Weekly > Interviews
KASMs
KASMs are one of my favourite bands of 2009 so far, with three blistering singles behind them in Taxidermy (last year) and Bone You and Male Bonding so far this year they have set the standard for others to follow.
The debut album Spayed didn’t disappoint on it’s release and with a live reputation for playing breathtaking energy filled shows with a frontwoman who knows no bounds, it can only be a matter of time before you fall in love with them yourselves.
I caught up with Scott from the band to find out a bit more about this terrific group.
Let’s be logical about this and start at the beginning, you’ve all had previous bands from what I understand, so how did KASMS come about?
KASMs only started because a mutual friend of ours was holding a club night and asked us all to play, he was looking for bands to play and we decided to form a new one for fun and play the show.
We had about 6 or 7 practices where we also wrote the songs together, I think we played for 15 minutes. We took it from there really, people seemed to like it. I don’t think anyone in our band expected it to be a more long-term thing.
How does the songwriting work between you all and then obviously the recording after that?
We write very quickly in comparison to other bands I think. We all get together and come up with something. There is no one single songwriter – we all do it together, it’s best that way for us.
We record quickly too and are very lucky as Rory has a studio which we use regularly. We record tracks live and keep it as true to when we first wrote it as possible. Normally we record onto reel to reel.
We have recently started a new system whereby we write and record the track on the same day, we will see how that goes but so far so good. We wrote our newest track Absent Without Leave (on next release with Murmur as double a-side) like this.
You’ve released a couple of blistering singles so far, which i’m delighted have been on vinyl as well, how important do you feel the ‘single’ is and are you going to maintain the vinyl releases?
Vinyl is great and for sure we will keep releasing on this format. Our album is just about to come out on vinyl and future releases will continue to follow in that trend except the next one which is out as a free download or cassette.
Singles are important for many reasons but mainly to get attention. It’s a good way to get yourself introduced and start building up some sort of reputation and interest.
The songs i’ve heard so far from you all have a measured ferocity about them, how easy do you find it to find the perfect mix in the studio between the natural energy you seem to have and ensuring that there is plenty there to hook the listener back in with?
I guess quite easily at the moment touch wood, like I said before we write and record quickly so no doubt this process helps keep it at a good mix. We all have similar tastes in the band but all have our influences and things we’re interested in. I think Gemmas obsession with rave music from the Helta Skelta days helps big time…somehow!
Your debut album Spayed came out recently, how does the rest of the album compare to the singles for style, emotion and lyrical themes in your eyes?
The record has been out for a few weeks now and it’s got a similar vibe to the singles but there are many tracks which are different. We spent a long time working out an order that works for the record, I think we got it just about right. Singles are a snapshot of what your about so hopefully the singles we have released represent this and our album.
Weblinks
Add to favouritesEarly on in your career you coined the phrase Shriekbeat to describe yourselves, any regrets on that and are you worried about possibly starting a scene or genre knowing how fickle the music world can be with these things?
The term was made by some friends of ours really and we used it on our myspace because we found it funny and quite inventive but have never taken it seriously, it’s funny how much it gets about by people now though. As long as it either makes people laugh, interested or really angry we are happy – any reaction is good.
If a scene started from the term shriekbeat I would patent the term and ban it from public use.
How was your Camden Crawl experience recently, our reviewer certainly enjoyed your show?
Camden Crawl was great, well the second date was at the Bullet Bar. The show at The Underworld was a bit rubbish. We didn’t play great there so the next night at the Bullet Bar we had to go for it.
Live things are quite theatrical, is that an organic process that just happens or do you go out with a more planned approach to making it a real spectacle?
No I think the rest of us are as surprised as the audience when we first started out. I have known Rachel for a long time now but never knew how demented she really is. It’s possibly wrong to put someone like that on show and let people watch this, she really needs some help and to be sectioned.
Who else are you listening to at the moment that we should be keeping an ear out for?
So many good bands. You must listen to these: Male bonding, Cold pumas, Not cool, Graffiti Island.
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