All live photos by Chantel Clopine

Los Angeles based indie -punk rock band, Killola, is one of the hardest working Do It Yourself (DIY) bands you will ever come across. I came across them for the first time last year at Red 7 here in Austin when they played before The Action Design. Having no previous knowledge of Killola, I was in complete awe of their amazing sound and high energy live show.

The final surprise of the night was that their latest album was completely free via download off the Killola Myspace page. When I got home from Red 7 that night, I logged onto their Myspace and there it was. Their current album at the time, I Am The Messer, was completely free.  I downloaded it just fine and it has been in my iPod ever since. It was good quality and contained no viruses. In other words, there was no catch, which was refreshing.

Always on the grind and on the road, Killola toured through Austin again as they always do. The first stop was at the annual Southby Southwest Music Festival (SXSW). The most recent stop was in September, which lead me to believe they were touring again to support a new album. I soon learned I was only half right. They are performing new material, but the new untitled album is not out just yet. I caught up with Johnny (bass) and Lisa (vocals) backstage at Emo’s to see what I could find out about the new album, the crazy new video and whatever else is coming up in the following year for Killola.

First let’s talk about you this most recent tour. Every time something new pops up online, it’s a blogger that sees you guys live but not much about anything else. What are you supporting or promoting this time around? I assume it’s an upcoming album or EP?

Lisa: Yeah we were promoting a few things. We were promoting the new album, the new video and the new movie we’re doing. We are always busy. We took a page out of your book and are trying to keep up with your work ethic.

Johnny: We have been playing five new songs on this tour. We are going to be putting a new album out at the beginning of next year. It’s fun to go out, play new stuff and see what works and what doesn’t.

Is there a title for the new album yet?

Johnny: We have a couple of ideas. I liked the name “Sex Fist”

Lisa: Ugh, no.

Johnny: That one got struck down and I keep trying for it. It’s a very vulnerable feeling not having a record title for an album that we’ve been working on for a while. The farther you get into to it, the harder it becomes to name the new record.

How many songs are done and ready right now to go on the new album?

Lisa: Ten. We want to do like fourteen of fifteen songs. We want to do that because our other albums are relatively short.

Do you plan on giving away this next album for free like you did with I Am The Messer?

Lisa: I’d love to. We do have a couple of offers to put it out a different way, but if it were up to me I’d do it that way every time. It was amazing really. We had 70,000 downloads for that album.

Johnny: Actually, it was 80,000. But who’s counting?

When did that album come out again?

Johnny: It came out in August 2008. The CD came out a month after that, but the digital release was August 2008.

Lisa: Our label gave us the new that the label couldn’t afford us anymore actually. It exceeded expectations and they couldn’t pay us anymore.

What do you think it was due to?

Lisa: We go pretty crazy with all the promotion. We just try every way we can to get the word out and give our music away. We just have really big mouths maybe?
I find that interesting because that is so not what everyone else does or what labels would want you to do.

What made you guys decide to go that roué and just give it away for free to everyone?

Lisa: It was a really great business model we were presented. I thought it was great idea. It was the kind of thing that was scary but worth taking a chance on. Anything worthwhile, you have to gamble a little bit. It was so worthwhile though. We only wish our label was richer.

Johnny: I don’t’ regret it one bit. If we could have sold 70,000 downloads, we wouldn’t have given it away. We were in a position where we just wanted to spread-spread-spread. When you get Myspace messages in your inbox by some random dude asking you to buy his record, you don’t really respond. If a friend or someone you know says to check something out and it’s free, people will go for that. Everyone is down for a free record.

Lisa: You can totally delete it if you don’t like it. No big deal. Most people were really grateful. We got thank you emails from fans who loved the free part. It’s not like a free record comes around too much these days.

Well they do, but it is not in the same sense you are referring to.

Johnny: I was smart about that. I knew it was going to the torrents, so I uploaded it to the torrents so I could control the quality. What I did was upload a zip file with our album and little note. There was a txt file that said “This is Johnny from Killola. You’re not getting anything over on us mother fucker”. It was coming directly from my laptop. Either way it came from us.

Besides the free record, you guys seem to have it together when it comes to your web presence. There’s the blog, YouTube Channel, all that. It is all very active. Do you guys actually run it yourselves?

Johnny: Yeah. I knew a little bit of photo shop and html when I started with Killola. I have built every single thing I could for all that. I built our blog and our website. I am pretty busy now with web development because of Killola. I don’t’ have a degree or formal training in CSS or graphic design.

Lisa: We’re not real good with sitting around. If we happen to be sitting around, we have to go do something like make a video or whatever. I am going to go crazy if I just sit.

Johnny: We got a new sweatshirt the other day just for this tour and it was not online right away. People wrote to us and asked about the zip up hoodies they saw people in pictures wearing. I threw some up in a hotel room one night shortly after. I like not having to wait on a web guy. We answer everything, tweets, all of it.

Lisa: We’ll all be asleep and this guys’ up doing web stuff. We’ll be up at eight and all up and at ‘em. I’ll shake him a little and get him up but he’s sawing logs. He was up the night or late-late morning putting up something online as always.

Johnny: The only exception to us not doing our own internet stuff is this fan from Australia who posts stuff that takes up time, like posting show dates on the Myspace. He’s in Australia so we can’t ring his neck if he messes up our stuff. All the snarky response and funny posts are all us.

Going back to the album, I know you said ten songs are done. Any idea on the 2010 release date?

Johnny: Definitely the first quarter of 2010. See with the last record, we sent off half the songs to Florida to get mixed by Mike Major, who mixes and produced the Sparta records and At The Drive In. He’s a good friend of ours and he’s ready to do it. We will think on whether or not to keep some in town. He’s just so far from us. It’s very 2009 digital. He uploads all the wav files of the different tracks. I’ll just say “Send me a mix”. It’s all through the internet; it’s pretty cool. That could be an option if we don’t mind not being in the room for mixing.

So is that what happens after this tour for you guys?

Lisa: Right after this ends, we get the script for the Girl Trash movie and go straight into rehearsal. I should explain that Killola is doing all the music and all the actors or characters are going to be singing our songs.

For those unfamiliar with Girl Trash, can you give a few details about it ?

Lisa: I am returning as a character named Daisy Robson. Girl Trash is originally a web series that met much critical acclaim. We got into Out Fest, Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Angela Robinson who did The L Word is producing and wrote everything.

How long has the series been going?

Lisa: It started in 2007 and then the web series was over. We finally got backing through Power Up who did Lost, Milk and also Hung.  They are going to be putting the movie out. We are stoked to hear that. In November we are in rehearsals. Angela writes us and asks for songs that fit a certain scene. We write on the road and we’ll also be producing. That’s exciting as that’s a first for us.

Johnny: Lisa has seen thirty pages of the script so far. From what we heard from the writer and director is that it is going to be like the movie Go or Superbad, in that it is going to be like one night of crazy shit. It starts in the day and goes all night long. It’s called Girl Trash All Night Long.

Lisa: It’s a Lesbian crime noir kind of. Angela made me so cool in the movie that I can’t live up to this in my real life. I beat up boys, make out with chicks, steal stuff and am just a bad ass. Then I leave the set and I’m all “Where are my sweats?”

Johnny: She’ll be all, “Let’s go to Blockbuster and rent and Xbox game”.

Really? You play Xbox Live? What’s your handle?

Lisa: Well, I like to go by “Bad Ass Booty”.

Johnny: We both on Xbox under “Johnny Messer” because there’s only one Xbox account in the house. We originally signed her up as “Lisa Killola” but I don’t know if it is still active.

Lisa: I miss playing Xbox. I haven’t really had time to play on it lately. I have been playing this wicked game on the iPhone called “Light Man”. It’s really stupid; you just jump from one pole to the other. I’m on level E. I miss playing shooting games on the Xbox.

Johnny: On Xbox, we play Bioshock and Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.

Lisa: It’s been a while, but I play a really mean James Bond. I was really good at it.

Johnny: Make sure people know to look me up by my handle, “Johnny Messer”, for Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. I am always playing people all over the world.

I’ll let them know. Tell me what’s up with the crazy new video for “Cracks in the Armor”.  It’s like Fragile Rock and Sponge Bob meets Adult Swim.

Lisa: I talked the director (Hank Friedman) about doing a video that was something like Meet The Feebles. I wanted dirty puppets you know, something just wrrrrong. The director loved it and got totally inspired by the idea. It came out crazy looking and we’ve been geeking out on our video since it came out. We watch our video over and over again. I know that’s not cool to admit, but I will. I love it. We premiered it ion our hotel room one night and just hugged each other afterwards like lame ‘tards.

Johnny: We did the video in two days in June. It was at our friend’s house. We had a green screen and it was really fun making it. About a month later he sent us the first version to look at. We watched it and were like “What is this guy on?” No one who sees the first twenty second of the video will click away from it. I issue that challenge to anyone.

So is that going to be the first single off the new album?

Johnny: It’s hard to say if that’s going to be single or not. We just put it all out. That song wasn’t on our record before. It was a bonus song to give people a reason to download the record that already had the CD. It never appeared on iTunes, so you could never physically put that song in your car. It will be on the next record and in all of its wav format glory; it is going to sound amazing.

Is there anything else you’d like to leak about the album? Seriously, what’s the plan if you decide not to go with a label?

Lisa: I hope the album is free. We have label interest like I mentioned before. It’s just that when you look at these contracts, all you see is what they label will take from you and nothing about what they will provide for you. We already do all that ourselves without giving a chunk of it away to a label. Everything we have, our records, our products and our videos are all paid for by our music.

Johnny: I look at a label the same way.  Here’s a secret for you about the new record you can have. On the new record there is this song called “Gimme Gimme”. We crushed it out in one night. You see, My Chemical Romance just finished recording their new record. They had left town for the weekend, and this was at Hinson Studios in Hollywood.  We had a friend who called us into the studio, who will rename nameless, and we did it all on My Chemical Romance’s tape.
Regardless of what you decide, label or not, you have to give away something for free. Fans are going to expect it or want something.

Lisa: We asked our fans about what they thought about how we should go about doing things for the next album. We asked if we should give it away for free again or take donations, sell it, etc. Surprisingly most fans felt we should get money for our work. A lot of people said don’t do it for free. It shocked me really. They’ll be happy if it’s free. Tell the truth folks!

Johnny: I guarantee you will do something similar-ish. We’ll figure it out. You can’t be all about the electro hybrid car and go back to the Hummer.
Lisa: We’ll make our own widget and we’ll find our own sponsor. We’ll do it. I talk to so many bands about this. The other day we had a conversation with a band and they were all about touring because they thought that’s what labels wanted to see. It’s not 1980 anymore people!

Johnny: It’s like an arranged marriage dude. I wish people would do the whole song and dance for labels. You’re going to wake up one day and care more about what labels want to see rather than doing what you really care about. Do you. Don’t think about what anyone else wants. If you do that, you lost your original focus. People can smell that.

Alright Lisa… before we wrap up, I have to ask what’s up with the change of hair color? People are going to want to know.

Lisa: Oh Fuckin’ A! (laughs) I anticipated this because I have been a blonde for eight years. Let me explain something to you. I am Italian and Spanish, so my hair grows at a rapid rate. It costs three hundred dollars every time this “independent artist” has to do it. I was just sick of it and here’s what I found; the chicks love it and the dudes wonder why I changed it. I dig it. It may change again for the Girl Trash movie, but we’ll see.

Check out the new video for “Cracks in the Armor” off Killola’s upcoming release in early 2010: