Q&A with Miranda and King Hell
Miranda: How did you guys come up with the name King Hell?
Samwell: It’s an expression gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson used to describe the ultimate of something. “It was a king hell party.” “I had a king hell hangover.” It was much better than other names we cooked up, like The Silly Satan Children’s Band or Gorbobjork, which is Scandanavian for “This corpse paint is not helping our chances with women.”
Miranda: How long have you guys been playing music together?
Samwell: I, co-singer Doc Thompson and guitarist Möfö started playing together in high school. This was in the lost city of Atlantis. Fast forward thousands of years and Zigabot and Shille-Lee joined the band on bass and drums. We’re all immortal so we take no notice of time.
Miranda: Who influenced you to get involved in music?
Samwell: Some of the band’s formative influences are Sabbath, Metallica, and then early funk like Funkadelic’s album Maggot Brain, or The Meters instrumental stuff from the late ‘60s. We’re one of the few metal bands (if not the only one) whose tunes you can headbang and dance to. If you meant what album first got me fired up to play music, Ozzy’s Blizzard Of Oz provided the spark. I was crazy for Randy Rhoads. Then one night I was watching Headbangers Ball and Iron Maiden’s “Run To The Hills” came on. When Bruce Dickinson came sprinting out, my jaw hit the floor. He looked like Conan. He sounded like Conan. I’ll be a metal singer, I decided. I couldn’t sing a lick (for years) but I did go out and by the largest PA system possible, which made me indispensible.
Miranda: Tell me a little bit about your sound?
Samwell: The only law we follow is to be as relentlessly hooky as possible, so our music touches on a lot styles. At the extremes, there are songs like “Mr. Fancy Pants”, which is pure hard funk, “Oblivion”, which is influenced by ‘90s Swedish metal, and fusions like “A Bastard Like Me”, which, on the surface, sounds like a crushing metal tune, but if you heard the drums isolated you’d think they were pulled from a Parliament song. Always though, there are catchy guitar riffs, melodic vocals and harmonies from myself and Doc (which have a lot of R&B influence) and syncopated rhythms.
Miranda: I see that you all have your own stage persona, how did this come about?
Samwell: We thought it’d be fun to return some of the larger-than-life theatricality of bands like Queen and Maiden that made rock shows transcendent, but it was very half-assed to start. I was “the metal guy” who wore Dio shirts, Möfö was some sort of rock n’ roll butcher in a leather apron, and Doc was in a suit… for reasons I’ve been too drunk ever since to remember. Over time, we evolved a unifying color scheme and took a cue from comics become “King Hell—The Epic Defenders of Metal and Funk!” I’m the metal hero, protector of Earth’s most extensive Judas Priest album vault, Doc Thompson is the gangster avenger punishing crimes against rock, Mötherfökker (AKA Möfö) is the vigilante from a post-apocalyptic future ruled by an evil cyborg Justin Timberlake, Zigabot is the escaped clone of Dr. Funkenstein who’s armed with a bionic afro, and Shille-Lee is the master of Irish Kung Fu, which consists primarily of Guinness and meditation. There, does that clarify things? If so, could you explain my own band to me?
Miranda: What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
Samwell: Ha! About two days before a show, I go, “Oh shit, I have show!”, jump on an exercycle and pedal furiously for about 20 minutes. I vow to do the same thing the next day, but eat KFC instead. Day-of-show, I lamely try to stretch, give up when I can’t touch my toes, and run on stage. Through sheer determination I go balls out the whole set, gobble a bottle of Ibuprofen the moment I get off, and end up crippled anyway the next day. The rest of the guys do yoga and tai-chi (really). I do, however, work out my voice leading up to every show (I’ve taken a lot of voice lessons) and warm up religiously before every set. I can power through a broken neck, but I can’t will myself to not lose my voice.
Miranda: What can a new comer to one of your shows expect to see from King Hell?
Samwell: An extremely high energy show, tunes that stick in your head, shrapnel from our home made pyro that also sticks in your head, afros, devil horns, meathooks, floors slick with beer, and our 500 ft tall mascot Megadevastatorizer, a half demon, half even bigger demon who juggles burning people. We also have a petting zoo for the kids... mostly alligators.
Miranda: Out of all the songs on your album, which is the one, you like to perform the most?
Samwell: Probably “Bad Möfö”. Everyone gets to sing “He’s a baaaad motherfucker!”, and there’s a prayer to Lemmy in the middle. Good things come to those who pray to Lemmy. There’s also 45 minute guitar solo that lets me run off stage, catch my breath, and several beers.
Miranda: What is your biggest challenge as a band?
Samwell: Writing music. While we have fun with our music, they’re not novelty songs (even when the lyrics are ridiculous) and we take songwriting really seriously. We’ll settle on an arrangement, pop the champagne, then one of us will become discontented with it next rehearsal and we’ll go back to working on it, sometimes for months. The majority of the time, relentlessly refining songs pushes them to higher levels, but someday I’d like to write a song in two minutes and leave it alone, like “Paranoid”. That only sold 30 billion copies.
Miranda: What is your most embarrassing experience?
Samwell: We played a show at Gramercy Theater in NY, and while I’m standing on my two-horned anvil urging on the crowd during our boss outro to end the show, my devil suit long-johns fell down around my ankles just as I threw up my arms in victory. Luckily, I had my Winger pants on underneath. Unluckily, that’s doubly embarrassing.
Miranda: Any plans to come to the south on tour? Maybe say Nashville?
Samwell: Nothing booked yet, but we hope to do some touring this fall and would love to come to TN, Nashville in particular. We also have long standing plans to seize Graceland and… actually, we haven’t really decided what we’ll do once inside, but you and any artillery you can get your hands on will be allowed through the gates.
Miranda: Any message for your fans? And the fans waiting to be made?
Samwell: I hope this isn’t lame, but I think I can best sum it up by quoting the intro monologue from out theme song “King Hell”:
Samwell: Thinking of selling your soul to the devil? Have you considered King Hell Brokerage Services? Can King Hell BS net you a better deal? Why, is the bear a Pope? Are the woods a shitty Catholic? Do my balls feel like strawberries? Yes, yes and yes. With King Hell BS you don’t pay for your sings, you’re paid for your sins, and remunerated with an eternal supply of funk, rhythm and bruise, and heavy metal!