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Kissing Candice is one of these bands that we are grad and grateful to interview, because industrial metal groups are not so accessible. Coming from New York, the group is a really cool mix of new metal with industrial rock and some interesting pinchs of electronic music. Put together a macabre circus visual and there is one of the coolest things ever.
This week I interview the bassist Grip and we talked about music scene, COVID-19 and how is important to put more attention on visuals.
I need to say that is a pleasure to interview you, because when I listen to your music my ears blow. For starting, I would like to ask you to talk a bit about the band story to our readers (and, if you can, your own personal story in music).
Grip: Hey! It’s a pleasure to be interviewed by YOU! I really appreciate the kind words about our music, can’t wait to talk to you and your readers about the visual and sonic chaos that is KISSING CANDICE!
It noticeable that Slipknot is a big influence your music and visuals, but you follow a direction closer to Fear Factory, Powerman 5000, Nine Inch Nails and a lot of good American industrial metal bands I love. What bands/artists influenced you?
Grip: Oh wow! Well, you got the right person to talk to about industrial! You NAILED some of my huge personal influences! As far as Slipknot goes, what they captured and created on a visual force is definitely a huge influence. We grew up when they were coming up so they were always in our CD players and on our TV’s. We LOVED the theatrical performance and mystery around them. However, musically I don’t think we are super influenced by them. We do LOVE their music but we are not trying to be Slipknot 2.0, we are trying to do our own thing. Even when it comes to the masks, there are many bands wearing masks. Slipknot may have been the first to do it in the mainstream, but there are many others! Unfortunately, we will always get that comparison from people who hate us as soon as they see us. Visually, Slipknot does something totally unique! The jumpsuits… the 9 members on stage… it’s all extremely awesome and no one could ever replicate that other than the KNOT themselves!
Artists that have been influencing us a lot in the studio lately are Rob Zombie, Fear Factory, Nine Inch Nails, Ghostemane, KMFDM, Dope, Ministry, Static-X, and a ton more! We love the feel of both industrial and metal (of course, industrial nu-metal) and have always tried to incorporate that into our music. Even in the beginning, we always had the electronics play a prominent place in our music. Since we put out our EP Safe Word, we have been refining our sound. I feel we really found it on this album! I think we pull inspiration from a lot of places, which caused our upcoming album to be a wild ride where we experiment with some unique sounds for us.
About Slipknot, recently their former drummer passed away. How do you feel about it? I’m not a big fan of actual era, but until Iowa, Slipknot were, for me, the best metal band that mainstream allowed to exist in the media.
Grip: It’s absolutely awful! In 2012, we played the first ever Knotfest with Slipknot (so to the people who hate us saying we ripped off Slipknot, they invited us to play their festival year one!) so this is just hugely devastating. Our singer, Aunt Donna (Joey) was actually Sid Wilson of Slipknot’s touring personal merchandiser on Mayhem Fest 2012, so he is very close with the band, riding on the whole tour in Sid Wilson’s bus with him. Due to this, we have been honored to meet the guys in Slipknot on a few occasions, they have all been beyond kind. The Knotfest we played were actually some of Joey Jordison’s final shows that he played with the band.
Whether you like where they are now or not, or even never liked them, Joey’s drumming has had a MASSIVE impact on metal drumming. It is heard all throughout different metal bands now. He was a master drummer and his legacy will live on forever, we will definitely miss him. Those first Slipknot albums changed how the mainstream viewed metal forever!
Watching your last video, Brand New Low, featuring the rapper Jamie Madrox, I noted you tried to blend industrial rock, industrial metal, hip hop and death metal. Could you tell us about this video and how the Jamie’s invitation happened?
Grip: Sure! We wrote and recorded the song in the studio without any rap parts or guest vocalists in mind, so it began a much different song. However, we had toured with Twiztid multiple times and they have always been beyond kind to us along with always supporting. We became close with them and their team at Majik Ninja Entertainment. We had wanted to feature a guest vocalist on the album and Jamie was one of the first to pop into mind! We shot the idea over to him and he was super happy to do it! We thought the bounciness of Brand New Low would be really cool with some rap parts over it, and it was! We sent Jamie the track to check out to see if he liked it, about 2 days later he had written and recorded his own parts for it!
When it came time for the music video, we once again reached out to see if he would like to appear in it. Due to the pandemic and them being based far away, shooting with him in the same room would be impossible. However, his label MNE has a great team and they were able to shoot his part for the video and send it back over to us! He was beyond quick and professional about all of it! Once we had his part for the video, King Zabb, our director edited his parts in and blended it into a really cool video!
I really appreciate when bands put efforts to produce visuals and performances, because just playing song sometimes isn’t enough to show you to the audience. How do you plan your visuals? How did they evolute over time?
Grip: Honestly, seeing 5 guys with long hair headbanging wearing band shirts and jeans headbanging? Seen it done a million times! Sometimes it gets boring and people want to see almost a theatrical play when they go to a live show! We base our live show on CHAOS! We have an intense lighting rig that we use whenever we are permitted to (can’t at some venues due to space, time constraints, etc.). It has all evolved over time! We started out with just wearing some bloody makeup. Now, we are an entirely different monster. We are trying to BE a live horror movie with a killer soundtrack!
When I watch your old videos, I always think in horror movies and King Diamond theatrical performances. Are there any movies’ influences in your videos / visuals / music?
Grip: I can’t name any specific horror influences for any of the videos. Perhaps Tapeworm has a bit of a Saw feel to it. Aunt Donna (Joey) runs a haunted house, so he always has tons of crazy movie level props for us to play with and we only work with directors who share a vision that want to make something crazy!
Music wise though! We do have quite a few songs based on horror movies!
Shop Smart – Evil Dead
Roach Motel – People Under The Stairs
Nilbog – Troll 2
Hunt For the Engineer – Hellraiser
There are plenty of other horror influences throughout our visuals and catalogue. However, those songs are directly influenced by those movies.
How do you deal with comparisons? Some media (and blogs) says you are similar to Slipknot and Mushroomhead and, for me, the bands looks like a mix of Coal Chamber and Mudvayne playing NIN and Rob Zombie.
Grip: We don’t care, doesn’t bother us! We know we don’t look or sound like Slipknot or Mushroomhead. Other than being metal bands in masks, I think that’s where the similarities end. Both of those bands have their own unique and awesome thing going for them! Some people will just hate us and will never listen to our music or watch a video, they just want to put us down calling us rip-offs. Honestly, that’s fine! Everyone has their own opinion. We would love if people gave it a shot first, but in the end there’s not much you can do. It is what it is! BUT DAMN, if you’re gonna get compared to bands Slipknot and Mushroomhead are great bands to be compared to! Both are monsters! We actually toured with Mushroomhead as well. They are fans of Kissing Candice and great people!
Almost two years of pandemic and, I think, the things there in US seem returning to normal (and here in Brazil the people are a bit hurry for this). What will be the future after pandemic? Because recently there was the Bloodstock Festival and, personally, I think it is a bit early to return large festivals now.
Grip: We are currently NOT booking any shows until we think it is safe for ourselves and our fans. I work in health care, I know this pandemic is not a joke and that we cannot just return to normal. It’s gonna take time. I think this has already been shown by the massive amount of cancellations that are currently taking place. Unfortunately, it was just too soon.
And after pandemic, what will be the future for the bands and music? Because I notice the people wanna go to concerts and festivals, but some are afraid to get sick or to raise a new virus variant. Some will prefer to stay home and watch lives (I have a close friend that will watch only live streams for some years).
Grip: Everyone has their own comfort level. I think once numbers start going down a lot people will slowly feel more comfortable going to shows. I see a lot of vaccinated people afraid to go to shows right now as they are afraid of contracting from unvaccinated people not following any precautions. I think there will be a lot of live concerts that will also be livestreamed during the coming few years! This way those comfortable being at a show can go, but the one’s who are not can watch the same show from their home. They are also helping the bands by purchasing live stream tickets, just as a normal concert attendee!
We are a Brazilian blog and I need to ask you: do you know any Brazilian bands?
Grip: We get a LOT of messages from fans in Brazil! We very much love you guys and are hoping to get there sometime when the pandemic is over!
As far as Brazilian bands, we have yet to tour with any! Hopefully soon!
However… do we know any? Straight off the top of my head when I think “BRAZIL METAL” I INSTANTLY THINK OF THE KINGS! SEPULTURA!!!
I’d like to thank you for this interview and this is your space for a message to our readers. Let’s go!
Grip: Thanks so much for having this interview with me! I just want to thank everyone who read the whole thing! I think this is our first Brazilian interview but we know we have LOTS of fans, so this one is dedicated to the people of Brazil who have been begging us to come there for YEARS now!!! We love you guys so much, stay safe, listen to our new single Brand New Low, and hopefully we get to see you soon!
Related links
https://www.facebook.com/Kissingcandice/
https://www.kissingcandice.com/