It happened. It finally happened. We knew that one of these days we would discover a band that would knock our socks off.
It was the fourth time that we reluctantly agreed to go through the long lists of acts tipped off by Myspace, in search of the holy grail, the real deal, the bomb of the year, although with the notion that, once again, we would maybe come across a couple or three artists we sort of liked, each with just one song we would truly dig. What we did not prepare for was for a band that would literally blow our minds with not one, but 6 songs in a row.
From Set Me on Fire to Holy Funk, from Japanese Tourist to Happy Days and of course our adored Revolution and Lose Myself, we have been listening to these killer tunes like there is no tomorrow, over and over and over again. Powerful in music and lyrics, they are also taking critics and peers by storm.
This certainly seemed to be the effect that Killaflaw caused in BBC's Tom Robinson, Kerrang!'s Emma Scott and XFM's Eddy Temple-Morris. After all, the winners of the 2008 Liverpool's Institute for Performing Arts award could not go unnoticed by our specialised music colleagues.
It is a question of time, a very short time that the BAND takes on the mainstream public at a mass level, for, as also mentioned by DJ Magazine last March, they are destined to be massive.
Of becoming massive knows very well Liam Howlett (The Prodigy) a self-declared fan of the band, and electro legends Utah Saints, who produced an exclusive remix of their Set Me on Fire.
With influences of The Prodigy, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd and the Chemical Brothers, to name a few, and regarded as “the missing link between Soundgarden and The Prodigy “ we would say that, Killaflaw, is what The Doors would have sounded like having formed in the 21st Century.
Killaflow was born in 2006 from two main components: the electrifying voice and unique songwriting skills of Benn Helm (vocals, guitar, studio synths) and the breakbeat wizardry and melodic taste of Andy Paton (synths, samplers, drum machines, trumpet).
The band's name apparently originates from Howlin' Wolf's tune 'Killing Floor', a song covered by Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. It would not be far-fetched to predict that they are going to be "killing the floor" for at least the next decade.
It was in fact in 2008 that Benn and Andy would officially join forces and since then, there has not been a going back. The road has been mapped out and they are now travelling it full force with, from this last spring, their third maverick, former Apollo 440 and Pendulum drummer Paul Kodish.
Recently signed by indie label A Perfect Noise, we can easily imagine Mark Ashworth, the band's label representative, barely containing a huge grin while his pounding heart threaten to rip his chest open, when he realised that his label has very certainly signed the new holy grail of British acts.
Guys, thank you for taking the time to respond to this interview, we know that, as a musical group, summer finds you especially busy in terms of tour dates, and Glastonbury is a massive one.
1. MDM_ Previously to forming Killaflaw, you gigged in the The Royal Albert Hall and Summer Pops with The Jones’s, backing James Brown. You also write your own acoustic material. What made you think of blending your style with the sound of the rave scene?
1. BENN_ Basically, by being out clubbing and singing along to the tunes, but putting my own melodies and words to them (probably annoying everyone around me at the time!!). The funny thing is I never liked tunes that had vocals in them but would always put my own vocals over the tunes I liked. I then got back into rock n roll and heavily into blues, but still kept a love of dance music, e.g. The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and so on. I always knew a blues rock style vocal would work over that type of sound, as it gives you so much freedom to explore and expand on the different styles of music that you can create and the example is Killaflaw.
2. MDM_ Your voice is one of those gifted voices that can hit the notes both in low blues or screeching rock so it is obvious that it matured in a rock/blues environment. Benn, who is the one artist that have always inspired you in order to push vocal limits?
2. BENN_There has never really been one particular singer that I could pinpoint and say them, but if pushed it would either be Jim Morrison or Lenny Kravitz, which is strange since my favourite band is Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant is such an amazing singer!! though in general I like so many different types of singers from all different styles of music, from crooners to screeching rock to the likes of Bob Dylan an lots of female vocalists as well. I kind of take bits from each vocalist and incorporate the different styles into my own, but always heavily influenced by blues since that is the father of all my musical loves and roots.
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