Kill The Precedent’s style can’t be easily categorized, but if I had to, I would describe them as in-your-face murder and mayhem all rolled into an industrial, melodic sci-punk biscuit, with a dash of thrash metal. Like the most iconic industrial rock bands, their music, and live performances feature clips from thematic horror and sci-fi flicks alongside layers of noise, percussion and riffs, all of it used to convey the various subtle messages in the music.
Winner of the “Live Performer of the year” award in 2011 at the Sacramento Music Awards (Sammie), Kill The Precedent’s live performances are set to thrill; they will be kicking off a few of their wildly eclectic live shows in March to support their EP release, Some Version of the Truth.
Kill The Precedent is on Minus Head Records (SF) – Home to bands like All Hail The Yeti and Lody Kong (Zyon Cavalera). SF Sonic spent some time posing questions to vocalist Twig The Exfoliator.
SF Sonic: Describe your sound. Musical influences?
Twig The Exfoliator: That’s a tough question because we have seven guys in the band with lots of different influences. Some include anything from Black Flag, Sick of it All, D.R.I. to Ministry, Skinny Puppy. Even bands like Jane’s Addiction and Fugazi make it in the mix along with countless other bands and styles.
SF Sonic: Can we talk politics? Kill the Precedent seems very apropos to the desires of many liberals and the current political climate. Has there been any writing in recent months about the connection?
Twig The Exfoliator: Most of our songs are about issues we deal with on a personal level. Friends, ex-girlfriends, enemies that were once friends, etc. We tend to express our political views in a more subtle way. It seems these days, with social media, everyone has a soapbox. We don’t feel we need to scream current affairs at you in our songs. We stand against injustice, hypocrisy, and ignorance. If and when we do write about political issues, it’s not always so obvious.
SF Sonic: What are some of the themes tackled on the new EP, Some Versions of Truth?
Twig The Exfoliator: We had a lot of crazy shit going on in our personal lives (as does everyone) in the last few years. We all lost way too many friends and family due to different circumstances. I think that all came out in a few of the new ones that were written late in the recording process.
SF Sonic: Any plans for another full length album?
Twig The Exfoliator: Well our writing process tends to be a lengthy one. We always have the next step in mind. We are going to start writing new songs ASAP. We are under no pressure to release another album anytime soon so we will take our time to craft our songs exactly the way we want them. All in due time.
SF Sonic: There’s seven of you total; all with very intriguing stage names. Tell us where a few of these names originated? Twig the Exfoliator? The Ugly American? Tapeworm? Catastrofiend? Jimmy Hazard? Jon the Jew? Sgt. Pepper?
Twig The Exfoliator: When starting this project with everyone, I thought it should not matter what our real names are. We’re nobody. In light of that, we came up with our own alter egos. While scouring through names, I decided to go with Twig the Exfoliator. As much as it comes across as a hard name, I’m only mildly abrasive. There may be meanings behind all of them but not everyone is necessarily willing to divulge what they are. It just adds a bit of mystery to the whole thing. I personally don’t give a shit.
SF Sonic: What are some of your favorite horror flicks? And how has the horror genre effected your song writing?
Twig The Exfoliator: I think John Carpenter is always floating around when writing some of the electronic stuff. Halloween, The Thing, Christine. The best horror soundtracks ever. Of course you have movies like the Exorcist, Amityville Horror, Hellraiser. Even new ones like The Conjuring. I’m sure all have a small place in our songs.
Check out Kill The Precedent on their Facebook page.
Listen to “Lesser of Two Evils” by Kill The Precedent:
