 |
|
| News | Interviews | Reviews | Photo Galleries | Videos | Free!! | Lounge | MySpace | About | Contact | |
Sister Kill Cycle can be a crazy band. When you sit down for an interview with all 5 members, they are sure to get a little crazy. Interview written, conducted and transcribed by j. ward [COMA] Give us some history of Sister Kill Cycle not covered in your bio. [Raven Chain] Fuckin' j., he's got a bullet. Some history not covered in our bio, in other lives we've all maintained pretty domestic uh, jobs? We run the spectrum from roofer to pedophile to, I mean day care assistant. To computer technicians and what have you.
[Raven Chain] It' such a long story, originally, this band has evolved since I would say 1990. It started out my brother John Chain, which was our drummer, we started a band together, a punk, goth, industrial band called INRI and throughout the years we just replaced members, rehashed material, wrote new songs, changed the name a few times from INRI to Dementia then Daisy's Chain or vice versa and then to Sister Kill Cycle. It's pretty much been an evolving project for me since '90. [COMA] Where did you guys all meet? I know some of you are newer than others (gesturing towards Crash and Stitch). [Raven Chain] Other bands and you know, Genocide and Crash had worked together on a project before and during the time we were going through losing Talon, Genocide suggested Crash come out, check out our material and jam with us and the day he came out it was an instant hit. He was the drummer from that day forth. And he's Crash for a reason, it's lucky he's even here today really. [Crash] Went through a lot of hell just to make it to practice.
[COMA] Where did you guys form Sister Kill Cycle? [Raven Chain] He drives, this is dedication, this is a professional musician, he drives from Melbourne, Florida, the east coast of Florida 3 hours 3 days a week just to rehearse then 3 hours back. So, that's what it takes to be a professional musician. [Crash] It's a very professional act; it's worth the drive, worth making a career from. [Stitch] Tell him about the initiation you had to go through. [Crash] The initiation we won't talk about, that wasn't fair to me. These guys live the lifestyle. There's a lot going on behind the scenes. Besides the dick enlargement and the other stuff I had to go through, it was a little rough, but it turned out to be good. [COMA] I managed to find somewhere on the internet that you guys were originally formed in West Virginia? [Raven Chain] Yes, we all have a side project that we like to call “Country Pickin'” and what it is, it's a bluegrass country band and we all dress up in disguises. Everything's still electronic it's still like industrial but we've got electronic banjo, electronic violin--- [Genocide] We hide outside Hendersonville which is outside Nashville which is where we do a lot of the stuff [Stitch] And we wear all white instead of black. [Raven Chain] The West Virginia thing's just--- [Stitch] The problem is we're not kidding. (Laughter) [Genocide] We have ties to Martin Academy, Steve Earl and the Mavericks and all these guys that are out in Nashville operating. [Raven Chain] I've got family---- [Genocide] It's where we should've originally done our demo and probably still do another recording--- [Crash] What is the story behind Sister Kill Cycle? What does the name mean? [Raven Chain] A fucking ton of people have asked that question, look it up on the internet, Google search---- What you gonna go with it? Lets see if you can recite it---- [Genocide] Well you see, were big fans of Sisters of Mercy, so kill cycle is kind of a reference to the life cycle, we like the Sisters of Mercy so take sister and add it to kill cycle you get Sister Kill Cycle. Not like that band Twisted Sister, we didn't use that name at all, we didn't make any reference to that whatsoever--- [Raven Chain] I don't think... we don't like Twisted Sister do we?
[Genocide] We like that one---
[Raven Chain] But to go back to your original question I've got family in West Virginia and I was originally from Florida and-- no, I wasn't raised there. Did you say I was raised by cannibals or something? [Stitch] Pack of wolves, Raven Chain---- [Raven Chain] But yeah, because of the family I started playing up there and lived up there and in 2003 we relocated back down here, got with MyKill and basically started the lineup you see now. [COMA] I read that you've already shot some video for “Nightmare Life” here at Boomerz. Did you finish the video? [Raven Chain] No, actually we started working on that with another producer and director and after revealing some of the footage, we decided that he didn't have the same vision we did. He wanted to do more of a live concert feel video and we'd already pretty much done that with “Today” so we didn't want to revisit that so were working with a new guy right now. Actually, a couple of directors, we're probably looking at 3 maybe 4 videos off this new record. Were going to be working with Dark Hawk from down in South Florida, in the Miami area, he's done work for the NFL, Deadstar Assembly, a bunch of bands and he's really great. A couple other people, we're just trying to mix it up and give people a bunch of different perspectives on this record. [COMA] How far along are you on the new album? [Raven Chain] We're wrapping it up right now, we're done tracking, we basically just---- [Stitch] Genocide is slow. [Raven] Yeah, for everybody out there that's been awaiting this record, it is Genocides fault. Genocide, being the gear whore he is, he had to take 2 years to go through keyboards. [Genocide] Alright, there's one drum track there's one guitar track, there's one bass track. There's 15 keyboard tracks on each song on average. I am a gear whore, I am true to analog, I go through tons of keyboards trying to find the best sound. Yes, 2 years is my fault. I take full responsibility. [Raven Chain] Yeah, 15 keyboards for one part mind you. “Lets try this, let's try this, oh, lets try this backwards”. It's been a crazy process but right now we're mixing putting the final touches on it, it's getting ready to go to Master Lab in Orlando. At this late in the game we're looking at a September release but talking with the label now, we're just gonna I guess push for an October release and make it fitting for the season.
[Genocide] It was best NEW artist. [Raven Chain] No, it was best hard rock artist; you don't even know what award you won. He was drunk. You got 2 awards actually, you got--- [Genocide] I never got the award [Raven Chain] Oh, I think they're still over at the studio, how did it change our career? I don't think it changed our career or affected it that much but what it did is, some of the bigger names started paying attention to what we were doing a little more just because here's this underground band from Florida starting to stir up noise and they're winning an award for what? Let's look at these guys. I think these people already knew what we were doing but I think it made them focus a little more on what we were doing and take more interest. [COMA] Because of NAMM, you know that you have the recognition of the industry but do you feel like you get the recognition you deserve from the music loving masses? [Raven Chain] No--- [Genocide] Well, part of our problem is we've been spending a lot of time in the studio recording so we've been on kind of like in hiatus for a while so a lot of our fanbase has been neglected and has kinda teetered off because no one knows were around anymore because we've been focusing on the album and things of that nature we went on tour for two weeks, 3 weeks in January and we've been playing so much out of town---- Oh wait, MyKill Mayhem. Wow, all hail praise to the man. [Stitch] Introducing MyKill Mayhem. (a conversation now ensues regarding MyKill and Raven wearing matching pants...) [Raven Chain] Did you finish that question? [Genocide] I think so. [COMA] You've played with Bile, Cradle of Filth, Genitorturers, KMFDM and a bunch of other bands, what has been your best experience with other bands you've player with? [Genocide] C.C. Deville. C.C. Deville tried to upstage us. We were playing in L.A. In a NAMM showcase and C.C. tried to upstage us. This guy starts talking about how he was in jail and got treated like a woman in jail. This was his attempt to upstage us. He fucked up “Talk dirty to me” twice and had to start over. So that was probably my favorite personally. I'm not sure about everyone else, anybody?
[COMA] Have there been any bands you've played with that you didn't get along with on a personal level? [Raven Chain] I would probably have to say, C.C. Deville. That's a unanimous decision. [COMA] You guys have an appearance in “Belly of the Beast”; I assume you're playing in a club, similar to Bile in “Strangeland” of Thrill Kill Kult in “The Crow”? [Raven Chain] Yeah, it's very similar to that, we are doing a live performance, however, doing the performance some of the “goth” characters they didn't look very well so we were asked to be extras in the movie in the club scene as well so--- They didn't know what alternative looked like, kinda looked like Fangoria tried to do Bauhaus or something. [COMA] What song do you perform in the movie? [Genocide] “Today”. [Raven Chain] Yeah, “Today”, We did “Today”. [COMA] Will it be released in theaters or will it be a straight to DVD type thing? [Raven Chain] We're not sure--- [Stitch] The release date is 13 October 2007. [Raven Chain] I think they were pushing to go to theaters or at least select market theaters but I'm not sure. It's been in post production for over a year now. We haven't sat and talked with the directors or anything like that. I mean, were waiting for it to come out ourselves. We haven't seen any footage, nothing. [COMA] It seems many bands have lost interest in major labels in favor of indie labels where they have more artistic control, why is it that you guys are still interested in a major label contract? [MyKill Mayhem] Promotion
[Stitch] We like to eat.
[Raven Chain] This question could get so in depth but to sum it up, obviously if you know anything of the history of the band, the history of the members, were not really in this for the money, we continued on a shoe string budget putting on the show and production we do out of our own pocket. The label we do work with, it doesn't provide us any money. Were not really looking for the big dollar but were looking for the mass promotion, we're looking for the mass distribution so we can maybe get to that level. [MyKill Mayhem] The recording quality seems to be a little better. [Raven Chain] Tell them about the pig. [Crash] The hog that I hit? I rolled my girlfriends truck about 10 times on the way home from practice one night. Two days later I had a deal with the devil, which I didn't sign, and he threw a razorback hog in front of my truck and caused me to total my second truck. No joke. And now I have no vehicle, both these mini trucks were black, the girlfriends truck was black and they were all trucks, they were all black and they all had an evil being behind them trying to make me sign a contract which I would not do and now whatever major label we sign I hope it's not with Jerry Lee Lewis. (laughter) [Genocide] Aren't you supposed to stay silent during interviews? [Crash] Well I could remain silent but if I do it this time I would be breaking whatever contract I did not sign. He at least cannot be held responsible for what he says due to the various laws and bisections and standards set about by the mental facility that he has escaped from [Raven] j., we thank you very much for this, I think this concludes the interview. We appreciate your time---- [Genocide] j., thank you very much. (The conversation then turns to penises amongst the band themselves.) Sister Kill Cycle's new album "Sinners Incorporated" comes out in December 2007.
|
|
[COMA] How has winning the best hard rock award at the Hard Music Awards affected your career?
[Raven Chain] I think the question was which bands were our favorite to play with. I think that was actually the question. Pretty much all the bands we've shared the stage with have been really cool to us. When we work together it's on a professional level, you respect each other. So I don't think we could personally point out one band that's been the greatest to work with. Probably more like one person, people we've met and worked with over the years would be more proper thing to ask us. We have fun at every show, every shows' a new experience, it's like war up there. It's different every time.
