BAND: Kill Hannah
INTERVIEWER: Liz Wise (liz@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Dan Wiese, Guitar & Backing Vocals
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 12.17.06
BAND MEMBERS:
Mat Devine: Vocals, Guitar
Greg Corner: Bass
Jonathan Radtke: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Dan Wiese: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Due to a bad snowstorm in the western part of Colorado, all the bands playing that night were late to the venue. Finally, all the gear started rolling in and girls screamed as Mat Devine walked through the venue to get backstage.
Kill Hannah’s set was really interesting. The band affixes green lasers to the headstock of their instruments and as they move, a beam of light shoots through the theatre. I’d never seen anything like it. Their song, “Lips like Morphine”, off their latest album Until There’s Nothing Left of Us, is playing pretty much everywhere right now. I could tell the band thoroughly appreciated their fans when, after the show, they all came out to sign CDs and take photos. And they didn’t leave until they’d talked to everyone.
I was able to sit down with Dan Wiese backstage after it all. Kill Hannah has a ton of info online, so I didn’t want to ask the same questions that other interviewers had asked or that is already on their website. I think we had a pretty good conversation:
BV: So what happened to you guys on your way here?
Dan: Oh we had a horrible time with the weather because there was some huge storm. We had to stop several times and check into a hotel. We missed one show- it’s pretty horrible- we should never come out here (laughs).
BV: Where were you coming from?
Dan: Seattle originally. We just got stuck in the snow and the storm; this is a horrible place (laughs). I’m just kidding about that. We were going from Seattle to Boise to Salt Lake City to here.
BV: I was just curious because I read a tour diary you guys did and in it you called Wyoming ‘the worst state’. And I’m from Cheyenne- in Wyoming- so I thought that was funny. I wasn’t sure if you had to go through there again.
Dan: Oh really. Well as far as I can tell there’s barely any cell phone reception in that place which basically makes it the middle of the ocean for me.
BV: It’s not too bad though. A lot of bands from here (Denver) go up to Cheyenne to play because we’re so starved for any sort of entertainment up there. So maybe if you guys went you could…
Dan: What?
BV: I don’t know. Make a bunch of money.
Dan: Really? Nice.
BV: I was watching all the girls going crazy and getting you guys to sign stuff after the show. Do you ever feel strange about having all these 14 or 16 year old girls going nuts over you?
Dan: Not really. We’re not from here or anything so we don’t know them. We’re happy to see them just come out and enjoy the record and that’s what shows are really about. So when girls come out and want stuff signed it’s just a good indication that they listen to our music and enjoy it and that’s the point.
BV: So I know that Mat (Devine) went to the Art Institute in Chicago. Do any of the rest of you have art backgrounds?
Dan: No, I studied music a bit in college and Jon comes from a real musical family, but as far as general art, Mat’s the only one.
BV: I was wondering if that played into the design for the website and at photo shoots.
Dan: Yeah. Well, for years and years everything was totally self-run, like the website. But for this last record we redesigned our website and the art department at our record label helped a lot with that. Pretty much everything goes through us for approval. I think it all worked out well, we like the direction of the art on this record.
BV: I really liked the lasers and the lights on the guitars. Did you guys come up with that?
Dan: Oh yeah. Our touring production, as far as that goes, when we’re at home in Chicago we play shows that have a lot of production elements in them like projections and video. And that’s all really fun but it’s really expensive to bring it on the road. So the lasers are something we just kind of developed years ago to make it a little more visual.
BV: Well it’s cool for sure, and totally unique.
Dan: Thanks.
BV: So you guys have toured with 30 Seconds to Mars.
Dan: Yeah we played a show with them in Florida like a week ago.
BV: Was it weird to tour with Jared Leto? You know I think it’d be odd having seen him on TV and in movies and then seeing this music side of him on stage.
Dan: Well he is a big movie star and everything so you do kind of think about that, but you can’t take anything away from him as a performer or musician or anything because he’s up there with the band. We’ve played shows recently with My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds to Mars and AFI lately in both Florida and Dallas and he’s up there doing his thing like everyone else.
BV: Were there tons of girls going crazy over him?
Dan: Well I don’t just watch him walk around, and I’m not an expert or anything but I’m pretty sure he brings that element.
BV: I always think it’s interesting how music comes around in cycles and then how the people that listen to a certain genre will sort of prescribe to a whole lifestyle around it, like hair and clothes. I know that’s not a question but…
Dan: You’re right. You see this sort of regurgitation of the same kind of themes in music. You know, we’ve been around for some time now, and in the beginning people would make fun of us for citing The Cure as an influence or wearing makeup and having weird haircuts. And people would call us names in Chicago and everything but now you see a lot of bands doing things similar to us. I got to say, we were doing it long before these other bands. That’s not to take away from what they’re doing but people are always looking for the next big thing. I don’t know what will be next, maybe something political, but we always revisit the past.
BV: I know you guys do a big Christmas show in Chicago. Is that all you’ve got planned for the holidays?
Dan: Yeah, A New Heart for Christmas on the 22nd. That’s always a huge deal for us. It’s already sold out and people come from all over to see us then. When we’re on tour, we only get to play for about 40 minutes maybe but we have a huge catalog of music and a lot of things we like to do on stage and that show is our chance to do it.
BV: Ok, so I promise a couple of friends that I’d ask this… They really got into the Mixerman Diaries…
Dan: Mixerman Diaries?
BV: Oh- you haven’t heard of it? It was this audio engineer who started a recording project with a band and he wrote blogs about the project saying the lead singer was a whiner and the guitarist is ‘this and that’ and gave everyone pseudonyms.
Dan: Oh really? So what did it say about us?
BV: Well that was my question. You guys are rumored to be the band he’s talking about. Because he called the band Bitch Slap, so people think Hannah is the Bitch part and Slap is like Kill- so Kill Hannah, Bitch Slap… this is all on the Internet of course.
Dan: I’ve never heard of this. Where are they from?
BV: The band is supposed to be from the Midwest. It’s all in a book now.
Dan: Honestly, do they say good things or bad things?
BV: I haven’t read it but from what I’ve been told it’s pretty bad.
Dan: Wow, I wish you had a print out. It would have been cool if you had prepared that. (Laughs) I’m just kidding. But I’ll have to look this up. I can’t say right now if Bitch Slap is us.
BV: I think that’s about all I got.
Dan: You’re going to end on the Mixerman note?
BV: Would you rather be interviewed by someone more objective, or a huge fan?
Dan: Well I hate getting asked the same things like where did the band name come from, influences. So as long as you ask good questions it doesn’t matter.
BV: Do you ever feel that “Kill Hannah” is really mean?
Dan: A mean name? I’ve never felt like that actually but I know that some people do. It makes you wonder if we should have picked another name. I mean you have The Killers. Do you think it’s mean?
BV: No, it’s just a name.
For more official information on Kill Hannah, please log onto:
http://killhannah.com/
http://www.myspace.com/killhannah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Hannah/
Check out Bandvibe's photo coverage of Kill Hannah:
|
