KILL IT KID

When people try to describe Kill It Kid, they generally mention Antony Hegarty, The White Stripes, probably Delta blues, maybe Tom Waits and sometimes jazz too. So, yeah, it's not an easy one to call. So let's just say this: Kill It Kid make some pretty impressive music. Signed to One Little Indian early last year, just three months after forming, the band have been slowly and quietly been working towards their debut album, which is due out later this year. You can get a taster of it next week, though, when the band release their new single, 'Send Me An Angel Down'. We spoke to vocalist and guitarist Chris Turpin.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
We met at Bath Spa University where four-fifths of the us where studying music. Me and Adam started Kill It Kid as a two piece acoustic act, and first we met Rich after we asked him to do a couple of sessions for us on some recordings we were doing. Steph joined in after I played guitar behind her for a jazz concert she was putting on. I also met Marc relatively early, he approached me after show at The Porter in Bath. A couple of weeks later he was playing a few shows with me! It made sense to bring everyone together so about Febuary 08 we formed Kill It Kid the five piece.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Well, we had about five months to put the album together. We were picked up by our label at such an early point in the bands development that what people will hear on the record is literally what we had at the birth of the band, we had no opportunity to over-think it, it's what the five of us were doing at that point in time, which is quite liberating but also absolutely terrifying! We knew we wanted to pull a new sound out of the old country blues and jazz records of the 1920s to 1940s, trying to build on this anthology of music but approaching it with an aim to make it our own.

Recently I became fascinated with the wealth of music in the 'Great American Songbook', and I became totally absorbed and immersed myself in their songwriting, looking at it as a craft an creative process in its own right. A lot of our songs, just like the blues or country ballads, focus on love and loss. However I wanted the protagonist to take an assertive, almost aggressive tone placing them in a position of power and I'm not sure if this has been done much before. It lifts the songs out of the typical 'I've been hard done by, but I still love her' mindset that dogs people coming out of relationships - and it sounds pretty scary!

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I will write the song, take it to Rich and Steph, we will organise the harmonies and throw together some structural ideas then the whole band will beat it out for two or three hours. After a few rehearsals we have something we are all happy with.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Everyone in the band has different musical influences, from Blind Willie McTell to Etta James, Zeplin to Grappelli and Ben Harper to The White Stripes, we all cover a pretty vast area of music, and we are pretty proud of this!

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Don't panic! Keep an open mind.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
To take this as far as it will go.

MORE>> www.myspace.com/killitkid