courtesy of MySpace
Band of the Month: Kill Krinkle Club
By Daniela Garcia
Published: May 7th, 2008 | 11:55am
WHO IT IS
Irish-Swedish pairing of Justin Commins (vocals, guitar, keyboards, sampler, chime bars, glockenspiel, banjo, drums, accordion, beats) and Elina Bergman (vocals, piano, melodica, toy keyboards, clarinet, glockenspiel).
LOCATION
Dublin, Ireland
FILE UNDER
quirky but mellow indie electronica
IN A NUTSHELL
Justin Commins and Elina Bergman originally met by chance a few years ago in a Dublin bar. Commins had luckily won a coin toss that got him off his night job, thus allowing him to meet his future band mate. His other band at the time, the Star Department, called it quits just as Kill Krinkle Club began to take its shape as a side project that soon, as Bergman puts it, “took over everything and everyone.” “We’ve always talked of playing together,” says Bergman, the Swedish half of the duo. “So it came about quite naturally once his last band started to disband.”
Despite a violent-sounding moniker, Kill Krinkle Club’s sound consists of mellow beats. When asked about their name, Bergman insists that they didn’t chose it; instead, it chose them. So maybe the real question is, who is Krinkle and why do they seek his demise? Is he an old enemy? A childhood fear? Someone’s ridiculous drunk uncle? According to Commins, he’s essentially all of that and more. “[Krinkle] is something of a fairytale character. A mental phantom that stops people from fulfilling their potential,” he says. “An enigma wrapped in toilet paper and tinfoil. That little voice in your head. We need to kill that guy.”
Bergman describes Kill Krinkle’s music as “child-Japanese-electro-pop-with-Russian influences,” a strange combination of adjectives that somehow works. The duo cites several musical influences, ranging from My Bloody Valentine to Animal Collective to the Beatles. Overall, Commins says that they’re inspired by “anyone who’s doing what they do and loves doing it.” Kill Krinkle Club manages to create music that’s both eerie and sweet, laced with a quirky use of instruments (like the glockenspiel and chime bars) and throwing in experimental sounds. Songs like “Hurry or the Wind Will Catch Us” and “Ballrooms Waiting for Us” from their self-released The Bloody Murder of Krinkle EP, are soothing and synth-based, with Commins leading vocally. “Split Tears” takes a turn for the strange yet sad; “Music Box” hides whispery vocals under a swirl of beeps and keyboard notes. When Bergman showcases her singing in songs like “Lakes,” it’s slightly reminiscent of Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino’s melodic yowl.
The band’s live shows, which they describe as “David Lynch meets Haruki Murakami,” are probably as interesting as their sound. Commins’ description of fans found at any given show can be easily mistaken for fairytale characters. “[You can find] horse drummers, hooded Krinkle killers, mild-mannered dwarfs,” he says. “And a wolf holding a Kill Krinkle Club sign. One of these is a lie.”
When it comes to songwriting, the duo describes the process as rubbing two sticks together to get a spark and fueling it until it becomes a fire. “We take turns being the spark and being the fuel,” Commins says. They try to let themes and ideas come about, never aiming for any specific concept beforehand. “We work in a very stream-of-consciousness way, just trying to get in that space where things flow naturally,” Bergman adds.
GOALS
Here’s Kill Krinkle’s to-do list: “Be number one in 14 countries, tour for two years in said 14 countries, burn out, rehab, find God, and become hermits, only to suddenly reappear 10 years later on reality TV game shows.”
Bergman goes on to say it’s about “creating as much as possible today, right now.” Commins agrees, adding, “If you’re too busy thinking of how great the goal will be, it’s easy to try to rush the little important things. I think enjoying the process is the most important thing.”
MORE INFO
Kill Krinkle Club MySpace
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Kill Krinkle Club are Venus Zine's "Band of the Month" for May 2008. Visit Venus Zine’s Sonic Bids page to submit your profile for coverage consideration.
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