OCTOBER 16th 2021
KISSING CANDICE EXCLUSIVE
MetalTitans Metal Mom had the honour of speaking with Mike 'Grip' Grippo, the bassist of KISSING CANDICE, an Industrial Nu Metal band out of New York, USA. Kissing Candice has toured with various international acts like Aiden, Combichrist, and It Lies Within, as well as embarking on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival in 2015. The band is now promoting singles from their upcoming record, "Brand New Low", and for more, check out the interview below.
Band Line-up:
Aunt Donna • Vocals
Dreamer • Guitar/Vocals
Suffront • Guitar
Grip • Bass
Pak-Man • Drums
Interview By: Metal Mom
MT: First, for those that don't know the band, tell who makes up this brutal, melodic masked metal band, and how did each come to be a part of it?
Grip: Kissing Candice is currently myself, Aunt Donna (Joey), Dreamer, Pak, and Suffront. Joey originally went into the studio with producer Jeremy Comitas and together they put together the debut EP Murder. After the EP was finished, Jeremy asked around to find band members. He found Dreamer and I and we joined up along with 2 others who are no longer with the band. Eventually, as people came and went, we found new members from touring. We would tour with bands, they would break up, but their members would want to keep touring. When our drummer left, we found Pak from a band we toured with, same with Suffront.
MT: What made you decide to be an Industial, Nu Metal band?
Grip:We really wanted to ignore the trends and what’s “cool” and just play the kind of music we grew up loving (still do) and went with that. We were originally playing electronic metalcore.
MT: Was there a band that influenced you to go that way?
Grip: A lot!!! My number one is Nine Inch Nails. Some of the other guys are big into Fear Factory and Rob Zombie as influences.
MT: Have any of you been in other bands?
Grip: Yep! All of us have been! The most notable was Joey’s band Dr. Acula. Before this, I was in a band called Man The Ramparts!
MT: How did you come to decide on wearing masks?
Grip: We started out with tons of bloody make-up. As we started touring we realized how easily this was sweated off during our live show. One day, Dreamer showed up with these clear masks. We threw them on and it went from there!
MT: Did each member design their own, and where did the inspiration come from ?
Grip: We each have our own inspirations and people we work alongside of to make them come to life. Joey’s mask is made by horror fx legend Tom Savini alongside Justin Baker. Suffront, Dreamer, and my masks are made by Jeff Koncor. I pull most of my influence from sci-fi, steampunk, and Hellraiser.
MT: When you were a kid, what kind of music did you listen to?
Grip: Some of my favorite bands as a kid were Nine Inch Nails, Linkin Park, Deadsy, and Orgy.
MT: You have a new album out amongst this pandemic, how has the reception been so far for it? At least you were able to finish the album before everything seemed to halt due to covid.
Grip: Unfortunately, we have not been able to release it yet. We finished recording right before the lockdown began, so we were put on pause for a very long time. We have released 3 singles at this point, with a 4th coming very soon!
MT: Was being in the studio an easy process, or were there lots of changing things?
Grip: We always work very well in the studio! We sit down with our producer Zach Jones with some basic ideas and together we write the whole album in the studio.
MT: Does everyone has some input into the making of the album, or is there mainly one person in charge?
Grip: Everyone has their own strong points they play to in the studio to contribute!
MT: How did you come to chose Jamie Madrox from TWIZTID ?
Grip: We had toured with Twiztid multiple times dating back to 2015. We love them, and with their recent foray into rock music it seemed like an easy choice! We figured it would be a cool unique twist.
MT: Tell us how the design came about for the album cover ?
Grip: It is just a photo one of us took. It relates to the idea of being at your brand new low.
MT: Who writes the lyrics, and where do the ideas come from ?
Grip: Most of us contribute to the lyrics. The ideas come from a topic we choose at the beginning of when we are writing the song.
MT: How much has the pandemic affected your band ?
Grip: A LOT! Our album has been delayed for well over a year now. We haven’t been able to tour. We also live in 5 different states so we couldn’t see each other to work on new music.
MT: Any tours planned, I know in Canada, we are pretty much shut down, there are some that tour, but most people are not attending, still the numbers are too high to make it safe, plus our borders with the USA are not open yet.
Grip: We are currently holding off on touring for the most part. We see bands leaving for tour and coming back 5 days later in tons of debt because they had to cancel. We just don’t see it as a smart move right now to take the risk (both financially and primarily for the safety of our fans and crew). We will be waiting a bit longer for things to be headed in a much more clear direction before making any large tour plans.
MT: What did you do while the pandemic was on, did things shut down much for you?
Grip: I worked in healthcare. So no, things did the opposite of shut down for me! I ended up going full time at my side job and just working outside of my house every day for an obscene amount of hours. However, basically everything else around me was shut down.
MT: What is the first thing you want to do when this is over and things (hopefully) get back to normal?
Grip: Get this album out and go play a killer release show where we bang out a ton of new songs for the first time live!
MT: Tell us something we might not know about the band.
Grip: Joey insists he does ALL the driving while on tour, it’s bizarre.
MT: If you were not playing in a band, what do you think you might be doing ?
Grip: Working a job in marketing, most likely in the music industry.
MT: We all had our dreams as a child, what we wanted to be when we grew up, what did you want to be?
Grip: Super rich. I chose the wrong career.
MT: Is there anything you would like to add here, that I might have missed ?
Grip: Thanks for reading! Make sure you check out our 3 singles that have been released from the new album thus far – Tapeworm, Raise Her, and Brand New Low (featuring Jamie Madrox of Twiztid)! Keep an eye out for a fourth and the full album (hopefully) soon to follow! We appreciate you guys!
Wish you all the best with your music and stay safe.
Brand New Low (ft. Jamie Madrox):
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