7 minute read
Kill The Ideal
Words: Jordan Merrett
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Since their inception into my consciousness, Kill The Ideal have relentlessly wormed their way into my heart and mind. With anthemic tracks like ‘Save The World’, and their audacious, and frankly ballsy cover of the iconic ‘Immigrant Song’, these guys have truly defined their sound and are now seemingly setting their sights on taking the world of rock by storm. Their new EP ‘Against the World’ is aptly named, cementing KTI’s defiance and determination to cause waves within the industry.
Over the last few years these Boston boys have toured all over Europe. With an especially prolific 2019 firmly securing their place on the UK music scene, they’ve shared the stage with the likes of Arcane Roots and Black Peaks. The band have got some big things in store for the future, and have already been featured on every major rock radio station, even hosting their very own takeover show on Kerrang Radio. The music really does speak for itself, it’s heavy yet soulful, driven yet not overpowering, and has throwbacks to classic rock routes with perfectly placed synths blended seamlessly into what could be defined as alt rock, or even the ever-growing new wave of classic rock. charts top 10, and their recent release’s success, contemplating on the future of this band is exciting, and with their selfconfessed love for their home county of Lincolnshire, it could spell great things for our local rock scene. I caught up with the band to get an inside look at how the release went and what they’ve got planned for the future:
How did it feel when you found out that ‘Let’s Get Excited’ climbed to number 8 on the iTunes rock chart?
Such an amazing feeling! We never imagined that we’d be a band that charted a single so, this was a very special feeling. Let’s Get Excited was the first single on the ‘Against The World’ EP campaign and once we found out that it reached number 8 we knew that this EP was going to be different from the two we had previously released. We got knocked off the 7th place by Queen, but it’s fine we forgive them!
You were brave to take on such an iconic song ‘Immigrant Song’ as a cover, did you have any doubts about how it would be received?
It was a massive risk for us to take on a very daring cover of such an iconic song as it could have easily been considered ‘sacrilege’ but we believe Led Zeppelin made us the band we are today so doing the cover in tribute to them made it feel like a risk worth taking - we just hope we did it justice!
How did it feel to be asked to host your own show on Kerrang radio?!
This was an absolute tick of the bucket list for sure. Every single one of us grew up listening to Kerrang aswell as buying the magazine so to even have our songs played on there is insane. Our new single ‘Save The World’ got playlisted for 5 weeks running and we freaked at that so to be asked to have our own show was truly insane!
What do you want to see happen for KTI in 2021?
Shows, shows and more shows! We’ve released so much music in the 2020 and 2021 already that we just want to get out there and play it live for people! We’ve released a whole EP that we haven’t even played live yet! We’re playing a run of headline shows around the UK as well as festivals like HRH road trip in Ibiza (if it still goes ahead) 15
Do you have any advice for up-and-coming musicians to reach your level of success?
Even we are unsure what level we’re at because it’s a never ending journey however, one thing we always had and hopefully will always have is a constant drive and thirst for success. The one thing that I would say to any band is never give up, believe in what you’re doing and just know if 18 someone doesn’t like it there will be 10 more that do.
Photo: Steven Haddock
Who is your favourite Lincolnshire band and why?
Those 4 hyperexcitable young studs in ‘Carry The Crown’ go down as our favourite band as their infectious personalities off stage shine through keeping their stage show entertaining - that paired with a bunch of catchy tunes means they’re always good fun to watch. Side note - our photographer mishearing their name for ‘Gary The Clown’ always gives us a laugh!
If you could choose a famous Rockstar from history for Prime minister who would it be?
Freddie Mercury. He was a passionate individual and if the no goods in Parliament got out of hand then he would just say. “AHHHHH OHHHHHH!!!”
What would be your dream show to play?
Our dream show would be having the Foo Fighters support us at Wembley and Jared Leto as Ash’s guitar tech.
When can we expect an album?
We always had in our mind when recording ‘Against The World’ that we want this EP to be the one that puts us in the position to release an album. You only ever get one chance at your first ever studio album so we want to be completely ready for it when that time comes. We’re blown away with reception of the EP so hopefully an album won’t be far away!
There’s something extremely satisfying about these pefectly co-ordinated and well thought out single artworks... and the dragon on the cover of ‘against the world’ is awesome!
As we listen through the new record, we can really get a sense of the messages the band are conveying, the opening track ‘Let’s Get Excited’ says exactly what it means; at 165bpm it ain’t a slow burner and using a melody reminiscent of the schoolyard it somehow manages to capture a childlike feeling of excitement. It’s easy to see why it climbed to number 8 on the iTunes rock chart. Moving through another hard-hitting track, ‘Scream For Me’ helps to set the scene of this truly rocking record before arriving at ‘Save The World’. For me this is the standout track of the EP, offering a slight change of pace and slowing a little into a noble, anthemic, dare I say it… heroic ballad of a song that to me says “let’s ‘Save The World’ with great music!” How do you follow that on a record? Well, their bold cover of ‘Immigrant Song’ now makes complete sense. To cover something as coveted, almost sacrosanct as Led Zeppelin, you need to be sure of two things: firstly, the accompanying tracks have to be absolutely on point or they will pale in comparison… check. Secondly, you’d better be damn sure you do a decent cover, because people WILL make sure you know about it if you don’t. Kill The Ideal have certainly managed it, staying true to the feel of the song while giving it a new lease of life, with the energy of modern rock.
Journeying towards the end of the record with ‘Ten’ and ‘Meds’, we settle into a vibe where we’re met with reassuring notions and calm, familiar-sounding melodies, contrasted with fast rhythms and heavy vocals to create the dynamic telling of different sides of the same story, perhaps symbolic of an internal struggle? The closing track ‘Timebomb’ holds an endearing message to a ‘one true love’ where powerful high-end vocals drive home the lyric ‘I’m like a train wreck when I’m not with you’, a line that resonates with me in a spookily relatable sentiment, going on to express a ‘ticking timebomb’ - a great example of writing lyrical content that’s ambiguous enough for you to draw your own conclusions from, yet firm enough to guide you to that conclusion, like a maître d’ politely showing you to your table. A great closing track for an EP that plays through with the same enjoyability as a full-length album, starting as a raging party before arriving at the more serious messages being expressed.
