by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
If there’s a single quote that electrifies all fans of Rock music all around the globe – and one that provokes countless discussions among them – it goes, “Rock is dead.” We all know well who’s this quote is attributed to and how many times he actually went on to reiterate it. Everyone who considers themselves a music fan can also provide a counterargument to this statement, speaking about dozens of newer bands who do their best to continue the tradition of the genre
Kickin Valentina is certainly one of these. Founded in 2013, the US-based ensemble returns on the 22nd of January, 2021 with their new full-length album, The Revenge Of Rock, out via Mighty Music. Having tour experience both in their homeland and overseas as well as two studio albums under their belt, this four-piece knows a thing or two about joys and sorrows of carrying on the legacy of Hard Rock well into the 21st century. So, what’s the reality of it for Kickin Valentina…? Is it always smooth sailing when your band’s opening for a bigger act? And finally – is Rock dead…? These are the things Hardrock Haven discussed with Kickin Valentina’s bass player Chris Taylor alongside all the details of the upcoming album.
Hardrock Haven: It’s been a while since the last studio album from you guys. What was Kickin Valentina up to during that time?
Chris Taylor: To be honest with you – looking for a new singer (laughs) We put Imaginary Creatures [Kickin Valentina’s second album] out a couple of years ago and then, our singer Joe, that we had for our first two records, left the band. We ended up having to find a new singer, which took a little bit of time. We put our EP Chaos In Copenhagen out at the end of 2019 and the last year we’ve just spent writing and recording to get the new album Revenge Of Rock out. So we’ve had a little bit of a snag there for a little while between records. But we’re back on track now.
Hardrock Haven: Right on. So how did this crucial line-up change that happened influence the songwriting process for the new album?
Chris Taylor: As far as we talk our approach to writing, it didn’t change. I mean, it changed in the sense that there are three of us living in Atlanta and our singer D.K. [Revelle] lives in California, so we would have to send songs back and forth through e-mail to write [them]. But the kind of approach and attitude that we have when we write songs – it really didn’t change much. A long-distance writing was definitely something that was kind of new for all of us, but we think that in the end album turned out pretty good.
Hardrock Haven: It did, so it worked.
Chris Taylor: It worked for us in the end (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. 2020 was a difficult year for the entire music industry… to say the least. How did the circumstances influence the process of making and recording the new album?
Chris Taylor: As far as the live shows go, we only got to do two in 2020 – which was really hard for us, because we love going out and playing. On the flip side of that, we needed to get a new record out so we used that time to just write and demo some songs. So, we just kind of used it to our advantage I guess, as best as we could. But we’re definitely read to start playing again.
Hardrock Haven: Fingers crossed for that! There was also an Indiegogo campaign launched for the new Kickin Valentina album. What do you think about this and crowdfunding in general? How helpful a tool is this, especially for newer bands?
Chris Taylor: The campaign did really well for us. We raised twice as much money for this album as we did for the last one – we had [a campaign] for Imaginary Creatures as well. So, we think it did really well. And to be honest with you, when we first started talking about doing an Indiegogo campaign to get people to donate money, I wasn’t in love with the idea. One of the things that we did to kind of make it cool – and I know a lot of bands do this too – is that we made exclusive merch designs that they can only get through that. So I think it ended up being like a cool experience and a lot of fans liked it from the first time that we did it. They thought that it was awesome that there were limited edition items and things that they could get only through that. When we did it for the first time, a lot of people came back later and they were like, “Oh, I saw someone wearing this shirt, but you guys don’t have it in your merch store, so how can I get it…?” And we were like, “Well, it’s only available through that [campaign].” So we tried to make it fun and to get people exclusive perks and merch that they’re not gonna get anywhere else except through the campaign. But my opinion on them, honestly, has kind of come around. I think they’re a good thing and something bands can do and have fun with their fans and like I said, get some exclusive items to them.
Hardrock Haven: The Revenge Of Rock is the third Kickin Valentina album, so do you feel it’s a step forward especially if you compare it with the two previous ones?
Chris Taylor: You know, honestly I do. I think we’ve explored some different things with this album than the things we’ve done in the past. You know, we played around with harmonies and things like that we’ve never really done before. When we’re going to write songs, we never sit down and say, “We want something that sounds like this” or “We wanna go in this direction or that direction.” We just get together and start writing. We bring in ideas, riffs or whatever; then we sit down and we work on them as a band. So we never really have a specific direction. But bringing D.K. into the band definitely brings a new dynamic as far as the writing goes and personally, I think this is our strongest album so far. I love our first two, but as an overall album I think this is the best one we’ve done.
Hardrock Haven: I’d certainly agree with that. For this album, you renewed your collaboration with a renowned producer Andy Reilly [the mastering of the material being done by Maor Appelbaum]. Are you satisfied with the effects of this collaboration?
Chris Taylor: Absolutely! This is the third record that we’ve done with Andy and we love working with him. He totally gets us as a band and he knows what sound production-wise we’re going for. I don’t know what the future holds, but we may do our fourth record
with him ‘cause we’ve always enjoyed working with him.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve just mentioned that when writing a song, the band doesn’t aim to sound this or that way. Yet, you’re often labeled as successors to the sound of Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC. Would you indeed call them your crucial influences and in what ways did their music influence yours?
Chris Taylor: A lot. I mean, I would definitely say AC/DC and Guns N’Roses are our huge influences. For me personally, Duff McKagan is one of my favorite bass players. We as a band have a core group of influences – you know, bands like AC/DC, Guns N’Roses, Aerosmith and a lot bands from that era. And with that, each of us kind of branches out in our own little world musically sometimes. I’m a big fan of Punk music and Heber [Pampillon, Kickin Valentina’s guitar player] is a big fan of Blues-oriented guitar players whereas Jimmy [Berdine, Kickin Valentina’s drummer] likes more Melodic stuff and newer bands like H.E.A.T. and Eclipse and that type of stuff and D.K. kind of incorporates a little bit of all of that. So with all those core influences that we have and the other stuff that we listen to, we just kind of bring it all to the table when we get together and write.
Hardrock Haven: Speaking of influences, KISS was surely one for many bands out there and recently Gene Simmons went on to reiterate his famous quote “Rock is dead.” If you talked with him now instead of me, what would be your reaction to what he says?
Chris Taylor: I don’t think Rock is dead in the sense that there’s still a lot of good bands out there. I think Rock is dead in the sense of mainstream recognition and if I were to sit down with Gene Simmons (laughs), I’d tell him that maybe KISS would take some bands out on tour with them – some newer, up and coming bands – so maybe someone like him has the power and the ability to give some of these bands some exposure.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely, something should be done about it by bands like them with their connections and their power. Anyway, Kickin Valentina is definitely one of the most promising US bands out there, but in general, it’s hard not to notice that these days somehow Europe and especially Scandinavia dominate when it comes to producing new Rock and Metal acts. You’ve even mentioned some of them. Why do you think it is so?
Chris Taylor: That’s an excellent question and I honestly don’t know (laughs). A lot of Americans have embraced bands like Nickelback and Shinedown and some stuff like that and that’s all well and good, but it seems like in Europe – I guess especially Scandinavia – they have embraced more of the attitude and the image of the older bands. Whereas in America, if a band comes out that has any kind of image to them and they’re onstage in anything more than just their jeans and t-shirt, they’re automatically just labeled as an ‘80s throwback. And I don’t know if it’s just because media portrayed things that way… In reality, a lot of those bands even in their heyday – with the exception of certain publications – they didn’t get great critical acclaim, to begin with. They just had fans. They had outlets like MTV at the time, but it was all fan-driven anyway. We just don’t have the publications and as many outlets in the US as in Europe I think. There are some great bands in the US, but when we compare it to Europe, Europeans definitely have the market for right now for good Rock music (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: Exactly. Still, as you’ve said, surely there’s plenty of interesting bands in the US scene – can you think of any you’d like us to keep an eye on from now on?
Chris Taylor: Oh, absolutely! There’s another band in Atlanta called Asphalt Valentine that’s really good. They’ve just released a new video as a matter of fact. There’s a band in Indianapolis called American Bombshell that we really like – we’ve played with these guys a few times. There’s also Pröwess from North Carolina and Station from New York. Oh, and also Wicked – they’re a bunch of younger guys and it’s almost like a cross between early Mötley Crüe and Sweet with maybe some early Alice Cooper. They’re very Glam, a very cool band.
Hardrock Haven: Much to discover then! And again, there’s a lot of talking about the US audiences being more trend-oriented and more difficult to please, so what’s your opinion on that – especially with your experience on playing live on both sides of the pond?
Chris Taylor: We love playing in America and we love all of our fans over there. And I think the difference is that in US people have a tendency to pigeonhole and break everything down by genre and subgenre way too much. One thing that we’ve noticed in Europe is that we’ve played with some heavier bands. One of our last tours was with the German band called Nitrogods which was very Motörhead- and Rose Tattoo-influenced. We’ve also played with straight Metal bands over there before and people were into it. We could never do that in the US, though. I think in Europe if you go onstage and you have loud guitars and what you do is real and honest and the energy is there, people are into it. Whereas in the US, it’s just like I said – everybody has their little genre they’re in and that’s kind of what they’re operating and what they’re listening to.
Hardrock Haven: That surely must have its consequences. And speaking of gigs, you’ve supported the whole variety of bands. What do you think a newer band can learn from a headliner, and what did you learn from any of them?
Chris Taylor: We’ve got to play with some bands that have been around for a long time. Some of them were bands we grew up on or were influenced by… You just watch these bands. And actually, I did the same thing even when I wasn’t playing with them – you know, you watch these bands perform and interact with the crowd and things like that, and you just kind of learn from that. They’ve been doing it for a long time, so [you] learn from all the experience they have.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. An opening band’s role may not be the easiest one, though…
Chris Taylor: You know, we’ve done shows where the headliner definitely wasn’t the most accommodating (laughs)… To say the least, that is… (laughs) You don’t get good sound and you just kind of throw your gear onstage and go. All you can really do is just go up there and do what you do, give the best show you possibly can and just sell it to the crowd. At the end of the day, it’s all you can do. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best sound or any lights or whatever… you just go up [there] and do your thing.
Hardrock Haven: Photos in social media are one thing and reality is obviously the other, so in all honesty, what’s the reality of a contemporary Hard Rock band today? You’ve already mentioned the lack of mainstream recognition being one of the problems…
Chris Taylor: As far as things like social media and stuff go, there was a time when musicians and rock stars and all had this persona about them. And they seemed so far away and so untouchable and you had no access to them. That was cool and it’s got its place and everything, but for us, we utilized social media to interact and promote and all of that… And we enjoy talking to our fans and we enjoy hanging out with them. So for us, social media has been a big platform to get our music out there and it’s all how you utilize it. The reality of bands like us is that there are always comparable tour buses to tour on and showers to take… (laughs) So sometimes the reality is just that it’s four or five guys in a van, driving for hours, and you’re tired and you don’t always sleep well… We’ve experienced both sides of it and you just have to take each tour and each situation kind of as it is and just enjoy it for what it is. And for us, we just enjoy playing music and touring and it doesn’t matter if it’s in a van or a tour bus. That’s just what you do.
Hardrock Haven: So speaking of tour buses – hopefully, not vans – I know it’s a bit risky to ask this question these days, but what are the band’s plans for 2021?
Chris Taylor: As you know, the record’s coming out on January the 22nd. We do have a tour that we’re working on for the late April all through the end of May. It’s will start in Estonia, I think… there’s also a date in Poland and in the Czech Republic… then we go to Germany and all the way to the UK. So we’ll be gone for almost four weeks. There’s still some dates that we need to fill and we hope to be announcing these dates soon. If everything goes as planned and the world starts kind of going back to normal, we really hope to be on tour again in May. But we’ll see.
Hardrock Haven: Again, fingers crossed! And is there anything you’d like to add in the end?
Chris Taylor: I just wanna thank all of our fans for sticking by us for the last couple of years because I know there was a point when people were kind of questioning if we’re gonna come out of this okay – you know, with singer changes and all that… so I just wanna thank them for sticking by us. I hope everybody enjoys the new record too!
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