Q&A: An interview with Johnny Kills

Brighton via London/Cambridge/York band of misfits Johnny Kills take us on an imaginary day out in Brighton, unveil a love for bands with 'Wolf' in their name, find themselves relating to Lord of the Rings characters and talk to us about their latest single, 'Maybe Next Year' in our enjoyable interview with them below. 

Firstly, could you tell us how Johnny Kills came about?
An old band we were all in ran it's course but the three of us couldn't let it go, wouldn't let it go and DIDN'T let it go. So JK emerged the cocoon, a beautiful punk butterfly.

For those that are unfamiliar with your music, what can they expect from it?
Scuzzy garage-indie. Low quality recordings of medium-quality music.

Are you all geographically scattered or based in Brighton?
We're pretty geographically scattered, and that happened almost as soon as the band formed (great move, us). But through the power of music, friendship and the internet we make it work, Brighton is our HQ as Cameron lives there and he owns most of our gear...

Imagine I was coming down to spend the day in Brighton and you are my tour guides. Where would you recommend I hang out?
We'd sun ourselves in the gardens of the Brighton Dome, take you for a stroll down North Lane where there are some great second hand shops, record stores and just generally arty goings on. Then Fish 'n Chips on the pier, drinks at Walkabout, Molly Malones and Casablanca and finally we'd get our indie disco on at The Green Door Store. If we can squeeze in catching a gig at Sticky Mikes Frog Bar along the way then all the better.

There's currently two tracks streaming on your Soundcloud, 'Take It Easy' and your new single 'Maybe Next Year'. Could you talk us through the ideas behind each track and why you've chosen to make 'Take It Easy' available as a free download for Soundcloud users?
'Take It Easy' is about early 20s panic, that moment when you're caught between adolescence and adulthood and you're faced with having to become a grown-up.

'Maybe Next Year' is about when you get into that introspective zone and start analysing yourself that little bit too much, leading to you questioning if you're normal like everyone else. Neurotic stuff.

And we made them available for free download because we like the idea of people looking back at their iTunes/Apple Music libraries in a few years time when they've forgotten about us and thinking 'what the hell is this?' after they spot us in between James Blunt and Justin Timberlake.

Let's pretend you're playing a fantasy festival and you can pick 5 other bands/artists (past or present) to make up the line up. Who would you pick?
Wolf Parade, Wolf Alice, Wolfmother, Steppenwolf, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Imagine Johnny Kills had the opportunity to provide the soundtrack for any film that has ever been released. Which film would you pick?
Probably either 'Help!' or 'A Hard Days Night' as that would mean we were in fact The Beatles.


If each of you were a popular fictional character, who would you all be and why?
Tim - Frodo
Lewis - Sam
Cameron - Gollum

And lastly, what are your plans as a band, for the rest of the year?
We're playing our debut show in Brighton on 3rd September at The Hope and Ruin for the lovely chaps at This Feeling. Also we're going to do some more recording and release our first proper single in the Autumn, WHICH WE WILL NOT GIVE AWAY FOR FREE.

Interview feature by Karla Harris