NXNE Presents Kill Krinkle Club

As many of you know that next week running from June 17th to the 21st is NXNE in Toronto. For those of you that have been under a rock and have no clue what NXNE is well smarten up and listen up. NXNE is Toronto’s ultimate Music and Film conference that caters to the true independent artists. With 50 films to view and 50 music venues catering to 500 bands, it is 5 days of pure entertainment pleasure.

One of the bands that will be in attendance is Kill Krinkle Club. They reign from Ireland and are making the trek to Canada.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Justin from the band and here is how it went down.

1) Residing in Ireland, what brings you to Canada? NXNE?

Yep, we're here for NXNE. We're also filming a Take Away Show for La Blogotheque. You know that one with Arcade Fire in an elevator and Grizzly Bear on the street? Should be fun.

Apparently there's a great buzz around NXNE time and we've heard great things about Toronto too, so can't wait!

And we're no strangers to Canada either, we played the Halifax Pop Explosion last October.

2) How long has Kill Krinkle Club been touring and are you guys ready to strangle each other yet?

Haha, no, not yet! We've been touring on and off for over a year. We don't fight much, maybe the odd silly argument, "turn your keyboard down"...."no, you turn your guitar down". That sort of stuff. It’s usually resolved with Elina getting me in a headlock. We can be brutally honest with each other, which is great. In some bands you can tell the guitarist his hair out of place and that's it. End of band.

3) Do you normally travel with just the 2 of you or do you have roadies to do all your grunt work and pay them with them beer?

We've a live band now. We thought it was easier than getting roadies. We think ahead like that. A few cans of beer and they're happy. They ride with the cargo in the chicken cage while we're in first class sipping expensive wine from a top hat with a cherry in it. Ah, I'm kidding.... its champagne of course.

4) Now onto your music, your influences range from Tom Waits to Neil Young to The Beach Boys. I notice that every song has a unique sound to it. Curious to know the thought process when writing a song.


We believe in expression and being as free as possible--that includes the freedom to be crap, to make mistakes and to let it all hang out. We've come up with great stuff by accident. "Mistakes are the portholes to discovery" as Joyce says. "A man who never made a mistake is a man who'll never learn" You know who said that? Me.

We love harmonies, we love 80's pop, we love weird music, ugly music all together. Just throw it all in the cauldron and brew it up. Throw all the paint at the wall and work with that! Now, that sounds messy but what comes out is something surprisingly delicate and intricate. Cinema and literature has a big influence on us. Haruki Murakami, James Joyce, David Lynch...these guys all have a dark undercurrent to their work...they embraced the darkness and infiltrated the mainstream. We dig that. And of course its important to have a sense of humour, have a bit of fun with the whole thing...that makes you freer also.

5) I saw in your video on your Myspace page that during the performance of Silver that you use looping. Is this a common thing in your live shows?


It used to be. We would loop and do theater soliloquies and vocal harmonies. Its something we'll go back to at some stage. We had quite a complicated set-up on stage with loops through samplers and the like...it can be tricky at festivals without a sound check. We've the live band now, which is great for a fuller sound and 4 part harmonies. And we love the guys even if they do smell of chicken faeces.

6) I read an article on Venus Zine that your live shows your fans can be mistaken as fairytale characters. Do you have any great plans for the NXNE show that may or may not consist of Hansel and Gretel or the creepy Mad Hatter?

Well, we'll see. We love to create our own world on stage, Elina has great ideas for stage shows, quite bizarre, but y'know all the props are at home! Still, we'll see what we can cook up. You mentioned a man in a long green trench coat on Queen St. who goes crazy if you look him in the eye. Maybe we could get him to do a starry eyed duet with Elina. By maybe I mean definitely.

7) If you do finally Kill Krinkle then will you be called – Krinkle is Dead or Dead Krinkle?


Good question! We hadn't thought of that. Or if we seriously maimed him. Kill (One Armed) Krinkle Club. Or we almost do him in and the Doctor comes in and says (in deep Doctor voice)..."well now...Krinkle...he's in a coma and he may stay there for a long long time...you could say he's not really dead, he's not really alive..." and that opens up a whole can of worms metaphysically speaking. We have to end up calling ourselves The Krinkle In A Coma Club (I know its serious).

8) Finally, any shows that are must for Kill Krinkle Club to see @ NXNE?

Lots of shows we want to catch. Ghost Bees, Timber Timbre, No Age to name but a few. And we're really looking forward to uncovering a few gems we've never heard of...that's what these festivals are all about. Plus, the NXNE parties, we can't forget them!

For more about Kill Krinkle Club visit their Myspace page. http://www.myspace.com/killkrinkleclub

And most definitely go check out their shows next week.

Thursday 18th June, 1pm @ NXPO Day Stage, Hyatt Regency
(FREE)

Friday 19th June 10pm @ Holy Joe's, 651 Queen Street West
($10 or Free w/ NXNE wristband)