Kiss Me, Killer formed in Bristol during summer of 2016 after lead singer Holly placed an ad on the Bristol Punks Facebook group.
The first rehearsal saw singer Holly, guitarist David and a cheap 90s drum machine hanging around a rehearsal room at RS Studios, St Phillips where early versions of Rat Race and Narcissistic Tendencies emerged. By rehearsal two we’d met up with bassist Nat and guitarist/singer Cat over tea, although finding a drummer would prove more difficult.
The second rehearsal, where Cat wielded her fuzzed-up Telecaster for the first time, turned surreal when Lou Koller of legendary New York Hardcore outfit Sick of It All entered the room after being tipped off that Holly’s a superfan. Would have been the perfect moment to show him our material, although sadly that consisted of two and a half tentative riffs.
Despite frantic advertising and asking around, finding a drummer was a tough task. Rehearsals frequently featured the phrase, ‘Well, when we’ve got a drummer…’ as David jabbed at the rubber keys of the drum machine, which made us sound like some terrible indie schmindie electro revivalists and not the scuzztastic garage punk combo of our dreams.
After another period of time elapsed, during which the band usefully recorded some simple demos in Nat’s bedroom studio, we finally found AJ who had been drumming in an accomplished local Americana band but wanted another project in which she could get louder and heavier. AJ had a very impressive-looking anodised foot pedal so you knew she was probably going to be a bit good. And she was! The final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. Now we knew we had a band.
Realising that we all lived in or close to Easton, Kiss me, Killer decamped to Room4Studios, Bristol to work on the original material that would form the first live set. Rat Race and Narcissistic Tendencies survived from that first rehearsal but now sounded peachy with AJ’s forceful drumming, Nat’s quality baselines, Cat and Davids loud guitars and with evermore confident vocals from Holly the whole shebang sounded ten stories high.
Craig of Carnival Punks took a chance on us for our first support slot at Easton’s iconic live music pub, The Chelsea, where the band enjoyed a really warm reception. Other gig offers started to come in. The Kiss Me, Killer project was now truly up and running…