Kill Hannah's Mat sets FemaleFirst alight

06 November 2008

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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.

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