Kill Hannah Interview

Mat Devine
Interviewed by Angela at RockNetWebzine and interview written by Jenne

You guys are about to come out with a new record called Wake Up The Sleepers which is available for preorder at www.killhannah.com. Is it just available for preorder on the website?

Is it on our website? Is that the only place? I’m not sure. It’s possible. I’ll have to look into that.

Okay. What was interesting was how you picked your first single which I believe is “New York City Speed”. You picked that by asking some of your fans to come out and listen to a few tracks and choose one. What was the experience like working directly with the fans to pick out a single?

For us it’s just like common sense. They’re the ones who matter to us and they’re the ears that matter most to us. In a sense we’re still an underground band. We can ask all the radio stations. We can ask people in the music industry all we want but the only thing that really, truly matters to us is our fans. We take them really seriously and sometimes we’re so close to the songs and having spent months just being obsessed with the recording of the songs, it’s hard to have a distance and to even know what’s connecting on what level with different people. But we write the songs from the perspective of them. It’s a tradition that we started on the last record. Little focus groups of fans and so “New York City Speed” may not be an official single in the sense that we’re not really going to radio with it right now. We’re not shooting a video for it right this second. We don’t do our full on single push until 2010 but it was our choice as the first song to leak.

Why do you think the majority of the fans like that particular song?

Probably the beat. Probably the hook. Probably because a demo of it had been leaked on the Internet like a year or two ago. Usually that’s a good sign if something gets leaked and gets going and spreads real fast. That’s probably what they relate to. Probably the fact that it sounds a little bit familiar already. I’m sure any song about drugs seems to gets people’s attention.

Those are always my favorite songs. Did you enjoy performing at the after party for Nine Inch Nails?

Yeah, we did. I’ve been listening to Nine Inch Nails since I was 14 years old. They were influenced a lot by the Chicago industrial scene. In fact they kind of were in the Chicago industrial scene even though they were from Cleveland I believe at that time. I think what’s kind of cool about this record is that we’re seeing things change in pop culture and between Twilight movies and everything else and bands and stuff. Finally we don’t have to in any way apologize for the stuff that we’re into so we can say that we like to be associated with Nine Inch Nails. We can finally namedrop bands like Nine Inch Nails and The Cure and Joy Division and some of these darker references and people don’t run the other way. It’s kind of refreshing to start seeing our names associated with people who have always been our heroes.

What are some of the best places in Chicago that Chicago Suicide club have done underground events at?

There’s a club called Neo and Neo was like a dark wave club in the 80’s back when that was kind of popular and then since has gone through a period of kind of falling out of popularity in a way. It just became strictly underground and we like to play big clubs over there and do big events because the club hasn’t changed since 1982. The appearance of it and everything. There are still mirrors everywhere and huge fog machines and velvet curtains and stuff. The same I believe original owners and everything. That’s one of my favorite rediscoveries and it’s open until 4 AM. We brought Marilyn Manson there after his show. That was awesome.

It was interesting to watch him grow as a performer. I remember the first show I went to, between each song you could hear a needle drop and this was a big auditorium. This was at Reunion Arena and just to watch him progress over the years is really interesting.

Yeah, he’s a real artist.

What are some good eating establishments in Chicago? Like some of your favorites.

I kind of got over the hipster shit and places where I know I’d run into people. I started hanging out at steakhouses and old man restaurants. There’s a place called Erie Café, it has an outdoor patio on the river. It’s just me and a bunch of geriatric people and like the Chicago Mafia. There’s a place called Tavern on Rush and a place called Left Bar on Rush and Gibson also on Rush which again is kind of cheesy tourist and people who are wanted by the FBI from the 50’s. But they take care of me and I know I don’t run into anybody there so I like it and that’s’ where I eat and it’s great. I eat like a 90 year old man.

Those are some of the most interesting people. Your fans bring you a ton of food items on the road. What happened to be the best food item that you received?

The best food item was probably, I had gotten an incredible bottle of Italian wine when I was in Italy and I just got another one in Milwaukee so I’m a huge fan of getting nice bottles of red wine. But I remember once in Nashville getting a huge pasta dinner by a fan and then actually just yesterday the first food item on this whole tour I got was a big bag of Rice Crispy treats.

You now have a new guitarist with you on the road. Is this a permanent position?

We’re in a weird kind of flux right now. It’s interesting between Johnny exploring solo stuff and Dan just took this tour off to go get married and to go on his honeymoon. We’re having actually a lot of fun right now experimenting with different lineups. It’s just refreshing because everybody involved is just super hyped and super excited. There’s this youthful energy that people bring as opposed to people like me who have been doing it for so long. There’s an excitement that they have that is contagious. It’s a challenge I enjoy.

It brings a new dimension to the band.

Our standards are incredibly high. We look at our fans as our kids. We look at personnel as it’s a family and we never bring in anybody that doesn’t meet up to a very, very high standard.

Speaking of Wake Up The Sleepers, did Elias or Garrett do the drum work on the record?

Actually Elias did all the drumming on the record and he nailed it. He recorded 14 songs in a day and a half on drums. It’s great.

The band has really acquired an interest into the use of Twitter. Especially using it as a picture blog for the road. Is it really that addicting?

It’s not addicting. It’s more like an obligation. I’m not so vain as to think that people should give a shit about what I eat or anything like that. I think Twitter is probably the most vain thing I’ve ever encountered in my life. It’s important. It’s a good way for us as a band to stay in touch with our fans. If you follow the band then you might be interested in what we’re doing during the day. We don’t have a reality TV crew around us. It’s a cool way to document the ridiculous situations that we find ourselves in.

Why are you fascinated with historically debutante women like Amelia Earhart?

When all you have of someone is 10 incredible black and white pictures, it’s easy to romanticize them as more than human. If I were living around the time of Amelia Earhart, I might look at her more as like Nicky Hilton. Like oh, there’s Amelia. Whatever. I just appreciate people who do daring things with their lives. I look to the past because I don’t see many people right now doing anything interesting.

In an interview you mentioned that your sound is new romantic. How would you describe new romantic as a genre and do you think the sound will also pertain to the new record?

New romantic as a genre I guess could be described as I think in terms of instrumentation, I think new romantic is as much a style and as much an attitude that you know it when you see it kind of a thing. It’s about the mood of the music and it’s about a darker mood to the music. A depth to the music and lyrically I think it’s about a depth to the lyrics and probably subject matter that’s a little less Nickleback and a little more real.

I first remember hearing the term new romantic back in the 80’s. It was all these people like Boy George and David Bowie and that English scene where they dressed up all fancy and went to these clubs.

Yeah, we’re taking it back and we’re calling it Nu and we’re making it American instead of British. That’s kind of a twist. A little less pompous.

I thought that was so cool. A bunch of fucking kids just dressing up and going out to clubs. It’s such a shame because it seems like there’s nothing cool left for kids to do these days.

I agree.