the CD there is pretty cool. It’s a good feeling.

Bobby: How did the recording of the album go?

Kirk: Well we recorded for about 4 or 5 months with a guy named Nick Rucker, who plays in a band called Brightlife. We recorded in Hollywood and basically recorded the first 3 songs, which were: Dream, Immanuel and Everything To Me. We recorded those 3 songs with Nick and that was before we had Chris in the band. And once we had Chris, Nick just stepped up and became the engineer. We did some guitars and bass guitars and vocals with Nick. And then for the remaining 3 tracks on the CD we ended up hooking up with Cameron Webb who has worked with a lot of really really great artists. And he did an amazing job with our other 3 songs.

Bobby: Ya, he did. How do you normally write all your songs?

Kirk: Umm, I think most of them are written in the main part by Jeff our singer. Jeff comes up with main ideas, the main structure, the main melodies and everything. And then he plays it for us and asks us if we have any ideas on what we think we could add to the songs to make then better, or take out or change, stuff like that. You know after that we kinda all get together and put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Bobby: Awesome. OK, I know you don’t really like this question, but I’ve still got to ask it. How would you guys describe your sound?

Kirk: Let’s see, I guess to describe the sound of our band… You see, the thing is we kinda all grew up listening to punk bands, so I definitely say there’s like some punk influence in there. But I don’t necessarily consider ourselves a hardcore punk band, you know. Most of our music just really concentrated on the song itself. You know, I mean whether people say we are pop influenced or it sounds like alternative rock. People put labels on everything. So I mean, we don’t care what kinda genre people classify us in, because there are so many ways you can describe music. I don’t know. I guess just kinda like a new wave pop-punk kind’ve sound I guess.

Bobby: Alright, good description. Do you have any plans of making a full length soon?

Kirk: Ok, well we are touring right now; we are planning on touring all through the summer. And during that time we plan on writing songs for our next full length, well our debut full length. So ya, we do have plans to do one and we are kinda starting to work on it right now. The thing is we are not exactly sure when we are going to go into start recording. I hope it will be sometime during the fall and then be released sometime around the New Year.

Bobby: Cool, now if you weren’t in a band, what do you think you would be doing if you weren’t in a band?

Kirk: Well I probably would go back to school. I went to school for film and TV and you know, I’ve always been interested in the entertainment industry so I think I would be working most likely in a music industry. If I wasn’t in a band, I’d be working somewhere, maybe for a record label or a producing aspect. Something like that.

Bobby: How do you like being on Fearless Records?

Kirk: I love it. They are really great people. They work really hard for us and they’ve done a lot for us. The most important is that any band that works for any record label, you’ve gotta make sure that the record label really loves the music. If they don’t, then you know it’s like your there for the wrong reason. They really care about us and love our music. And it really makes being on that label fun. You know?

Bobby: Ya, how did you end up meeting them?

Kirk: We met them because Jeff and I sent a demo to them around a year and a half ago. Just kinda to see to see what they thought of it. I didn’t really thing we would get signed, but the owner of the label, Bob, heard the demo and he loved and he gave me a call at home. And we talked for a while and then we set up a couple meetings. He came to see us practice a couple times. It wasn’t an overnight thing but it all ended up for the better and we ended up signing our record contact.

Bobby: That’s good, do you have any plans on making a music video soon?

Kirk: Umm, ya! It’s funny you brought that up, I was just thinking about that today. We were gonna try and shoot a video for Dream, I think that’s gonna be the song that we are gonna shoot it for. We were planning on doing it later in this month. But it depends; we are still trying to find the right person to shoot it. And if we can’t in time, then it will probably be in sometime in May. We do have plans to shot one, we just don’t know when yet.

Bobby: Do you have any ideas for the video?

Kirk: Umm,no, not really. It’s hard because I think we all kinda have a bunch of different ideas on what we think would look cool for the video. I guess its just like when we come down to it, when we find the right person, we will all just get together and roll our ideas together. It will probably come up pretty weird; you know a lot of different ideas and a lot of different concepts and stuff.

Bobby: What do you normally do before a show to prepare yourself?

Kirk: Well, it’s hard because I get nervous before I play every show. I’ve always been like that. I think I’m a little less nervous then I used to be. What I try to do is just relax and just go up there and know that I’m gonna play the best that I can. No matter what I do, I’m gonan play the best I can so I shouldn’t be nervous about playing. And that’s pretty much calms me down. Because once we get up on stage and start playing, I’m not nervous at all.

Bobby: What is the one thing you like most about touring?

Kirk: I think the one thing I like the most about touring is meeting new people. Cause we’ve met a lot of really really nice people. I mean this is out first tour, as I’m speaking I’m driving through Alabama right now. We met a lot of really cool people and without being on the road; we would’ve never met these people. And I mean we just finished doing a bunch of shows with a band called Anberlin, they are on Tooth & Nail Records. They are an amazing band, just amazing people, super nice people, and a band that is going to get really big. Anyone reading this interview should really check them out.

Bobby: What is the one thing you hate the most about touring?

Kirk: There’s a lot of driving. Sometimes it’s not that bad, but when you have a 12-hour drive, it gets really tiring. Basically you’ve got to sleep in the van, and sometimes that can get pretty uncomfortable, I’m a pretty tall guy so I can’t really stretch out. I think the worst thing about touring is probably the lack of sleep.

Bobby: If you could pick any person or band, dead or alive, who would you pick to tour with and why?

Kirk: Umm… Let’s see… I’m trying to think who would I pick to tour with… Well, I mean if I picked a band that I grew up listening to, like I always grew up listening to Bad Religion. So I think having a chance to tour with them would be awesome, because they always have had a huge influence on me personally when I listened to music, you know, ever since I was a teenager.

Bobby: Ya, they are an awesome band.

Kirk: Ya.

Bobby: Why did you decide to become a musician?

Kirk: Basically, I grew up just listening to CDs and watching music videos and just wishing I could be involved in it. Whenever I watched videos and see my favorite bands on television, I wanted to know how they could do that. I was kinda amazed at all the people who would come out a see them play their instruments. So when I was about 17 or so, I bought a guitar for my birthday. I bought guitar books on how to play guitars. I just sat in my amp in my room playing over and over and over again, trying to play the bands you know that I listened to. After a while I wanted to be in a band so I jammed with a couple bands. As time went on, things became more serious and I understood what I wanted to do a little bit more. Today, where I’m at right now, I’m doing exactly what I always wanted to do.

Bobby: Do you have any tips for young musicians who are just starting out?

Kirk: I guess as far as tips, don’t give up because it takes a lot of hard work. I’ve been through a lot of stuff, all the other guys in the bands have been through a lot of stuff and the more work you put in the more it’s kinda pay off. And if you give up, then you’re never gonna know what your missing.

Bobby: Who would you say influenced you musically?

Kirk: Let’s see, it’s hard like I don’t know; I grew up listening to a lot of weird music. I mean I grew up listening to everything from Metallica to Duran Duran, Boingo Boingo. Umm, what else… Michael Jackson, and then bands like Bad Religion. I grew up listening to such a wide range of music, I guess in a way it has all influenced me.

Bobby: Ya, that’s good. Now a days, you can download songs everyone on the internet, Kazaa, Morpheus, things like that. How do you feel about that?

Kirk: About people downloading songs for fee?

Bobby: Yep.

Kirk: Well, the thing is, it’s come to a point where as a band you can’t really stop it. In my opinion, why fight it? Like honestly, the way I look at things is if someone is going to download our songs, then that’s a compliment, it’s flattering. Me, personally, sometimes I download songs, and then I’ll buy CDs because I downloaded a couple sings from a band that I liked, so ill go out and by the CD. I know there are people out there who go out and will download the whole CD, then burn the CD and don’t buy the CD. And you know, that sucks. It sucks the most for the bands because they put a lot of hard work into it. But you know the thing is, whether someone is downloading the CD or downloading songs and burning them to CD, the end effect is that they are still listening to our music. That’s flattering in itself, if they still listen to our music whether its from a burnt CD or a CD that they bought, you know, that’s fine with me as long as they like the band.

Bobby: What does it mean to be like “punk” to you guys? What does that word mean to you?

Kirk: Well, the thing about punk is that a lot of kids think that being punk is playing fast drumbeats and fast guitars and having Mohawks and all that stuff, and my opinion is I guess that’s punk to some people. But to me, punk is doing whatever you want to do and not giving a shit what other people say. You know cause there people that I’m sure you know think that what we’re… *laughs* I’m sorry, a car just pulled in front of me *laughs* It just is doing what you want to do and not really caring what other people say. When people say that we are not punk because we don’t play fast, it’s like screw them. We do what we wanna do so I guess that is punk.

Bobby: Are there any bands out there that you really like but don’t feel get enough publicity?

Kirk: Well, I mean the few bands that I’m really into is a band called the Plain White T’s.

Bobby: Ya, I like them.

Kirk: They are also on Fearless. There’s another band that just signed to Capitol Records, they are called Brightlife. They are awesome. A couple other bands to check out, one of them Anberlin, the band that I mentioned a little while ago.

Bobby: Ya.

Kirk: They are on Tooth & Nail and their record comes out in May, so people should check them out.

Bobby: What do you see in the future for Rock Kills Kid?

Kirk: I see a lot of touring, a lot of sleeping in vans, writing songs, meeting new people, playing shows. I mean just basically doing what we’re doing, just doing more of it. Always being on the road, always playing new shows.

Bobby: What do you think is the Most important thing in your life is?

Kirk: Umm…, the most important?

Bobby: Yep.

Kirk: The most important thing in my life… Well I mean, music is pretty much one of the most important things in my life because that’s what I’ve chosen for my career. But another thing I hold a value in my life is my family and my friends. And it’s kinda hard to really put priority of either one of those or juggle how important they are to me. I mean they are just in a separate class. I mean I value what I’m doing right now and that’s very important to me, but at the same time having my family and friends is also important. So I think its just a combination of all of those.

Bobby: Alright, being in Rock Kills Kid, you must do a lot of interviews. What would you like to see change while doing interviews, what would you like to be different in interviews?

Kirk: Well, the thing about interviews is that I think that most interviews people like to read about certain general questions about bands that are important about getting to know a band. I think that most interviews ask similar questions to each other because those are the most important question you normally ask bands. I know certain interviews kinda ask a little more weirder questions, and gets a little bit more personal. And those I guess are just kinda to get to know everybody in the band in a personal level rather then just a band.

Bobby: Ya, I guess that’s about it, do you have any shout outs before we end?

Kirk: Well our website is rockrillskid.com, our record just came out on Fearless Records on January 28th and it’s in stores now. We worked a long time on those 6 songs and hopefully people will check them out and like them as much as we do. Other then that I guess I’d just have to say thank you for doing this interview, I appreciate it.

Bobby: Ya, thanks for doing it. Alright, I guess that’s it, thanks.