Interviews

Glamour Of The Kill Interview

• 22nd Mar 2011

York metal mob Glamour Of The Kill are currently trekking the UK promoting their debut album The Summoning. Front man and bassist Dave Richmond takes some time out as they hit Southampton to talk about their headline tour, the new album and music video as well as discussing festival season.

How’s the tour been going so far?
Really well yeah. I think this is the ninth or tenth date, and it’s been amazing. A few of them have sold out already, just looking forward to the rest now. Our hometown show was amazing and Northampton is always a good time. We have quite a big following now all over which is awesome.

You also did some signing sessions in January, how did they go because you also played some acoustic sets didn’t you?
They went really well. They were in really random places like Marlborough, I don’t even know where that is, no one does! They were all amazing and so many people came down and got the CD signed and met us, it was really cool. It was something we haven’t done before. We had to change some of the songs around and convert them into acoustic songs but it was really good.

Was it quite hard to do, changing them into acoustic?
Not really because on the new album there’s quite a few radio friendly songs that were quite easy to convert.

You’ve recently released your album “The Summoning.” For those that don’t know much about the record, how would you sum up what it’s about?
To be honest I’d just call it all of our influences mixed up and put into one big album. I mean, I’d say there was a song in there for everyone. There are metal songs, there are poppy songs and there’s an acoustic song on the end of the album that’ll make your mum cry!

Who would you say your influences are?
I was brought up listening to Bob Dylan and David Bowie. But I think our main influences on this album are bands like Pantera, Metallica, Iron Maiden and also newer bands like Avenged Sevenfold and As I Lay Dying. We take our influences from everywhere and we’re not afraid to show that in our songs.

How did you find the writing and recording process?
Quite easy to be honest, we’ve had some of the songs written for a long time and we’ve toured the songs. We went into the rehearsal rooms for a couple of months and got the rest of the songs written. I think we wrote about 15 or 16 songs, cut them down to 11 best songs. Then we recorded them on a rubbish little recorder, so we knew exactly what we wanted. When we went into the studio and did the recording, it was like bang, bang, bang. It only took about a month to set it all in stone. We wanted it to be the right time and we didn’t want to rush it and release something rubbish. I think releasing it now was definitely the right time.

You created your own record label Afflicted Music. What was the reason behind creating this?
We just wanted total control over it. It did take a long time to record the stuff so I think it was like our little baby, we didn’t want anyone telling us what we could or couldn’t do on it. We wanted full control over the artwork, what song was going to be the first video, how they were going to be, what the track listing was going to be. I think it’s just nice to have that freedom really and we see a lot of bands that don’t have their say, so it was nice to have that. You make more money as well! It’s easier, but then again if Warner Brother’s want to give us a nice big cheque I think we’d go with them! But no, it’s just nice to have that freedom and have total control over something you’ve made.

You produced your music video for “Feeling Alive.” Tell me about how you found filming that because it was your first video wasn’t it?
We’d done a low budget one for ‘A Hope In Hell’ which weren’t that good. But it was really fun. It was a day of recording in a venue in Bolton, we got there at ten in the morning and we left at eight. So it was quite tedious because we had to listen to the song about sixty times! Obviously you have to go through it with different camera angles and stuff like that. But I really enjoyed it. It’s always fun to do things like that because it’s just different to playing live, and it’s a good feeling, especially when you’ve done it and see the final outcome, it’s awesome.

Where did the idea come from for the video?
They actually came up with the idea. We knew in advance, they sent over a storyline and we really liked what they came up with. It was different because it wasn’t just predictable like “Let’s just have a house party and film it!” It was just a bit different to what other bands do and the outcome is really good, we’re really happy with it.

What was it about this song that made you want to do a video for it?
I think it’s just a really catchy, ear-friendly song and it’s a really upbeat song as well and it gets people in a party mood, a good mood. I think it’s one of my favourite songs on the album. The first teaser we released was ‘Supremacy’, which is a heavier song. But I think from day one we wanted that song to be the first thing people saw.

You filmed it with Sitcom Soldiers, what was it about this company that made you want to work with them?
We’d seen them work with a load of other bands like Young Guns and We Are The Ocean; they’ve done a few videos with them. They’re just really cool guys to work with, really easy going as well so it was just an easy flowing day. We actually just shot our new video with them for “If Only She Knew,” which should be coming out in a few months.

Once the tour is over, what are your planning to do?
We’ve got 29 dates in the UK and then we have a few days off and then we go to mainland Europe. We play Amsterdam, Paris and Milan, places like that. Got 19 dates over there and that will bring us to festival season. We’re going to be doing a big festival, can’t tell you just yet but I can say the festival title has an O in it. It’s always good to play festivals because it’s just everyone from all the different cities piled into one place so it’s cool.

Have you ever played any European festivals?
Yeah we played Powerfest, which is this big all day thing in Amsterdam with A Day To Remember, the audience were crazy. We played a festival in Finland, which was amazing. It was really weird because it didn’t go dark, it was just light all the time. It was mental! We’ll be doing more in the summer as well.