MARK: Hi, can you introduce yourself and what you do in the band?
DAMION: Hello, My names Damion, I play bass.
MARK: Who else makes up The Killerest Expression?
DAMION: There’s Gav, guitar and vocals, ben, guitar and vocals and Sid on drums.
MARK: Congratulations on your new mini album, ‘Four Days That Shook The World’. How pleased have you been with the response to it from both fans and critics?
DAMION: Many thanks – to be honest the response so far has been amazing! Every review has been really positive which has blown us all away, when we did our single a couple of years back we were all over the moon at the response we got from the people who reviewed it which was basically a few zines and a couple of websites, so when we released this we expected it to get it reviewed in the same kind of places, but then it started popping up in all kinds of magazines and websites etc and it was unbelievable! Its really cool to hear people saying they like it, its amazing that its stuff we wrote in some dirty room in the middle of brum and for the first time we are playing gigs miles away from home and you can see people in the crowd who know the words and stuff, it’s the first time we’ve had that and its great!
MARK: I understand the artwork was provided by one of the band. Can you tell us
about that?
DAMION: Yeah, Sid our drummer does all our stuff like that, he did design at college and works in some sort of design job (sorry not really sure exactly what he does!) but he’s obviously pretty damn good and we have had loads of feedback about the artwork. I really like the idea of the band basically doing as much as we can, including all the design and artwork it makes it totally our cd if that makes sense?
MARK: How smoothly did the recording of the mini album go?
DAMION: Strangely enough it went very smoothly, I think we had learnt a hell of a lot from our time recording at framework in Birmingham with Paul Siddens (or Bag as he is known) that was our first time in studio and we were green as hell but he helped us loads so when we got to Pristine to do the mini album we kind of knew what we were doing! Paul and Johnny (at Pristine) were really laid back and we clicked straight away, just had a laugh for the whole time, the first night they took us out for beers, and the next day when I came to do my Bass bits I was dog rough & I kept having to excuse myself and throw up, It was all coming out of my nose and that, so that was a bit awkward – it sounded like that bit on the Captain Everything album – They also have a nice set up – i.e. A PS2 and an X box, so most of the weekend we were just playing HALO eating crisps – very nice. Mark form IADTE showed up because he’d only really met me before, I think he was going to take some photos and that but all we did was sit around playing video games. He was also shocked that all we ate was crisps, so he went out and bought us some real food, made us all lunch, he’s a good lad.
MARK: Do you write material as a band, or do some of you take control of the
creative side of things?
DAMION: Its basically a Band thing, we all tend to bring ideas down and just throw them around till we all happy, Sid the drummer had never picked up a guitar in his life – one day he did and played the riff that is “Sids song” so everyone gets involved, we all tend to have different influences so perhaps it takes us a little longer to get stuff we are all happy with – but I think in the end it works!
MARK: How did you come to release the disc through In At The Deep End Records?
DAMION: I sent a our first Cd to Uk base to get the band on there back when we were the buggers, Mark called us up to say he really liked it and could he use a track for a compilation he was doing, the Amped up comp had already been sorted but he said he would put us on the next one, in the meantime we played at the Incision First Birthday in Leicester, Mark was there and after we finished playing he just come over and we just got talking, we were starting to think about a new cd and just presumed we would do it all ourselves again, mark said he would be interested in helping us out, none of us knew how anything like that worked really, so he had to sit us down and explain how it would all work. I’m really pleased with the way its all gone, it’s great to be involved with IADTE because it’s a pretty new label so it was like being involved from the start. He’s a straight down the line kind of a guy, he explained we would get our fifty quid once we sold 50000 units from the start, we were inexperienced so its good to know were not being ripped off in any way.
MARK: How long have you guys been together as a band?
DAMION: Since 1994, but then it was just a laugh rehearsed once in a blue moon, three chords, shouting songs about getting drunk, drinking petrol, Flying Medallions covers and all that, then I went to college in Huddersfield for three years, sid was away in Salisbury for two years so we had four years where we didn’t really do anything, but it all got going again in about 1999 and we started to take it more seriously, got a lock up, started writing more songs and gigging as much as possible.
MARK: Why did you decide to drop your former name, The Buggers?
DAMION: To get signed obviously! – -(That’s a joke –ha ha ha!) I think the name never suited the music we were playing, it kind of did at first, but it sounded too old school. At first it was a great help because it was so memorable but eventually it was a hindrance, there was a couple of incidences were we found we didn’t get gigs etc because people wouldn’t listen to the cd we sent on the basis they weren’t looking for old school bands or whatever, and also we had a few reviews that basically reviewed the name not the music, it just seemed were going to loads of effort and the name was either overshadowing it or holding us back. A few of the reviews we have had have mentioned that the new name is loads better so hopefully we have done the right thing! We changed the name before we sorted anything out with Mark, he said he was happy to put stuff out by the buggers, but I think he actually hated the name!
MARK: Who are your biggest musical influences?
DAMION: We all listen to a lot of different music, Personally I like a lot of the British stuff, Southport, Snuff, Douglas, leatherface etc, Gav likes Stuff like Cable, Weezer and so on, Ben is into just about anything with guitars in it and Sid seems to like anything he’s well into his Hip Hop and listens to a lot of reggae.
MARK: You’ve played with a lot of bands over the years. Who have you most
enjoyed touring with?
DAMION: We’ve not actually done any proper tours yet! We are planning one for later in the year but its all still in the pipeline. Playing with Southport was always fun though!
MARK: Have you ever played with a band and had a Wayne’s World style “We’re not
worthy” moment?
DAMION: From a personal point of view I get that feeling a lot, there are just so many good bands out there and I just love meeting new people and playing with loads of new bands, so every time I see a band I haven’t seen before I get that feeling.
MARK: How healthy do you think the UK punk scene is at the moment?
DAMION: Very! Its incredible how many great gigs there are around the UK! A while back we played up in Leeds during the day there was a five a side tournament and on the night 5 or 6 bands played and there wasn’t one bad one amongst them. It was the first time I had seen Jerry Built and they were incredible! The first band on (I think they were called Hi tech eddy were also really good and to look forward to seeing them again). I think bands like Capdown and Hundred Reasons are doing really well and raising the profile of the UK scene which is good and Fletcher who played at Deconstruction it just goes to show that were doing it just as well as anyone else, if not better!
MARK: Where do you stand on downloading songs from the Internet?
DAMION: I think its great! There’s no way I could afford to get stuff by every band I wanted to check out, so its good to get a little taster, its also invaluable to help bands spread their music – I know its never stopped me buying a record or CD if I have the money but it has introduced me to a whole heap of bands I would probably never of heard before.
MARK: Where do you want The Killerest Expression to be this time next year?
DAMION: I want to have toured a couple of times, got some really good gigs, another CD that kind of thing, I just want to have the opportunity to be able to put as much time as possible into the band and to get to play as many gigs as we can. Obviously at the moment we all work, cus were not making any money off the band, so its just a (really) expensive hobby, it would be cool to be able to support ourselves off the band but I suppose that’s really a dream, but that’s what we head for!
MARK: Thanks for your time Damion. Anything you’d like to add?
DAMION: Cheers for the interest in the band! Check out www.killerest.com; come to see us play if you can! And if anyone can offer us any gigs or anything get in touch via the website! – The album is available via www.inatthedeependrecords.co.uk and is distributed by shellshock so it should be in your local record shop!
Up & coming gigs
August 18th Edwards No 8 – B’ham, Half dayer, 10 bands for a fiver
Sept 8th Edwards No 8 – B’ham, Half dayer –same deal as above!
Sept 10th Flapper & Firkin – B’ham w. One Car Pile up, The Lief Ericsson and the Lost Eleven
Sept 13th P’boro (the bull I think) with the Leif Ericsson
Sept 14th St Albans Pioneer
Keep checking the site for more gigs!