Killswitch Engage Interview

Room Thirteen's Philippa McMahon takes time out to chat with Justin Foley from Killswitch Engage with (un) helpful meddling from Photographer Jacqueline Feeney.

R13: Hey. You must be bored, How long have you been sitting around the Astoria for with interviewers?
KSE: Nah, we got here at 1pm and my first interview was at 2pm.

R13: Any difficult questions so far?
KSE: Not yet... So far I've not had anything I couldn't make something up for.

R13: Is that what a lot of it is then, just bullshit you think journalists will like?
KSE: Nah, if they ask me a really weird question I just have to come up with something!

R13: It's nice to get answers like that, sometimes bands give answers which sound like they've been rehearsed beforehand.
KSE: There are some questions that are definitely popular...

R13: Like "How are you looking forward to tonight?" ...?
KSE: *laughs and puts on voice* "You looking forward to the show tonight?"

R13: Have you played here before? Where else in the UK have you played in the last couple of years?
KSE: Um...around here? We played the Astoria last year, but before I was in the band they may have played here more than twice...

R13: What kind of crowd do you pull? Average run of the mill teenagers or something slightly more varied?
KSE: It depends on the bill really, but I think we have a pretty diverse fan base/ Depending on who the other bands are, we get really different kids at our shows. This one is going to be more of a straight up metal crowd.

R13: I was talking to another band the other day and they talked about how there was an OAP singing their praises after a show they played. Have you had any similar experiences?
KSE: There was one on the Slayer tour... This really old lady and a really huge dude behind her like right in the middle of the fore- right with all the craziness going on. She was really old, but this guy was just kind of hugging her. I wasn't even sure I'd seen it till I asked the band afterwards!

R13: Do you see yourself becoming that kind of OAP or are you going to resign yourself to slippers and pipe?
KSE: No...No... Even if I was that old, I'd be way up the back- but that's if I can still hear then!

R13: Have you been able to see any bands play recently?
KSE: My god...Um... Holy shit. I miss them so often 'cause it seems like the shows I want to see are always on when we're touring. It's been such a long time since I last saw a band play.

R13: Have you ever seen a set that's made you think 'wow... I wanna make a career out of music' or were you into music before then?
KSE: Oh yes, I was into music before then but one of the best bands I've seen live was the Dillenger Escape Plan. They'd just got off the plane from the plan from the States to Japan and totally destroyed the audience. A Long time ago I saw U2 and they did an unbelievable show. There has definitely been some symphony concerts that have blown me away though...

R13: Can you pinpoint the defining moment when you decided music was your thing or did it just creep up on you?
KSE: I don't have a definite moment, but I remember when I got my first Led Zeplin album. I remember listening to it and saying to myself "Holy shit, I wanna do that...Not that I can, but I want to do that!"- So not an exact moment, but I can narrow it down to a week or so.

R13: Any other inspiring albums?
KSE: All the Rush albums- I had a big Rush phase I also had a big Slayer phase as well...

R13: Just this tour in the UK or are you planning any festivals?
KSE: It's not confirmed yet, but I'd really like to play Download. Hopefully we'll be doing that. Once we get back home we're going to play with The Used and My Chemical Romance. It's going to be a totally different crowd, but we're totally psyched to do it- we want to win those kids.

R13: The difference between your music is quite large though, do you think that's going to show up in the fans?
KSE: I'm not sure. They played across the street from us in Manchester the other night and I met some of the guys for the first time, which was cool. They're going to be younger fans and no way will they be heavy kids. From what I've heard, it's kind of a Warped Tour thing- there's always one band heavier than all the rest but the younger kids really respond well to them. We're going to be that band on this tour with MCR.

R13: Any other plans this year? Singles? Albums? Any new material in any form?
KSE: No... No writing at all. I'd be shocked if we wrote anything. Just touring and then hopefully ending up at the festivals here. We've not been to Japan in a long time, so we're bound to end up there...

R13: How do people in Japan respond to you?
KSE: Unbelievable.

R13: They're pretty obsessive, yes?
KSE: Yes, but they're also unbelievably respectful as well. There were these kids who somehow found out where we were staying hotel-wise. This one time we got to the hotel and the kids were there and they took photos of us with them. We went into the hotel for a while but when we left, they'd come back with the photos from an hour earlier and got us to sign them! That was a little strange. Japan is probably our favourite place to be though!

R13: How do you get on with the culture barriers there?
KSE: When we were there we had a rep from RoadRunner who took us everywhere. We could go out alone if we wanted- and we did- but if we really needed to do something they'd always take us there. Sometimes you couldn't even tell what buildings are restaurants! The food over there is the best I've ever eaten though.

R13: How long did it take you to travel there?
KSE: From the East Coast of the US it was about 12 hours. That's the longest journey, but the worst was the one after the Japan tour. We had a flight to Tokyo for our flight to Australia. When we got to Sydney, we had a flight to another place... 3 back to back flights. It was terrible. The first flight in Japan was the worst though, we were in this tiny little propeller plane. We were on tour with Anthrax and they were on the plane as well and we were all like "We're dead". Somehow we landed though!

R13: What's the latest you've been to a concert?
KSE: Last time we were here! We played at the Metal Hammer awards show. We were supposed to fly from Frankfurt to London then do the MH awards show. We got to the airport and then it turned out we were flying from this other airport that, like, four people knew about! We got to the show with ten minutes to spare. We had a two minute sound check- luckily our stuff was already there so it was like "Meh, it plays!" It was a great night though.

KSE:What did you think of the antics we got up to?
R13: The banana antics?
KSE: Yeah! We got in a lot of shit for that!

R13: For the benefit of R13 readers who don't have a clue, can you explain?
KSE: Hehehe, before we went to get our award we were told we could be as crazy as we wanted. Adam had a banana with him, so he goes up and says "we'll accept this award...if you accept my banana!" and he jacked it off and threw it into the crowd! I thought that was kind of crazy, but then 10 minutes later I remember seeing Dimebag totally wasted throwing his award into the crowd. He didn't even know where he was! We got told off for our jokes as well.

R13: I take it you lot get in trouble frequently then?
KSE: We got into a bit of shit for that, and the jokes, but no more than Adam for wearing short shorts!