KIRKBY KISS formed in Central New Jersey in November of 2020 during the covid timeline with the aim to blend different influences of its members and break the pandemic boredom and the omnipresent negativity. The band released 3 of their 7 new tracks through their debut EP “Bleeder” in late April, and today we’re pleased to give you some more details about their story and their first-hand track by track rundown below!
“The name was suggested by our bass player who is from the UK where it’s a slang term for a headbutt.” – says the band.
“We’re all in other bands as well. Our drummer Frank is in Coffin Void and 19DRT. Our Bass Player Roxy is in Suspect with Natale our Singer and he is also in Which Witch (see our recent feature HERE) with Shep. Ramirez is in The Despised and also After The Burn.”
𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑢𝑠.
“We wrote songs for about 4 months and then recorded and mixed 7 tracks with the Chris Pierce of School Drugs, Doc Hopper and million other bands at his studio Volume IV in New Brunswick over a weekend and it was an amazing experience. Max Caselnova mastered the tracks and we released our first 3 song EP on Sunday April 25th one week after our first show at an outdoor weekend fundraiser festival hosted by Stomp Out Animal Abuse, a non profit that does benefit shows in NJ.”
“One night a week for 5 months during the pandemic, the band became our social life, our therapy and our outlet, creatively and mentally.”
“We look forward to playing live as much as possible as soon as possible and hope people are into the Bleeder EP (a digital release for now, with a small run of 100 physical CDs for sale on the site). So far the response has been good. We are working on new songs again and have 4 other songs ready to go and we’re not sure who’ll release them or if we’ll just do another DIY like this one or maybe a comp offering. Time will tell.”
See the full track by track commentary below:
“Fucking Headache” was written about the life’s search for meaning and connection to something fulfilling and a never ending succession of holding onto things that seemingly fill that void but ultimately cause more pain and self destruction.
you face the world
with everything you’ve got
you faced the world looking for love
for lovedid you find what you’re looking for
did you find everything they told you you’d see
or did you just keep running in circles like me settling just like meforever alone
searching for meaning
searching for a meaning to this life
longing for a purpose to this life
well I’ll just keep on hurting and it’s not that bad
“Snake Oil” the concept for this came from Ramirez when he was watching an episode of Little house on the prairie. At practice he told us he wrote this guitar riff watching an episode about a so called preacher selling faith to people. The lyrics are basically about that. Salvation peddlers that deceive people who are looking for a way into heaven and are duped into paying everything they have to some scam artist so called godly man.
i’ve heard you’ve come here looking for the one the one
who will heal you and save you from yourself
i’ve got news for you you’ve come to the right place
all you have to do is do exactly as I sayjust put all your trust in me and don’t forget to pay
for a measly little price salvation‘s on the way
just come back next week and don’t forget to pay
i guarantee you there is no other wayyou know
you know you’ve got to pay
for your salvation
there is no other wayi guarantee you there is no other way
NO WAY
“Challenge Accepted” I love this one. It has a bigger picture meaning but for me personally it’s about my love for skateboarding and the persistence and pain it takes to accomplish a certain trick i.e. “frontside grind” this song just musically moved me to the feeling of when I finally land it. It’s one of the best feelings in the world. In the bigger picture it’s about overcoming whatever obstacles stand in your way from achieving your goal and never giving up
you’ve given your all but still have a problem
you’ve taken a fall but still aren’t stopping
one more attempt to get it right
this is the one success is in sightlean back relax
arms up retract
lock-in feel it
turn out got it
The Bleeder EP is streaming everywhere and merch is also available at this location.
