Groovy Man of the Thrill Kill Kult, The TVD Interview

I have seen My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult more times in my life than any other band. The industrial dance, punk, rock, disco pioneers continually deliver a one of a kind spectacle that has often been imitated, but never actually replicated for close to 30 years now.

Their latest album Spooky Tricks is a fantastic return to form that finds TKK taking a cue from their early days while still pushing the genre forward. I was fortunate enough to chat with Thrill Kill Kult’s eclectic frontman and founder Groovy Man before their show earlier this year here in San Francisco.

So, it’s been 27 years now?

Yeah, about that.

Satanic disco, Industrial disco—what’s the best description of the band you’ve heard so far?

Oh God, that’s a hard one to pull. I don’t know, I have had so many different combinations I can’t think of a favorite. You know we change from album to album and, our sound is sort of our sound but I can’t really put it into words I guess. I would be something like Punk Rock Disco or Progressive Industrial Dance Funk Disco, there are just so many.

There are lots of reviews around the latest record saying that you have returned to the classic Thrill Kill Kult sound. Was that the goal?

It just happens you know. We don’t plan anything that we do. Not even records, we sort of map them out in the beginning and we say, “I will do this one really slow and weird and then by the time it’s done it’s completely the opposite of it.” It’s transitional as it’s being created and it sort of fluctuates in between all different kinds of things until it finally gels into say, the Thrill To Kill Kult sound you know, if that makes sense.

If you had to pick a favorite record of yours what would you choose?

I’m bad with choices. I don’t know, I think everything has its own identity, and I like them all pretty much the same when I listen to them which isn’t much.

What’s was the last one you listened to?

13 Above The Night.

I f’n love that record, the opening track on that gets me every time.

I like that album you know. I like to re-listen to stuff that we going to do before we rehearse.

Most unusual place you’ve heard your music?

I guess on that fucking show with the dancers on it. The dance contest show?

So You Think You Can Dance?

Something like that. That dance show, I don’t know…Buzz would know.

Favorite touring moment, past or present?

I thought it was fun opening for Manson.

Was that on—which tour was that? Was that first album?

No, that was like ‘90s.

Was that when he was in the lunch box on fire?

He was doing the church thing.

Oh yes, yes… So, that was the second album. Did you get to spend much time with them or did you just…?

Yeah we were friends—he’s nice to me.

I heard you used to really be into photography?

That’s where it sort of started, yeah.

And do you still keep up with that?

Yeah, I still do photographs.

Shoots?

I shoot most of the album images and then Buzz puts them together.

Have you ever had Spinal Tap moment on tour?

Yeah, of course. Once, somebody pulled my mic cord out and then I pulled it back out of their hands and plugged it in. And then they pulled the mic stand and the mic then hit me in my mouth and split both my top and bottom lip.

Oh shit…

Then I grabbed them and yelled at them mid show, “stop ruining my show, idiot!” It was just funny, it was like stage one-on-one contact.

How long did it take to finish your latest release Spooky Tricks?

I guess around a year, you know, under a year…I don’t know.

Do you guys do all the writing in the studio?

Yeah, every few times a week we meet up and I would go and you know, record whatever I had and we’d work on the parts. You know, Mars (Buzz McCoy) had a bunch of tracks started and then we created some together. Towards the end it was sort of spontaneously created.

How do you know when a record is done?

We sort of, you know, whittle it down and just—I listen to the final mixes with him.

And with the samples you guys put on there, have you ever had any trouble clearing any of them?

Not that I can remember, I mean now I guess a lot of stuff that we did would be harder to clear I guess, but no.

I read that you and Al Jourgensen started off together years ago working on a movie called the Hammerhead Housewife Thrill Kill Kult—was that project finished?

Hammerhead Housewife was my project so no, I haven’t really evolved it into anything. I did Darling Kandie and Catastrophe Clown, those are my sort of things but Hammerhead Housewife was like a noise band. I hired Al for my second band that I was in as a guitarist.

Do you still talk to Al?

Not for a while, not since his book. A lot of people are sort of mad at him.

What do you listen to on the road, what’s in your playlist?

I like Boots Electric—from Eagles of Death Metal, his singing, his band, it’s so great. Fuck, I love that guy—he’s sort of my rock and roll idol.

Jesse Hughes, is that his name?

I guess, the singer right, with the big mustache and…

Yeah.

Then he’s all out—he’s so fucking camp. I love Eagles Of Death Metal and shit like that, I have many different sides, you know I have my experimental side, I have my old school like glam rock, heavy metal side which is sort of what my roots are anyway. I grew up with Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Bowie, T-Rex and all that other shit from England—you know, got into punk in ‘76 with the Ramones and the Stranglers and Vibrators and all these kind of punk things. I was into Wire, Sex Pistols, then Public Image…

So in the epic battle of the Sex Pistols versus The Clash who do you take and why?

The Sex Pistols.

Do you remember where you were at when Michael Jackson died?

Yeah, in LA. Well it’s really weird, my friend makes these vests which I wear. We actually make them together, he saws them up and then I paint them and bleach them and put shit all over them, we’ve been doing it for years. He has a salon and we had one hanging up in the window and this stylist came in who was buying wardrobe for the dancers who were going to be in the Michael Jackson thing. So, she saw our jackets, she was like “I want them, I want three of them,” she bought three of them for this fucking Michael Jackson thing and we were like—how weird…like our stuff’s going to used in this Michael Jackson tour. Two weeks later he was dead.

So, it was kind of weird you know, but when I had met her I was always asking her “What’s he like, do you talk to him, what does he eat, what’s he do?” and her descriptions of him were really weird, like “Oh look, the cat likes the milk,” he was always on something like, “Oh look at this or that.” But yeah, isn’t that funny—you’d never think that.

Thrill Kill Kult puts out a record every few years, you guys have a good cadence, is this on purpose?

When we feel like it’s time, it just happens, like I said it’s all sort of spontaneously—you know it was just time for a new record.

Where there labels coming after you guys?

We were going to do a deal, we decided not to at the end of our catalogues. Our 13 album catalogue not counting the Sleaze Box releases is all available; we were trying to find the right place for it.

Back in the 90s’ there was this huge industrial movement. I think you guys took it a whole new level with Hit and Run Holiday because it introduced funk, horns, and the disco elements which was really cool.

Yeah, we sort of busted out of it, a lot of the fans at the beginning they didn’t understand it and they were not excited about the disco, but then we gained a whole bunch of new fans.

Did you guys ever play with Nine Inch Nails?

No, he came to a few shows years ago, I waved at him once.

I read that Cory Taylor from Slipknot said that Confessions of a Knife was his fifth favorite album of all time?

It was on his list—I met Cory four or five years ago. He went and had his hair cut or something at this salon where my friend works and was hanging out there. I didn’t know who he was and we were talking about bands and stuff and he was like “I know your band” and I’m like, “What band are you in?” He’s really sweet, he is—see, that’s the way that I met people in LA.