Kill-Me Kare Bare shares the "fun" that went into their new album

​I think Rebecca Black sums up Kill-Me Kare Bare's music best with her world-famous quote, "Fun, fun, fun."  The band even made a video promoting their album release, Just For Fun (hey, it's also in the title of their album) at Cause parodying Ms. Black's video.  

While many new artists find their niche in running their band with business-like precision, sarcasm and light-heartedness is a theme that runs through all projects this band produces.  Smart move?  Yes!  For funny sells, garnering them recent attention from quite a bit of local press.  


Members:
Blake Stoppel- vocals guitar
Chris Johnson-keyboards
Matt Hoppe-drums
Jared Denton Jones- guitar, vocals
Scott Hefte- bass, vocals

CD release show June 24, 2011 at Cause with With a Gun For a Face, The van Gobots, and Hunting Club.
21+, $5, 9 pm

Gimme Noise: Where does the name Kill-Me Kare Bare come from?

Blake Stoppel: Umm. I was just thinking of caring for something or someone so much. Overindulgence comes into play and actually destroys what you love right before your eyes.  Kinda of like feeding your dog pizza everyday cause it seems like they love to eat pizza, so you just keep feeding them to keep him or her happy...if that makes sense. Haha.

I hear a little Weezer in your music; besides bananas, where do you guys draw inspiration from when writing?

I'm glad you noticed the bananas, you know, potassiam is crucial to writing a good hook or a catchy verse...

But seriously, it is a little different for all of us in the group.  We all love playing music with each other, that's for sure, so just by getting together, there is a lot of energy and excitement in the room.  I find that inspiring.

Dreamgirls (not the strip club, but actually amazing women that don't exist...kind of)  seem to play a role in a lot in the KMKB writing material, at least on some level. 

Maybe level two, you know.  We recently traveled to London UK to record Just For Fun, which will be our latest release, I must say a very inspirational time there. 

We basically wrote and recorded 4 songs in 5 days while we were there. Not to mention that we got to work with a producer that Blake and Chris have been a fan of for years. 

Actually four years prior to us all going to London, Gisli Kristjannson has worked in the music industry for a long time and has so much experience.  He has produced a lot of great bands, as well having a successful solo recording career himself, and as fate would have it we really got along with him.  Which made for a super fun day, every single day we were there.

Being in London was just a whole story in itself; we will have a book someday just on that few days. (10 days) So much life happened.  We met a lot of great people
there and are really looking forward to going back next year for a tour.

What makes KMKB unique and different from so many other bands these days?

One thing we do is have a lot of fun and try not to be so serious about everything.  Even though at times bands tend to run like a business, unfortunately, but overall we like to come up with crazy goals and just do them. 

The band got serious only about a year ago when KMKB had an official line up of members who were ready to make some cool dreams happen. For example: let's go to London and record an EP. (Did it!)

Next, we decided to play on a boat on the Mississippi and have Kill-Me Kare Bare's first annual boat party! We just booked that for Aug. 27th with 3 other great local bands!!  So I don't know if that answers your question, but those are the types of things we are doing.

We have a couple more fun ideas cooking at the moment.

What comes first, the lyrics or the music?

It's always different, we have a few different formulas to write songs.  Chris and Blake have been playing together a long time, and Matt used to be in a band with them years ago (Mark of the Underdogs).

So we have a strong writing connection that just happens.  Jared and Blake are always hanging out writing hooks in the basement and such, so Blake will take those and demo out the songs in his room, put them on a disc, show them to everyone, and everyone seems to know what to do with it instantly and all of the sudden..whammo, we have a new song.

What artists are you listening to now?  Locally?  Non-local?

Hunting Club just gave me their last CD, which I've been listening to, and A Gun For A Face is another great local band.  Just got the disc and really enjoying that..

They are both goods friends of ours and also playing at our CD release this Friday at Cause.
Never have I ever been skydiving while playing the opening riff to "Sweet Child of Mine" and then landing in a sweet convertible race car with, guess who is driving...yup, you guessed it. Burt Reynolds. 

And then, of course I never broke into a really cool theme park with said Burt and our friends Lady Gaga and Big Bird,not to mention the entire crew from The Real World episodes from the late '90s. Then proceed to ride all of the rides backwards.

Never have I ever done that.