May is shaping up to be one hell of a month for Kingdom Of Giants, who are gearing up to release All The Hell You’ve Got To Spare, their second studio album and follow-up to 2014’s Ground Culture. The band is already gaining attention from fans all over the world with the matured sound on their diverse new singles, “Damaged Goods” and “Runaway,” and that’s thanks to their own hard work and late nights alongside producer/engineer Nick Loiacono.
With plans to stay busy with tour dates planned throughout the entire month of May and a music video for the powerful “Damaged Goods” out now, Kingdom Of Giants are not to be ignored.
Interview by Dom Vigil
Can you tell us a little bit about Kingdom Of Giants for any readers who might not be familiar?
Absolutely! Kingdom Of Giants is a 6 piece “Melodic Metal-Core” band from California. We’ve been a band since 2011 and have released an EP, 2 LP’s, and we are getting ready to release our 3rd LP this May. We are signed to InVogue Records, and managed by Jason Mageau at Royal Division Ent. We have done over 20 US tours now and we’ve been lucky enough to travel over to Europe for 2 tours as well.
You guys are currently gearing up to release your new album, All The Hell You’ve Got To Spare in May. What are you most excited for listeners to hear on this release?
We feel like the main thing we are excited for listeners to hear is how we have developed our sound. We try to grow with each album and this time we feel like we have grown as songwriters more than anything. The maturity on this album is definitely next level for KOG. Also really excited for our fans to hear the song, “Cash Out” as it is a band favorite haha.
Going into your second full-length, did you have anything in mind that you really wanted to accomplish?
Absolutely, we wanted to be respected as an overall band, not by shredding guitars / drums, or crazy vocals. We wanted to write real songs that had just the right amount of everything to work together. We wanted each instrument to have their own role on the album and we think that is something we definitely figured out. We also wanted to make sure we wrote a very diverse album while still being cohesive. We have never been fans of albums where every song sounds the same, but you have to find that balance where the songs don’t sound like they are from completely different albums.
Were there any big challenges you came across when working on the album?
Honestly the process went really smooth. The hardest part about the recording of this album was that our producer / engineer / over all musical guru Nick Loiacono only works night sessions out of his studio. So we would show up around 8pm and track until 4am, not the easiest schedule to flip to. Not to mention we live 3 hours away from the studio so it was either spend 6 hours every day in the car or find somewhere near the studio to crash for the night haha.
What were some of the highlights of the writing and recording process?
Some of the highlights for us are that Nick (Our producer) is a huge fan of real instruments. This was the first chance in a long time that we had to track actual drums, bass, and re-amp guitars. It made for a very organic sound and I think really helped with the overall groove of the album. We also were able to lock in some very creative / unique guest appearances. We have JT Cavey from Erra, Daniel Gailey from Phinehas, our good friend Caitlyn Mae, and an extremely talented rapper from Sacramento named Charlie Muscle. All very diverse and very easy to showcase their skills.
You’ve already released a couple of songs from the album – “Damaged Goods” and “Runaway.” What would you like listeners to take away from these songs?
We would like our listeners to hear both songs and appreciate how different they are. We wanted them to hear that we took chances with certain things. Dana barely screams at all in Runaway so we were expecting to get some hate for that, but we think our listeners understood what we were going for and it really worked out. It’s so hard to choose what songs you want to release before an album comes out, it was really difficult to not rock the heaviest track right out of the gates.
There’s also a pretty dark music video to go along with “Damaged Goods.” Where did the inspiration for the video come from?
Honestly the video came out great, but lyrically that song is one of the deepest I’ve ever written & we had really hoped to create an interesting / poetic storyline to help bring the lyrics to life, which unfortunately did not happen. The band performance shots were actually inspired by a scene in the show “Stranger Things”, where the main character “Eleven” is standing in an alternate dimension and on the ground she is standing is a bright reflection of herself. Fun fact is that we were all standing in about 3-4 inches of water for that entire video
On top of the album release, you guys will also be hitting the road with Capture in May! What are you most excited to do or see during these upcoming shows?
Yes! We are super excited for this tour! We are really good friends with the support bands Dayseeker, and My Enemies & I, so it will be great to be on the road with them again. We are really pumped to meet the guys in Capture and stoked for their rebrand and new album as well. This is the 1st time in over 20 US tours that we are playing Massachusetts so I believe we are all ready to go explore there!
Do you have any other big plans for the rest of 2017?
Absolutely, a lot more visual content from “All The Hell You’ve Got To Spare”, a few more tours in the works currently. We’ll be sneaking in 1 last single before the album drops too so keep your eyes / ears open for that!
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’d just like to say thank you so much to anyone who supports or has ever supported KOG. From fans, to agents, to managers, promoters, label owners, anyone who has ever made it possible for us to continue to make music and do what we love, and anyone who has ever believed in us or gave us a chance, thank you so much. New album “All The Hell You’ve Got To Spare” drops 05|05|17 via InVogue Records. Pick that thing up any way you can, we promise there will be something on there that you will dig. Much love, Kingdom Of Giants.
Thank you so much for having us!
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