Kill Hannah

Kill Hannah Interview with Greg Corner
February 22nd, 2007

(From left to right: Greg Corner, Mat Devine, Dan Wiese, Jonathan Radtke)

As I mentioned in a recent Broadcast, most of the CONFRONT Crew attended a Papa Roach show a few weeks ago, Kill Hannah being one of two opening acts that evening.   A few of us had already had the pleasure of seeing this band live which made us that much more excited to see them again.

Despite his hectic schedule, Mat Devine (lead vocals, Kill Hannah creator) agreed to a phoner interview the day prior to the show.  Calling from Toronto Ontario, Mat sounded tired but seemed in good spirits.  We spoke for a good 30 minutes on a variety of different subjects and when finally we hung up, I had a new found admiration for the band and its members.   Eager to get the interview on paper, I quickly uploaded the recording to my computer, pressed play and… nothing.  Telling myself I simply hadn’t uploaded the file properly I tried a few more times and still nothing more than a soft hissing noise.  I was horrified.

Embarrassed, I requested a follow-up interview, hoping that despite my electronic inaptitude they would be nice enough to agree to sit with me again.  Thankfully, they were.  I met with Greg Corner (bassist) in the basement/backstage area of the Metropolis a few hours before Kill Hannah’s set on March 1st, 2007.

CONFRONT: Hey how’s it going?

GREG: Good thanks.

CONFRONT: Good! I have to say that I was really surprised that you guys have been around for such a long time.  I knew of you because we had followed another band for a few days for an article we were writing and you guys were the opening act.  But then I read that you guys started in 1994 or something like that?

GREG: Yeah 1995 it started and then they started playing shows in 1996 and I got in the band in 1997 so it’s been almost 10 years.  Then we got signed in 2002 and released our major label album in 2003.

CONFRONT: What do you think is the difference between your sound today and your sound 10 years ago?

GREG: Well back then it was definitely more Cure influenced, very arty like My Bloody Valentine kind of stuff.  And then each member kind of got into the band for the line up now, they definitely brought different elements.  When I got into the band I was listening to a lot of electronica music and stuff so I brought a little bit of that to the band and influenced Mat a little with electronics; and Dan was definitely into Radiohead and affected guitar kind of stuff like Sigur Ros so he brought kind of that sound to the band and Jonny came from the Nine Inch Nails, Manson world and brought some guitar playing and solos and stuff.  So from that it kind of evolved from the Cure sound to what it is today which is kind of a hybrid of electronic and alternative music with British influenced music; but I think done in a modern original way, where it’s not a direct rip off.

CONFRONT: CONFRONT Magazine is an online publication for many different reasons but the main one being that those who take interest in the entertain market are now going online to get their information rather then buying hard copy or waiting for a show to air on television.  Do you think the internet played a part in promoting Kill Hannah to the world?

GREG:  Oh yeah, the internet played a part for this band almost from the beginning.  You know, we had a website up in probably ’95.  Mat’s a graphic designer and went to school for graphic design and film.  So he’s had a website since then.  So it’s always been a huge part of the band.  We have fans all over the world because of the internet.  Actually before we were signed back in ’98 – ’99, I remember there was a music convention in Chicago where a bunch of label people came out and there was a bunch of showcases for bands and Mat and I went to this one conference; ‘How to promote your band’ or whatever.  And they used us as an example.  Like they pulled up our website on this huge screen and were saying ‘oh this is what you need to do if you’re an up and coming band and bla bla bla’.  And we were like ‘ok we did all that and we’re still not signed’.

CONFRONT: Do you think MySpace hindered or bettered the industry with opening up the door to so many artists and wannabe artists?

GREG: I think it revolutionized the industry and it’s like, the best marketing tool since the internet.  It’s a way to find people who like your music.  You can go to somebody’s page and see their influences and be like ‘Oh you might like my band’ and promote yourself that way.  However it’s opened the doors to a shit load of music; not much that’s great and a lot that’s bad.  Also kids definitely have to filter through much more now and I think their attention span is getting shorter and shorter because of it.  You have to be really direct and precise in how you export your MySpace.

CONFRONT: I saw that you guys were featured on the CW show One Tree Hill or one of those anyway…

GREG: Yeah we’ve been on a bunch of shows.  We were on Jack and Bobby, we were on One Tree Hill; I think we were on the Hills last week.  They just play our music you know.  Whatever!

CONFRONT: Do you think that that’s a reflection of the fact that what we consider to be mainstream is changing or is it that your sound has adapted itself to a more mainstream audience?

GREG: I think bands like 30 Seconds to Mars and The Killers and stuff like that – from the time we got signed in 2002 to now – have brought in more electronic sounds and it’s become more acceptable.  That has changed a lot.  As far as those shows go, they have everything on there.  They try to appeal to everybody.  I don’t go by that show.  I go more by radio than TV.

CONFRONT: How much radio play do you guys get?

GREG: We get it  in certain markets in the States; of course nothing in Canada.  In the States we get radio play in pockets all over the place.  Like Florida is really good, Dallas is really good.  Seattle, Cleveland, Kansas City.  Not really Chicago though which is really weird.

CONFRONT: That seems to be a weird trend though.  I’ve spoken to a lot of people who say the same thing about their home towns.  Like for example Tomo from 30STM was saying that his band didn’t get much airplay in Detroit at the time either.

GREG: Yeah!  I think that also Chicago is like the biggest market in the country.  So they don’t automatically go to local music.  They don’t support a local band right away.  You know you take a band like Alkaline Trio who has a huge fanbase but they still aren’t really onboard with them.

CONFRONT: You were talking about being able to see people influences on MySpace and I found that mot of those listed on the Kill Hannah page I could have named them without even looking; like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bowie and Cindy Lauper and stuff like that.  To me those are so apparent if only in the visual aspect of Kill Hannah.  Are you trying to work something more visual than other bands?

GREG: From day one Mat’s always had a vision of an image band and a music band.  We got made fun of for it for a lot of years, like us wearing make up and sounding like the Cure. Well low and behold now,  every band is wearing make up and having their hair done a certain way.  And the things we got ripped on and made fun of for, 5 – 10 years ago, everyone is doing now.

CONFRONT: Do you find it frustrating then?

GREG: Oh yeah.  Like when that whole Cure wave came and everyone was like The Cure has influenced The Rapture and Interpol and all that stuff.  And I like those bands but it’s like ‘ok we’ve just been made fun of for the past 7 years for sounding like the Cure and we’ve totally been overlooked in that whole movement’.  It’s totally aggravating.  But we’ve evolved so much you know.  Like, if we had put out our first record in 2002 it would have been huge.  But we’ve evolved since then. I hope the times are catching up with us and I think they are.

CONFRONT: In doing some research for the interview I read the road journal Mat did for the Fuse website.

GREG: Yeah!  He used to write a journal on our website every month or like once a week and Fuse liked it so much that they ask ‘oh can you do it for us’ so he started doing it for Fuse and linking it to our website.

CONFRONT: Well it’s pretty much the funniest thing I’ve read coming directly from a band.  It’s so well written and hilarious.  But one of the things that caught my attention in one of the entries is when he is talking about the fact that he just did another interview and he just had to sit through the same old questions again and so on.  And that kind of made me laugh as in interviewer because I understand how annoying it must be to be asked the same thing day in and day out, but it can be hard from our perspective to be original because we can’t know the ins and outs of all the bands.   So I figured I’d ask you what you think we as interviewers, should be asking you but aren’t?

GREG: That aren’t?  umm, I don’t know.  You know, it’s always aggravating when they ask ‘How would you describe yourself?’ or ‘Where did you get your band name from?’ or ‘Where’s Kill Hannah from?’  You know it’s like, it’s great when an interviewer does research on a band, reads the bio and gets those answers and come up with new ones.  Things  like ‘you’ve just come off the road with So and So, what was great about that tour’ or ‘I heard that you guys toured with Shinny Toy Guns for a while, how did that relationship start’ or something like that.  Just do research or what not.  It’s always nice to feel like they want to interview you and not just feel like they are doing it because someone told them too and they are just going through the stock questions.

CONFRONT: Our motto at that magazine is DARE. DEFY. PROVOKE.  Which stands for: Dare to Listen, Defy the Stereotypes and Provoke Change.  And we say that because our goal is to redefine the Mainstream.  I love mainstream music I just don’t think that what people associate the term with is what it truly is.  What we’re trying to do is show people that mainstream is basically just what touches the most people as opposed to a music genre that includes Britney Spears and Boy Bands.

GREG: Yeah I know what you mean.  That will never go away.  Top 40 and Pop music will never go away.  It gives the balance otherwise there would be no underground.

CONFRONT: Yeah exactly.

GREG: I love a lot of mainstream music myself.  You know like, people hate Fall Out Boy.  I think their great.  But there are other bands that I think are great and aren’t big.

CONFRONT: Well who do you think is currently working at bridging the divide between what should be mainstream and what people associate with the term?

GREG: Well love ‘em or hate ‘em, Fall Out Boy.  They’re a rock band but they’re on TRL, on Top 40 radio and if kids get into them then they might start looking back at their influences and start listening to that band’s influences and start getting into bands that influenced them whether its hardcore music or punk or what not.  I think that any band, even like N’Sync or whatever that somebody gets into, those kids that are 10 or 11 and getting into music, well they’re getting into music.  No matter what band they like, the snow ball starts and they just start getting more and more into music and it evolves.  But it’s got to start somewhere.  But right now I think it’s like Fall Out Boy or like 30 Seconds to Mars, the Killers.

CONFRONT: Well do you think there has been an official direction change in what is mainstream from Pop to Rock lately.

GREG: Mmm no.  There just seems to be a huge onslaught of music now and I don’t think one thing is bigger than the other.  When you look at the charts, the charts are all country music.  That’s really what’s selling.  I don’t think that there’s one music that’s prevailing other than country.  And no one really knows it.  Like, if you look at the top 10 charts you go ‘who is that?’.  When you live in the big cities, that’s not really on the radio or in the forefront   but in the rest of the country, in the States at least, it’s what sells.  It’s like Nascar and Country music.  You have to keep aware of that.

CONFRONT: What would you want your legacy to be?

GREG: I would want to be in a band that’s successful along with influencing, I don’t want to say genre of music but like, kind of like what Jane’s Addiction and Bowie did.  Not that I’m comparing myself to them because we aren’t that amazing yet but I definitely think that we never fit into any scene in Chicago.  We didn’t fit in the punk scene or the Indie scene you know, we weren’t accepted by anyone.  We had to start our own scene and our own crowd and eventually it evolved.  I think that’s what we are trying to do across the country and across the world.  Like try and form a whole new scene that’s not Indie or Gap or Punk.  It’s like a hybrid of it.  That’s why we love touring with 30 Seconds to Mars and Shiny Toy Guns and other bands like that.  Because the more bands we have like that then the scene or genre is born.  Grunge was the same thing and Emo was the same thing.  I think that the more bands we influence I think the better our music will be.

CONFRONT: This is probably like a redundant question but through all that, what genre would you consider yourself to be?

GREG: In 1991 when you said alternative it meant alternative music and that meant anything from the Charlatans to the Cure to Bad Brains whatever.  I think that word got misused and bastardized in the 90s and stuff where it was used for everything you know.  Like, Hootie and the Blowfish were alternative and Matchbox 20.  And I think that Modern Rock and Alternative is the best way to describe us but you can’t really use those words anymore.  So I like to say we’re somewhere between The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins with some electronica influence from Depeche Mode.

CONFRONT: That sounds pretty accurate actually.  First and last concert attended.

GREG: First concert I ever attended was Barry Manilow when I was 5.  My parents took me to that but the first real concert I attended was Poison and Ratt in like 1987.    And then the last concert I attended…wow… trying to think when I was home last.  I guess it would be Shiny Toy Guns.

CONFRONT: We have a section on the website called the Daily Urges and basically it’s reader submitted and it’s a place where they can just give us some bands they feel people should discover so we always ask artists we interview to name us a few of their Daily Urges.

GREG: White Rose Movement out of England, they’re awesome and I can’t believe they aren’t signed by a US label. There’s another band out of Omaha who opened for us and they were great, they’re called Go Motion.  If you haven’t heard about Shiny Toy Guns yet buy the CD they’re awesome.  Older bands there’s the Chameleons that I like.  God there’s so much stuff.  Primal Scream; there such a great band that not too many people know about.  Off the top of my head that’s about it.

CONFRONT: Well that’s pretty good actually.  Thanks so much I really appreciate it.

GREG: Oh no problem.

The show that night was pretty awesome.  Kill Hannah was great as usual.  Christine and I even managed to watch the Papa Roach set from the balcony where Kill Hannah were also watching the set and it was pretty cool to see the guys enjoying the performance as much as we did.

Later in the evening I went and introduced myself to Mat and apologized for having to request another interview.  We passed that recording through ever filter that was accessible to our little hands but unfortunately to no avail.  Thankfully Greg was there to save me.  Thanks Greg.

Kill Hannah has been touring pretty much none stop and seem to be continuing to do so for while.  So make sure you catch a show near you.  It’s definitely worth the trip.

To read Mat’s Tour Blog on Fuse go here: www.fuse.tv/killhannah/
Official Website: www.killhannah.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/killhannah