The Kleptics
Elijah Winter, Peter Jeffrey, Reuben Lochore, William Knapp. 2009.
How do you identify yourselves as a band? (Rubin) Well we all happen to be from the same school, but we don’t relate ourselves to that school. They don’t particularly help us out… or like us. (Will) They let us use their music room. (rub) We’re just a rock band, who like space. (Will) We’re like the USS enterprise going into space through a delay pedal set to eleven. (Pete) I don’t think delays have numbers. (eli) They just have knobs. (will) Well fuck it, you think of something better.
Describe your style as a band. (Rub) We’re a rock band, and we don’t try anything with our style too much, just whatever comes out. (will) Basically if you got four dudes who play drums, guitar, bass and whatever, just a rock band, but then got all this strange this and that. We have enough of everything to just be called a rock band. (Rub) We wouldn’t want to restrict ourselves to just rock either, that just happens to be what we’ve done so far. (eli) I think putting a genre on your band is kind of like masturbating. (run) When it comes to music I don’t really like titles that restrict your or anything, like lead guitar and rhythm guitar, it should just be two guitars. And back to the school thing, it’s the Stomach that really helps us with everything.
Yes the Stomach is the man. (will) Or the woman… Or the organ.
How did the Kleptics come together? (Rub) I was third form and these guys were fourth form, (will) he thought we were pretty cool to be honest. (pete) How wrong was he. (will) I played a variant of the guitar called bass; it has four strings instead of six. Pete played a variant on the acoustic guitar called an electric guitar. (Rub) We just came together. He played bass, he played guitar, I played drums… perfect. (will) We had our first keyboard player Daniel, who went to uni, then we got Dale who was badass as well but he went to university, and then we got Eli. He should really be a keyboardist so we could make up stories and shit. Like one of them choked on vomit, the other spontaneously combusted… (Rub) The hardest thing when we started was finding a vocalist, but it was two weeks before Rockquest so William just stepped forward. (will) Then there was no going back. (rub) Through the Kleptics we’re all developed heaps, like I couldn’t really play drums until we first started playing, but through it I’ve learned heaps.
What makes you guys unique? (Will) We rip off so many people that it’s unique. We’re not really doing anything that’s new, but we’re ripping off stuff that people don’t usually rip off…. (Eli) We’re making a big stew. (Pete) It’s all about excepting that instead of thinking that we’re really forward thinkers.
So the combination of your influences is unique? (Rub) I think we’re all quite hard on ourselves. In saying that, we just really try with our songs. (Will) We can’t just be like ‘oh that sounds cool’, its got to sound bitchin as. Or else we just wont do it. It’s always got to be a step forward. (rub) We take ourselves seriously, (Eli) and force ourselves to produce quite quickly in our once weekly practise.
What type of experience do your listeners have? (Will) I don’t think we have any. (rub) I hope it’s a mix between listeners spacing out and stuff. (pete) It’s a bit like ‘wow I’m so proud of my son right now’, (rub) and the other half is giving listeners aggressive, emotional stuff. (Will) We haven’t really has a chance to get any real listeners yet. (eli) It’s hard to gauge the audiences reaction live. (pete) Usually I take my glasses off when we play, so I can’t really see. (Rub) I think once people hear our album, that’s when people will become more receptive of our music. (Eli) Because although people enjoy it live, they don’t really know it. (rub) The coolest thing is when there’s someone watching whom you don’t know but they’re really into it.
You did a live to air earlier this year and have just finished recording an album? (Rub) Our live to air wasn’t so good… (eli) Half of it was good and half of it wasn’t. (will) I cracked the biggest high ever! (pete) I have it on my ipod, its really good. (will) It was Eli’s first set so we were just settling into that.
So tell us about recording. (will) It was mean. (rub) There were no restrictions as opposed to a live to air. We could do the songs as many times as we needed. (eli) But that was also a burden, like some songs took us twelve takes to get right. (rub) I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone other than Craig. He was really good. He pretty much said three words during the whole thing. (will) Focus, intensity, and aggression! (rub) It was good because he’s so honest. (will) It was good to have someone who could tell you what was working or not. (eli) He was never an ass hole about it either; he just pushed us and helped us make it sound the best it could.
Favourite song? (pete) The third one… (rub) We used electric drums. (will) It’s really dream poppy. (pete) The layers in it are really cool. Live though probably Remember This Incision (eli) All In All or Double Take Homicide. (rub) Obedience turned out really cool. (pete) That’s like picking one of your children though, you can’t really… (will) But there are always ones you prefer to play with…
What’s next for you guys? (Rub) To keep playing and release our album some time next month. And next year things may change… (will) There will be an announcement! (Rub) We’re going to start jamming at the stomach all the time now, (eli) its better here. (pete) I don’t know why we’ve only just figured this out…
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