{"id":69139,"date":"2021-01-23T16:48:07","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T21:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=69139"},"modified":"2021-01-24T15:03:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T20:03:37","slug":"interview-with-chris-taylor-of-kickin-valentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2021\/interview-with-chris-taylor-of-kickin-valentina\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Taylor of Kickin Valentina"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s a single quote that electrifies all fans of Rock music all around the globe \u2013 and one that provokes countless discussions among them \u2013 it goes, \u201cRock is dead.\u201d We all know well who\u2019s 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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickin Valentina is certainly one of these. Founded in 2013, the US-based ensemble returns on the 22nd<\/sup> of January, 2021 with their new full-length album, The Revenge Of Rock<\/em>, 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<\/sup> century. So, what\u2019s the reality of it for Kickin Valentina…? Is it always smooth sailing when your band\u2019s opening for a bigger act? And finally \u2013 is Rock dead…? These are the things Hardrock Haven discussed with Kickin Valentina\u2019s bass player Chris Taylor alongside all the details of the upcoming album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hardrock Haven: It\u2019s been a while since the last studio album from you guys. What was Kickin Valentina up to during that time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: To be honest with you \u2013 looking for a new singer (laughs) We put Imaginary Creatures <\/em>[Kickin Valentina\u2019s 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 <\/em>out at the end of 2019 and the last year we\u2019ve just spent writing and recording to get the new album Revenge Of Rock <\/em>out. So we\u2019ve had a little bit of a snag there for a little while between records. But we\u2019re back on track now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Right on. So how did this crucial line-up change that happened influence the songwriting process for the new album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: As far as we talk our approach to writing, it didn\u2019t 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 \u2013 it really didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: It did, so it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: It worked for us in the end (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: As far as the live shows go, we only got to do two in 2020 \u2013 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\u2019re definitely read to start playing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 we had [a campaign] for Imaginary Creatures <\/em>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\u2019t in love with the idea. One of the things that we did to kind of make it cool \u2013 and I know a lot of bands do this too \u2013 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, \u201cOh, I saw someone wearing this shirt, but you guys don\u2019t have it in your merch store, so how can I get it…?\u201d And we were like, \u201cWell, it\u2019s only available through that [campaign].\u201d So we tried to make it fun and to get people exclusive perks and merch that they\u2019re not gonna get anywhere else except through the campaign. But my opinion on them, honestly, has kind of come around. I think they\u2019re a good thing and something bands can do and have fun with their fans and like I said, get some exclusive items to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: The Revenge Of Rock<\/em> is the third Kickin Valentina album, so do you feel it\u2019s a step forward especially if you compare it with the two previous ones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: You know, honestly I do. I think we\u2019ve explored some different things with this album than the things we\u2019ve done in the past. You know, we played around with harmonies and things like that we\u2019ve never really done before. When we\u2019re going to write songs, we never sit down and say, \u201cWe want something that sounds like this\u201d or \u201cWe wanna go in this direction or that direction.\u201d 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\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: I\u2019d 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: Absolutely! This is the third record that we\u2019ve done with Andy and we love working with him. He totally gets us as a band and he knows what sound production-wise we\u2019re going for. I don\u2019t know what the future holds, but we may do our fourth record
with him \u2018cause we\u2019ve always enjoyed working with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019ve just mentioned that when writing a song, the band doesn\u2019t aim to sound this or that way. Yet, you\u2019re often labeled as successors to the sound of Guns N\u2019 Roses and AC\/DC. Would you indeed call them your crucial influences and in what ways did their music influence yours?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: A lot. I mean, I would definitely say AC\/DC and Guns N\u2019Roses 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 \u2013 you know, bands like AC\/DC, Guns N\u2019Roses, 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\u2019m a big fan of Punk music and Heber [Pampillon, Kickin Valentina\u2019s guitar player] is a big fan of Blues-oriented guitar players whereas Jimmy [Berdine, Kickin Valentina\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cRock is dead.\u201d If you talked with him now instead of me, what would be your reaction to what he says?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: I don\u2019t think Rock is dead in the sense that there\u2019s 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\u2019d tell him that maybe KISS would take some bands out on tour with them \u2013 some newer, up and coming bands \u2013 so maybe someone like him has the power and the ability to give some of these bands some exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s hard not to notice that these days somehow Europe and especially Scandinavia dominate when it comes to producing new Rock and Metal acts. You\u2019ve even mentioned some of them. Why do you think it is so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: That\u2019s an excellent question and I honestly don\u2019t know (laughs). A lot of Americans have embraced bands like Nickelback and Shinedown and some stuff like that and that\u2019s all well and good, but it seems like in Europe \u2013 I guess especially Scandinavia \u2013 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\u2019re onstage in anything more than just their jeans and t-shirt, they\u2019re automatically just labeled as an \u201880s throwback. And I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just because media portrayed things that way… In reality, a lot of those bands even in their heyday \u2013 with the exception of certain publications \u2013 they didn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Exactly. Still, as you\u2019ve said, surely there\u2019s plenty of interesting bands in the US scene \u2013 can you think of any you\u2019d like us to keep an eye on from now on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: Oh, absolutely! There\u2019s another band in Atlanta called Asphalt Valentine that\u2019s really good. They\u2019ve just released a new video as a matter of fact. There\u2019s a band in Indianapolis called American Bombshell that we really like \u2013 we\u2019ve played with these guys a few times. There\u2019s also Pr\u00f6wess from North Carolina and Station from New York. Oh, and also Wicked \u2013 they\u2019re a bunch of younger guys and it\u2019s almost like a cross between early M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce and Sweet with maybe some early Alice Cooper. They\u2019re very Glam, a very cool band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Much to discover then! And again, there\u2019s a lot of talking about the US audiences being more trend-oriented and more difficult to please, so what\u2019s your opinion on that \u2013 especially with your experience on playing live on both sides of the pond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019ve noticed in Europe is that we\u2019ve played with some heavier bands. One of our last tours was with the German band called Nitrogods which was very Mot\u00f6rhead- and Rose Tattoo-influenced. We\u2019ve 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\u2019s just like I said \u2013 everybody has their little genre they\u2019re in and that\u2019s kind of what they\u2019re operating and what they\u2019re listening to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: That surely must have its consequences. And speaking of gigs, you\u2019ve 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: We\u2019ve 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\u2019t playing with them \u2013 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\u2019ve been doing it for a long time, so [you] learn from all the experience they have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Definitely. An opening band\u2019s role may not be the easiest one, though…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: You know, we\u2019ve done shows where the headliner definitely wasn\u2019t the most accommodating (laughs)… To say the least, that is… (laughs) You don\u2019t 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\u2019s all you can do. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve got the best sound or any lights or whatever… you just go up [there] and do your thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Photos in social media are one thing and reality is obviously the other, so in all honesty, what\u2019s the reality of a contemporary Hard Rock band today? You\u2019ve already mentioned the lack of mainstream recognition being one of the problems…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s four or five guys in a van, driving for hours, and you\u2019re tired and you don\u2019t always sleep well… We\u2019ve 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\u2019t matter if it\u2019s in a van or a tour bus. That\u2019s just what you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So speaking of tour buses \u2013 hopefully, not vans \u2013 I know it\u2019s a bit risky to ask this question these days, but what are the band\u2019s plans for 2021?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Taylor: As you know, the record\u2019s coming out on January the 22nd<\/sup>. We do have a tour that we\u2019re working on for the late April all through the end of May. It\u2019s will start in Estonia, I think… there\u2019s also a date in Poland and in the Czech Republic… then we go to Germany and all the way to the UK. So we\u2019ll be gone for almost four weeks. There\u2019s 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\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Again, fingers crossed! And is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019re gonna come out of this okay \u2013 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014 If there\u2019s a single quote that electrifies all fans of Rock music all around the globe \u2013 and one that provokes countless discussions among them \u2013 it goes, \u201cRock […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":69154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15257,15258],"class_list":{"0":"post-69139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-chris-taylor","9":"tag-kickin-valentina"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}