INTERVIEW: The Dazzling Killmen Reunite in Troy After 30 Years
09/30 @ No Fun, Troy
Photo courtesy of artist’s Bandcamp
“I don’t think you can go through the music industry or be a musician for a long time without there being some kind of wreckage behind you…”
Hopefully by now you have picked up a copy of September’s print issue where you read the preview of Dazzling Killmen’s first show back in 30 years, which is taking place at No Fun in Troy on Tuesday, September 23rd. This is a continuation of that conversation!
Not having seen Blake Fleming in about 13 years, when I was pitching the idea of interviewing members of Dazzling Killmen in conjunction with this reunion, there was no doubt I was driving to Oneonta to reconnect with my former professor at SUNY Oneonta. He was part of the equation of me becoming a confident musician, particularly a vocalist and frontman. Fleming is a living legend - easily one of the most talented drummers I've ever seen (and named one of the best 100 drummers in Alternative Rock by SPIN Magazine) and someone who doesn’t pull any punches with his thoughts or tenacity - which happens to translate extremely well to the drums through the masterfully controlled violence he displays with a kit in front of him. Joining him for the interview was the newest member of the Dazzling Killmen, a local to Oneonta and absolute monster bass player, Evan Jagels.
We met at the Green Market Grocer in Oneonta, ready to chat over some organic coffee with pleasantries and formalities. Fleming mentioned he had just gotten the new test prints for the vinyl reissue of Dazzling Killmen’s newly remastered debut album, Dig Out The Switch, coming out on their original label, Skin Graft Records. Fleming wanted to give Jagels a copy of his own, and since the decaf wasn’t quite up to snuff that day, we all hopped in Flemings’ car and headed to his place, where the vibe felt more appropriately informal.
Fleming poured himself a proper cup of decaf and then pulled out the test pressing, which naturally led to conversation surrounding it. Originally released in ‘92, the vinyl and CDs had long been out of print and it didn’t make it to the digital world, which is insane to think an album engineered by the legendary Steve Albini and produced by Jeff Tweedy had just been lost to the annals of history.
“Dig Out The Switch was not available anywhere except for Youtube; someone had uploaded it [there],” Fleming explained. “So it’s been virtually unavailable for more than 30 years. Those are the roots — the origins. We were a three piece originally when we made that material. The album shows off more of our punk rock roots, even though we started doing some of the more proggy stuff. [Original bassist] Darin Grey and I were studying jazz at the time and got a hold of Nick’s more rudimentary material and started stretching it and molding it into what would become Dazzling Killmen material and this album.
“Everything was always done up here,” Fleming said of their songwriting process as he pointed to his head. “We just wrote in a linear fashion in a way, and rehearsed so much we would just memorize everything, even the longer song forms.”
With such complex material and nothing written down anywhere, that can be a daunting task for an outsider to come in and learn, which is exactly what Jagels is tasked with for this upcoming tour.
“I listen to it a lot, a lot, a lot,” Jagels told me of his preparations. “I come from a jazz background, so I'm always transcribing a lot. For me, I really have to get to a point where I can sing it, and then I know the big picture and can dive in for the particulars. Darin’s playing is very unique and insanely challenging technically; it's angular and not stuff a lot of people would do intuitively. It’s probably the most challenging music I've played on electric bass.”
As far as how the new lineup came together, Fleming and Jagels have been playing together around the Oneonta area for some time now, so they have a close musical relationship and chemistry which made the choice easy when deciding to bring Jagels into the fold. Jagels has an extensive background in jazz and classical, having studied at Queens College and playing in countless professional orchestras and ensembles. As for their new guitarist, Fleming explained how Ben Greenberg came into the fold.
“[Ben] found out through a friend that we were talking about reforming, and he wrote Nick out of the blue and said, ‘If you guys do this, I have to be the guitar player.’ As a teenager, going into his early twenties, he discovered Face Of Collapse and learned the whole record and became obsessed with it.”
The friend in question is a mutual friend, well-known music writer, Hank Steimer, a longtime editor for Rolling Stone and current writer for the New York Times. Finding out Greenberg’s story, and that he is currently in the NYC-based band Uniform who are making waves in their own right, it was a no brainer to give him a shot. This past March, the four of them all got together for the first round of rehearsals, and after about 20 minutes in, Fleming said, “‘Wow, this is it, this is really happening.’ It was just a good vibe and everyone could play the material.”
While there is a lot of excitement about the future of the band, the journey for Fleming wasn’t easy or clean. From his time in Laddio Blocko, being a founding member of The Mars Volta and later rejoining them and playing part of their tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, being in a band with his wife and divorcing but keeping the band together, Fleming has seen a lot, but feels good being back “home.”
“Its definitely a journey, and it's definitely bloody and there's a bit of carnage. I don’t think you can go through the music industry or be a musician for a long time without there being some kind of wreckage behind you, because it's not an easy path for one thing. Coming full circle back to the Killmen has felt really good.”
So what kind of band were the Killmen? Well, that can be summed up with Fleming reminiscing about the band’s breakup.
“Darin and I got into a fistfight on stage during soundcheck at The Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco; I mean, that’s the kind of band we were in. Like a fucking full-on, punching each other in the face fistfight. The bouncers had to come and break it up.
“The hardest part of the breakup though was that we were going to go to Japan—I've still never been to Japan. We were going to go for two weeks and do all of these shows and it never happened.”
“We have to make good on that,” Jagels added.
With a full tour on the books for the band and talk about writing new material, Dazzling Killmen will continue their journey, 30 years later, beginning right here in Troy at No Fun on Tuesday, September 23rd, courtesy of Superdark Collective.
For more information and to buy tickets click here, and stay tuned for a full review of the show shortly thereafter.