The divine Mat Devine!

The divine Mat Devine!

Kill Hannah have gone through a hell of a lot to make it to their gig in Manchester this Halloween. From bus fires in the Alps to their guitarist having to head back home due to personal issues these guys have certainly been through hell.

I caught up with the gorgeously enigmatic Mat Devine to see if he had ever thought about giving in, his inspirations and his strange recurring dreams

So how are you enjoying the UK?

To use a cliché term; this is becoming our second home. We always miss it when we’re not here and this tour in particular has had some very specific highlights and lowlights with out bus burning to the ground in the Alps last week.

We’re going home in a few days and these last couple of days are so significant to us. Manchester was the first place we played in the UK and the crowd stormed the stage and there was a Battle Royale between out security and the fans which is what I love to see!

When the bus caught fire was there any talk about not carrying on with the tour or rescheduling?

There are more people involved in this than just us; there’s the crew and the support bands so in my mind and the minds of the other band members I must say it crossed our minds because it was pretty traumatic but we went into robot mode and tried to calculate how much things would cost us and what the logistics of getting to the next city were.

That said we were offered plane tickets to go home because people were worried about us and it was a small temptation but we need to see this through because these shows are our headline shows and this means so much to us. I can’t imagine going home and missing the chance to headline the London Astoria or The Academy here in Manchester. In a sense these shows are what we’ve worked our whole lives for and despite the fact that I’ve been wearing more or less the same clothes since the fire and almost everything that I’m wearing now have been donated to me.

Despite that and the fact that we may look like clowns on stage because everything is pieced together on stage; we knew that these shows were too significant to miss and there is just more drama to them now.

Where is you’re favourite place to play live?

Being from Chicago there is something special about the shows we play there so we are really selective about where we play and we only play there once or twice a year. People fly in from all over the world for those shows because they are one of a kind events because we put so much care into them.

Outside of Chicago we love Stockholm and Helsinki and anywhere England because no matter where we play in England the crowd are really intense.

Are you writing any new material?

Yeah, we already have been, I’ve been writing a lot of lyrics on my arms; I always do that. I don’t know if it’s toxic or not!

We went on tour with Flyleaf and I was introduced to Lacey the lead singer and we both stuck out our hands to shake and we each had lyrics written up our arms and I was like; “Singer right?” and she was like; “yeah.”

We’re going to hopefully have something ready to release in the late Spring.

What is your favourite song to sing live?

I’d have to say Lips Like Morphine it’s the most familiar. With shows you often find that half the crowd are fanatics and know every word to every song but then there are some jaded, tough guy with a Mohawk with a scowl on his face and then that one song makes his face light up.

That one song makes everyone stop thinking about being ‘cool’ and just start having a good time.

That will be me later! So given the chance; who would you love to go out on tour with?

My dream would be to open for The Cure. That has been my life goal. I used to have actual recurring dreams about it when I was younger; I would be on the front row at a Cure show and Robert Smith would ask me to come on stage and play with him! I think that was because I was looking at posters of them all day and listening to their music and learning Cure songs so when I went to bed my brain was still on the frequency.

I wake up and I’m heartbroken that it’s not true. I don’t know if one day that can be realistic but I can hope.

What was the last album that you bought?

The new Cure record but on my iPod I tend listen to things that suit my mood. As we’ve had a pretty traumatic week I tend to put on my iPod in order to kind of reset and recharge so I listen to Peter Gabriel; I listened to Mercy Street quite a lot; in particular a song called Don’t Give Up for obvious reasons.

What do you think of the music industry at the moment with all the downloading?

It seems like technology in general helps bands lots more than it hurts bands. All people have to do is think back to 15 years ago when the only means you had to reach a new audience was to tour or stand outside shows handing out flyers.

I think that piracy is just one of the few negative side effects to having that tool at hand. I have always been a fan of exposure; I think that the greatest challenge to the music industry and to bands in general is not whose stealing music, it’s more like who’s making good music and who isn’t because it seems like nobody is.

I have always believed that if you make good music, the more people who hear it the batter and ultimately the music comes from them buying your album, or single or T-shirt or badge then the focus MP3’s is a little short-sighted.

When we began we would press thousands of full albums and whenever there was a queue for a concert we would hand out 2,000 full albums with artwork and everything to the people in that line because it’s an investment.

What has been your proudest moment so far?

One of them has to be standing on stage at the Astoria in London it was a sold out show and it was only four days after the bus fire and being in such a legendary room and being 3,000 miles from home and seeing the fans sing every word was a really defining moment.

I also think that seeing our poster in Kerrang! Was also a really proud moment because I used to pull the posters out myself. Even though we’ve been working every moment of every day for the past ten years those are really benchmark experiences.

What would you be doing if you weren’t in a band?

I don’t know; I’m pretty good at other things but I just don’t think I’d be happy doing them. I imagine it would be something a little bohemian because I come from a very conservative family that are incredibly tight and very supportive but I was born with sort of a disease where I can’t do the same thing every day and I want to be in a different place all the time.

I’d probably be a drifter or a criminal or a fisherman. Just a vagabond or something.

If you had one last thing to do before you die and money was no object; what would it be?

I would probably spend $100 million for NASA to fly me and 100 Kill Hannah fans to the moon.

So they could all watch you die? Great!

We would also have cases of the most expensive wine on Earth.

It takes months to get the moon though, so you’d be dead before you got there.

I would used $100 billion to create the fastest rocket or teleportation device!

Ah, good plan! So, we ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person and Cancer Batss want to know if you prefer AC/DC’s new album or Metallica’s?

I can’t say that I’ve heard much of either of them. The artwork on the new Metallica record is not that great. AC/DC are just like a cartoon to me too. I can’t answer it because I don’t know it… can I say the new Cure record?

Yeah! You can say… what were they doing overlooking the new Cure record?

Yeah! Who can discuss those bands when the Cure has a new record out?

So can you come up with a question for the next person I interview?

If it’s a guy ask him; “To save the life of your family, would you rather have sex with Rosanne Barr 100 times or Johnny Depp once?”

Aww thanks Mat, have fun tonight!

I will!

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison

Check out our review of the gig here

Check out our gallery of pictures from the night here

Kill Hannah have gone through a hell of a lot to make it to their gig in Manchester this Halloween. From bus fires in the Alps to their guitarist having to head back home due to personal issues these guys have certainly been through hell.

I caught up with the gorgeously enigmatic Mat Devine to see if he had ever thought about giving in, his inspirations and his strange recurring dreams

So how are you enjoying the UK?

To use a cliché term; this is becoming our second home. We always miss it when we’re not here and this tour in particular has had some very specific highlights and lowlights with out bus burning to the ground in the Alps last week.

We’re going home in a few days and these last couple of days are so significant to us. Manchester was the first place we played in the UK and the crowd stormed the stage and there was a Battle Royale between out security and the fans which is what I love to see!

When the bus caught fire was there any talk about not carrying on with the tour or rescheduling?

There are more people involved in this than just us; there’s the crew and the support bands so in my mind and the minds of the other band members I must say it crossed our minds because it was pretty traumatic but we went into robot mode and tried to calculate how much things would cost us and what the logistics of getting to the next city were.

That said we were offered plane tickets to go home because people were worried about us and it was a small temptation but we need to see this through because these shows are our headline shows and this means so much to us. I can’t imagine going home and missing the chance to headline the London Astoria or The Academy here in Manchester. In a sense these shows are what we’ve worked our whole lives for and despite the fact that I’ve been wearing more or less the same clothes since the fire and almost everything that I’m wearing now have been donated to me.

Despite that and the fact that we may look like clowns on stage because everything is pieced together on stage; we knew that these shows were too significant to miss and there is just more drama to them now.

Where is you’re favourite place to play live?

Being from Chicago there is something special about the shows we play there so we are really selective about where we play and we only play there once or twice a year. People fly in from all over the world for those shows because they are one of a kind events because we put so much care into them.

Outside of Chicago we love Stockholm and Helsinki and anywhere England because no matter where we play in England the crowd are really intense.

Are you writing any new material?

Yeah, we already have been, I’ve been writing a lot of lyrics on my arms; I always do that. I don’t know if it’s toxic or not!

We went on tour with Flyleaf and I was introduced to Lacey the lead singer and we both stuck out our hands to shake and we each had lyrics written up our arms and I was like; “Singer right?” and she was like; “yeah.”

We’re going to hopefully have something ready to release in the late Spring.

What is your favourite song to sing live?

I’d have to say Lips Like Morphine it’s the most familiar. With shows you often find that half the crowd are fanatics and know every word to every song but then there are some jaded, tough guy with a Mohawk with a scowl on his face and then that one song makes his face light up.

That one song makes everyone stop thinking about being ‘cool’ and just start having a good time.

That will be me later! So given the chance; who would you love to go out on tour with?

My dream would be to open for The Cure. That has been my life goal. I used to have actual recurring dreams about it when I was younger; I would be on the front row at a Cure show and Robert Smith would ask me to come on stage and play with him! I think that was because I was looking at posters of them all day and listening to their music and learning Cure songs so when I went to bed my brain was still on the frequency.

I wake up and I’m heartbroken that it’s not true. I don’t know if one day that can be realistic but I can hope.

What was the last album that you bought?

The new Cure record but on my iPod I tend listen to things that suit my mood. As we’ve had a pretty traumatic week I tend to put on my iPod in order to kind of reset and recharge so I listen to Peter Gabriel; I listened to Mercy Street quite a lot; in particular a song called Don’t Give Up for obvious reasons.