Exclusive Interview: Kilonova talk “Moment Of Clarity”!

Following the release of their skull crushing new EP “Moment Of Clarity“, we spoke to vocalist Ellen Hill, drummer Steve Rouse, guitarist Jonny Sloan and bassist Joe Bambrick (the latter of whom both share backing vocal duties) from Newcastle Thrash tinged Extreme Metal merchants Kilonova. Having been together since circa 2017 they have already achieved what may of the lesser lights of Underground Metal Heaven wish to in playing Bloodstock so now it’s all about building…

A lot is made of your former glories and rightly so. How does it feel now looking back on your appearance at Bloodstock in 2018 alongside the likes of Bleed From Within, Cannibal Corpse and Gojira? Has it helped build the hype around the subsequent EPs “Omnicide” and “Moment Of Clarity” and helped inspire you to want to get back there?

Joe – “Bloodstock legitimized us in a lot of ways, it immediately draws peoples attention. More than that though, it was so insanely cool to be able to play such a well loved festival, introduce a ton of new fans to Kilonova, incite some circle pits and then once it was all over, go get drunk and watch Gojira. We still get people coming up to us to tell us they were there. I wish every gig was like that”

Ellen – “Bloodstock was such an amazing experience and it really bound us together as a band. I had just moved to Newcastle when we entered the M2TM so it was great for me to be introduced to the metal scene, and to then end up playing such an awesome festival was mind blowing. In terms of hype around the EPs it has definitely helped, because fans we made a few years ago were super excited for the second instalment. We 100% want to be back at Bloodstock as soon as possible, most of us go every year anyway! “

How do you think “Moment Of Clarity” has benefitted from having the extra time spent on it due to the band not being able to play shows during the Pandemic? Were you tempted to expand the release to an album with that extra time?

Ellen – “Vocally it’s allowed me to develop massively, it gave me time to experiment with different melody lines and scream styles. It sucked big time not playing shows, and sucked even more not being able to practice or see each other. We were tempted to make a full album but combined with myself losing my job and other factors there wasn’t realistically the funds to make an album as strong as the EP. So we decided to make as best an EP as possible to make up for it”

Joe – “We actually wrote well over an album’s worth of music but because so much of it was written apart from one another we couldn’t know if it would feel right when we all played it together. We were really unforgiving in what was cut because it just didn’t feel right for us. I think if we had a full album’s worth of songs that truly lived up to that standard we would have saved up for longer to be able to produce it at the quality we wanted, but we felt we would rather do a killer EP than an album with some filler on it”

Jonny – “The pandemic certainly gave us plenty of time to really dive deep into each song and make sure we were getting the best out of everyone. The main issue with having all the time in the world is you can go back and change something a million times, towards the end I had to be dragged away to stop tinkering!”

Ellen Hill has an incredible vocal range; did you find it a challenge to write parts to really showcase that or did it just flow naturally given the subject matter of an intensity of what you create?

Ellen – “Honestly the lines were never written to showcase my vocals as such. It was more what fit the song, what makes the song better; does it get in the way of anything else. There were times when I thought “oh yeah this is amazing” and then listen to it back and have to start from scratch”

If we are made up of our genes and our influences, what is in your genes and who would you consider your influences?

Joe – “We all have pretty diverse influences. We get labeled thrash so we use that so people expect the right ballpark if they hear about us but it’s not something we particularly aimed for. We wound up as thrash the same way the original thrashers did, we smashed together all the metal, punk, hardcore metalcore and whatever else that we’ve grown up on to make our own thing. We just have a lot more metal history to draw from. You get bits of August Burns Red, The Offspring, Gojira, In This Moment, Slayer, Avenged Sevenfold all coming through”

Steven – “I was brought up listening to Motown and Queen but as I got a little older I ventured into the wonderful world of metal and never looked back! Avenged Sevenfold, Trivium, August Burns Red, Devil Wears Prada, The Offspring and the like are my daily go to, but I love Jazz too. I’m a firm believer that as a musician you can learn and take something from every genre of music”

What would mean more to the band as it is today – a one off festival appearance at Hellfest in France, Summer Breeze in Germany or Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic – or a 20 date European tour trek opening for someone like US Metalcore merchants Unearth?

Jonny – “A 20 date tour of Europe? Yes please!”

Joe – “If you’re offering us 20 dates across Europe with Unearth I’ll shake your hand right now. We really thrive in pressure-cooker gigs where everyone’s rammed in and it’s super in-your-face. That and if you put in the miles and really connect with people in clubs and venues you can justify better spots when the festivals do come calling”

Ellen – “I love the idea of playing more festivals but to be honest we just love playing shows so whatever one of those options you can give us we will take”

Steven – “Defintely a tour! Those festivals are fantastic but there’s just something about being on the road that drives you forward. Always wondering what’s around the corner, it’s exciting!”

What’s next for Kilonova ?

Joe – “I guess we need to work out the contracts for this Unearth tour… but truthfully it’ll be a load of gigging up and down the UK and we’re already back to writing too so keep an eye out for that”

Ellen – “Tour, write, record, release. We want to keep pushing out great songs for people to bang their heads too”

Jonny – “We’re already deep into writing the follow up for Moment of Clarity, the run of live shows we have coming up should give us the final push to get it all finished up and ready”

Steven – “It’s relentless but it keeps us going. We feel like we have a lot to give and we’ll keep pushing to get our music out there as much as possible whether that’s through gigging or releasing new music”

“Moment Of Clarity” by Kilonova is out now!