Kickin’ Back with the Koffin Kats

Kickin’ Back with the Koffin Kats                                                                              Detroits Finest Psychobilly                                                                                             By M. Alberto Rivera

The Koffin Kats live on the road. Saturated in gas fumes, whiskey and an endless string of sleepless nights that are mad dashes from one city to the next to play another incendiary show.  Every band thinks they have what it takes to play show after show under difficult conditions.  At the first sign of trouble these bands double up on themselves and head home. The Koffin Kats are an unstoppable, uncompromising psychobilly machine.

Nurtured onDetroit’s long standing legacy of exquisitely tough, no nonsense garage and punk rock, KK are a natural extension of the cities storied musical history. With songs about horror movies, drinking, suicide, and mercy killings, The Koffin Kats focus on the darker, seedier side of life.                                                                                                                                               Listening to their music you hear Equal parts Rev. Horton Heat and The Misfits.  Close your eyes and you’ll see hot rods drag racing in grainy footage of throw back black and white movies.  The guy who wins the race, gets the girl and the losers pink slip.  And the winner is as likely to meet a grisly end from driving too fast.                                                                                                                                   Vocally Vic Victor often sounds like a young Elvis; wild and dangerous before the Army caught up to him and Hollywood ruined him. Live, Vic throws his upright bass around effortlessly as easily as Hendrix set his six string behind his head. EZ Ian plays lead like a man with his fingers on fire. Eric E-Balls rounds out the trio on drums.                                                                                             With 5 full length releases under their belt and a more shows than you could even think possible, KK are unstoppable.  The band’s blue collar approach to touring ensures a good show. The Koffin Kats always deliver an uncompromising and incendiary performance. Always.

Vic took some time out from KK’s  busy schedule to catch up with Thrust Magazine.                                                                                                                                   Detroit has a long and storied history of amazing garage/independent rock. Who were some local acts that influenced you?

Vic- Well Detroit is fortunate to have a history with Iggy, Alice Cooper, & MC5 to name a few.. as far as the more current bands when i was first getting into the billy sound I would head downtown and check out The Twistin’ Tarantulas and Eightball Grifter.

You’ve cited The Rev. Horton Heat as an inspiration. What was it about Rockabilly that captured your imagination?

Vic- I have always enjoyed the sound of the upright bass slappin’ away. Im as much a Rockabilly fan as i am a punk rock fan but in the end its all rock n roll to me.

And was there one song or performance that made you want to do play rockabilly?

Vic- Well, when I was about 12 years old I was watching Beavis and Butthead and Rev. Heats ” Psychobilly Freakout” video was on there… thought it was wild. In the years after that i began collecting music of that style and finally when I was 18 I got my first upright bass.

Are there any horror movies or books you look to for inspiration in your songwriting?

Vic-In our early material i used some inspiration from the Jason and Freddy movies. Not too mention Texas Chainsaw Massacre. These days most of my inspiration comes from traveling and drinking a lot of booze hahah.

Do you have a favorite song to perform live?

Vic- Ive never played a Koffin Kats show without playing the song “V8 Nightmare” … so I guess we can consider that one haha. Its hard to pick just one.

You’ve talked about having jobs when you’re not touring. Is it hard to get yourself back to the mind frame of a regular job?

Vic- We used to have jobs.. now were on tour so much that were not home long enough to hold a normal job down. In the past we were so used to playing states away on a saturday and then waking up at 6 in the morning on a monday only to go to a lame job haha.

What do you like to do when you’re off the road?                                                       Vic- These days we use the time to work on new material. Spend time with friends and family that we hardly get to see. Frequent the local bar pretty much every night haha.

Do you ever feel restricted by your musical genre and want to do something different?

Vic- Not really. We have always been a cross genre kind of band and play shows with all kinds. I mean really we consider ourselves a punk band with an upright bass.

What inspired the name?

Vic- My main tattoo artist, Sam Wolf, came up with it years ago. He never had a chance to use it though. So I stole it because it sounded cool at the time. Hahaha what are friends for!

Would you rather listen to Link Wray or Scotty Moore?

Vic- Well ive been fortunate to see both perform and that was amazing enough. I guess Link Wray is a little more fitting for me to listen to if I’m working on my motorcycle or kicking back with a drink.

Who’s your favorite psychobilly/rockabilly act who’s currently performing?

Vic- Just got done touring in Europe with The Silver Shine fromHungaryand The Long Tall Texans fromBrighton. I’ve been jamming those records a lot lately but one of my favorites has always been The Quakes.

If you could only pick one artist who’s no longer around to see perform who would it be?

Vic- Peter Steel from Type O Negative. I listen to everything! TON has always been one of my favorites even if it has nothing to do with the music were associated with.

This article originally appeared in www.thrustmagazine.org