Words by John Dietz An album that I’ve been listening to a lot this year is Khaki Cuffs’ self-titled album, the newest release from the self-described “zoomer emo” band out of Newark, Delaware. I recently sat down to talk with Brody Hamilton, the lead singer and guitarist, over Zoom.
John Dietz: I’d like to start with the new Khaki Cuffs album, of course. When you go back and listen to the complete Khaki Cuffs discography, it’s a bit of a change in sound. What specifically inspired this album? Brody Hamilton: I think I just got better at playing guitar, cause a lot of our old stuff was real power chord-y -- our first album and first EP were both super influenced by pop punk bands like Knuckle Puck, and the Wonder Years, and The Story So Far, and I also wasn’t in a band yet, it was just me at that point. I Am Nothing was the first release with Drew and Sam [bassist and drummer, respectively] in the band, and that was really cool because they bring so much to the table as musicians. But for the newest record, I started listening to bands like Macseal and Shin Guard, which are completely different ends of the same spectrum, which I guess comes out in how varied the self-titled is, as far as style. There are some screamo songs, there are some twinkle pop songs, and there’s a good few that have a criss-cross of influence in there, and that’s just because of all the stuff I was listening to, but also because of all of the stuff that Sam was listening to at the time: he’s super into math rock, but also emo and screamo, and then Drew is the real big screamo-head. All our influences come together in a really nice way on the self-titled that I don’t think happens on any other previous releases. I also messed around with open tunings and eventually got one that worked for the way I play guitar, because being the only guitar player, you have to play rhythm and lead at the same time, and that’s way easier in open tunings: the tuning I came up with was DADAC#E, and that worked perfectly for me, and that was a big part of the self-titled sound, the chords that come out of that tuning naturally.
“There are some screamo songs, there are some twinkle pop songs, and there’s a good few that have a criss-cross of influence in there, and that’s just because of all the stuff I was listening to”
JD: In the self-titled, you combine elements from both twinkle emo and screamo. Was that a difficult gap to bridge and why do you think they work so well together? BH: One of the first screamo bands I started listening to out of the gate was Suis La Lune -- they’re a Scandinavian screamo band, and they mix a lot of really cool atmospheric twinkly lead stuff and screams and polyrhythms. It’s really cool, and that influenced how I wrote, because I was like “this is so strange and different, but it’s something that I could totally do.” I’ve always tried to scream, and I never really knew how, until one day I was in my car, and it just clicked for me, like head-screaming just like clicked, and I was like, oh, that’s how you do it! So then I thought, “okay, now that I can do this, let’s write some screamo shit.” And I think it’s really easy to bridge that gap because twinkle guitar by definition is really melodic, so you have a good counterpoint to a harsher vocal tone. I think musically, in the West, we expect there to be harmony and melody and rhythm, and if one of those is missing, it feels kind of strange, but if you have the melody that you’re playing on the guitar, it’s not hard to scream on top of that. Screaming also just sounds sick! I don’t know how to scientifically back it up, but screaming just sounds really cool! JD: What’s the next direction for Khaki Cuffs? In only three years, you’ve moved from a heavier punk driven sound to a twinklier emo sound...Where do you go from here? What genres do you want to influence your music going forward? BH: Khaki Cuffs has always been into 100 gecs. We were the hipsters behind 100 gecs. We knew about 100 gecs before anyone else knew about 100 gecs, and I’m stoked that they’re catching on, and I’m really happy that they’re getting a lot of mainstream popularity on TikTok and shit. However, I have to put it out there that Khaki Cuffs was listening to gecs in May 2019 -- that summer I was an Orientation Leader, and so to wake up, I would listen to a playlist of 100 gecs, i hate sex, and the Death of Spring split. JD: That’ll wake you up. BH (laughing): It was just a chaotic mix of things to listen to. So we want to incorporate more hyperpop into our sound, which won’t be difficult, because speaking generally, I think that DIY kids are pretty into 100 gecs, but no one has really combined the 11