Originating from Perth, Kimura are a straight up, unapologetic heavy metal band, with an unrelenting determination to engage a collision of punishing groove and melodic soaked riffs whilst violently venting their vexations. Kimura’s 4th release, ‘Circle The Prey‘, is set to be their darkest, heaviest and most personal album to date, incorporating real life stories and the raw, turbulent nature of the world we live in both internally and externally.
Kimura will also launch the album at Lynott’s Lounge in Perth on Saturday October 23rd with support from All This Filth, The Harvest Trail and Kalvath. We check in with vocalist Josh Kelly to find out more on the new album.
Tell us about the process of writing and recording the new album “Circle The Prey”.
We all got together about 12 months ago and talked about what we wanted to achieve and writing an album was definitely one of them. When we started writing, Ian our guitarist, would show us a multitude of ideas and riffs, from there, it was a matter of arrangements which is where Gordo our drummer and myself would work with Ian to build the tracks. So we really just let it flow very naturally and allowed the album to grow organically with all of us really being involved in the writing process. From a lyrical stand point, I had written all the lyrics to the songs well before the music with one of the songs lyrics having been written nearly 15 years ago. Another thing we set out to achieve on this release was writing an instrumental & featuring a guest vocalist, which turned out great! We got Graham Greene to feature on the instrumental tracks, Damnare Pt1 – Judgement & Damnare Pt. 2 – Sentenced, he did an absolutely phenomenal job with the lead guitars on them! Serpents & Worms features Sorcha Savage of Kalvath on vocals and she transformed that track into such a venomous beast with her insane vocals! Everything was recorded, mixed & mastered by Jay Huxtable at Oracle Studios and we’re stoked with the finished product from Jay!
With this being the 4th release for Kimura, what were some of the things you wanted to achieve with the album this time around?
We really wanted to hone in our sound, release a few video clips and do it all right, so getting Cult Etiquette PR & Dysie on board for our marketing has really helped us! We used Joseph Varley of Darkspirit Photography for our video clips and he did a stellar job and was an absolute pleasure to work with, he really helped us bring our ideas to life! Our last release, Euthanize-Sterilize, was very much a transitional release for us, going from the old Kimura to the new Kimura, and, with Circle The Prey, we wanted all of us to have total freedom with our parts in the band and let things happen naturally, so that’s what we did and here we are with a full length album!
Do you enjoy the process of creating? Are you someone who continually writes or does the best come out under a little gentle pressure?
I love the creating process! Especially when I’m so fortunate to be able to do it with such awesome musicians in the band. We all continually write, Ian is always writing new riffs, Kyle our bass player is always adding his flare and ideas to compliment Ian & Gordos drums, so it’s an ongoing process. We’ve found that our best writing tends to come about when we all get together and bounce ideas. I have a decent home studio that enables us to capture and refine ideas instantly, whether it’s drums, guitars, bass or vocals or all of us at once. We did all the pre production here where I recorded, mixed & mastered the album, so it was great to hear all the tracks in full before getting a good sound engineer to make my pre production efforts sound pretty average ha ha. Still good to hear them all in full and pass on to Jay prior to recording with him though as he knew well before recording us what to expect and the structures of the songs which helped a lot.
What does it feel like as an artist waiting for the songs you’ve lived with for some time to get released to the fans? Is there a sense of excitement or a little panic in there too?
There’s a sense of excitement for sure! Also, maybe a little impatience too ha ha, but we knew we really wanted to do the best we could with timing the releases so there’s been lots of anticipation leading up to our single releases and the launch show. We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved and honestly, we can’t wait to release this album & then do it all over again with the next one!
How does it compare to previous releases in your view?
Circle the Prey is by far the best we’ve ever written in comparison. I wasn’t in the band when they released the first 2 records but with the 3rd we made that jump from old Kimura to new Kimura and with this release we stepped up our playing, writing, the production and quality of everything so now we have set ourselves a standard which is the push we really needed to give Kimura. Although it’s slightly scary thinking about how we’re going to step it up another notch on the next album ha ha!
What were the lyrical themes of the songs?
The lyrical aspect of the songs is all very personal to me. They’re all very much real and true accounts of things I’ve experienced in my life. Our first single, Sharpen The Bones, tells the story of a guy who assaulted someone & gave her a life sentence of trauma all the while he thought he got away with it and tried to cover it up, so the song is about retribution and catching up with him. The second single, Hangman, was inspired by the accounts of when my best friend took his life and how, although we move on from these tragedies, the pain is always there, it’s dealing with it that gets easier. Each song tells a real story and they come from different places in my life, Cliff & Step, the first track on the album, is a message I wrote to myself when I was struggling with addiction a long time ago (I’m all good now ha ha) & songs such as, Vultures, Sciolist, Digital Mercy, Company We Keep, they touch on various experiences of oppression, isolation, rage, telling the egotistical dick heads we deal with to get f$#!*d, standing up for yourself, calling out people for who they really are etc. So yeah, every song has a story in the lyrics.
What were the main inspirations for the new album?
It’s the first time I’ve written such confronting and personal songs and when I brought the lyrics to Gordo, Ian & Kyle, they were really encouraging and actually felt where the stories came from so that was enough for me to want to get them out there. The single releases, Sharpen The Bones, Hangman, Hell is Coming, were chosen because of their versatility and how different they all are musically, and we really wanted to express our sonic variety to snapshot the album and we feel they cover that for us.
READ THE REVIEW OF ‘CIRCLE THE PREY’
Did you imagine how these songs would play out in a live situation?
We did take into account how these would go live and were confident they’d be received well, what we didn’t anticipate is how WE were going to get through them live ha ha! The first time we jammed the album in full we all sat back, absolutely exhausted and said to one another, “What have we done?!” ha ha! But we’ve jammed a lot since then in preparation for the show so hopefully we go alright on stage!
Anything else we need to know about the new album?
The album will be available across the usual streaming platforms, but this time we decided to do something different outside of CDs & online, so the album will be available on Vinyl which will include a bonus CD, the album will also be available on a bottle opener USB with both WAV & MP3 versions so people can plug it straight in and play and of course CDs. We also have all new merch which will be available at the launch show, beanies, hats, shirts, women’s singlets, hoodies & more!
What can people expect on your album launch show?
A good time! We’ve got killer bands playing at the launch, Harvest Trail, Kalvath & All This Filth! They’re all incredible musicians and put on a great live show so there’ll be lots of energy and wicked entertainment!
How do you pick out a setlist and is that a difficult process now with another new set of songs?
For the launch, we wanted to play all new songs from the album so picking out the set list for it was relatively straight forward for us, it was more arranging them in an order that we think will translate well live, so hopefully we’ve done that!
What is your favorite song to play live?
That’s a tough one! I’d have to say Cliff & Step would be up there because it’s straight up in your face Kimura and I think it’s really catchy
How has the experience of playing live been like for the band so far?
It’s changed a lot for us as we more or less had an overhaul of the band as a whole. So we stepped up our writing process and everything in between which meant we needed to step up our stage presence over the years, I mean its always paramount that we have fun first and foremost and enjoy what we do, but stepping it all up a few notches I think has made us tighter on stage and more engaging with the crowd whilst still being able to have a laugh and interact with people.
Any favorite places to play live? Any stand out shows or personal highlights from a tour or show?
One of the most fun shows we’ve ever played was at Slayfest this year! That was a killer venue and stage setup outside and we had an awesome crowd! Hopefully we get to play it again and some more festivals and bigger shows down the track cause that was killer!
How did Kimura form and get started?
Kimura was founded by our drummer, Gordo, around 9-10 years ago. There’s been a few line up changes since then of course, but now we feel we are in the right place and have all the right pieces in the band, especially with Kyle our bass player being the newest, well, he’s been with us over a year now, but he fits in perfectly!
What have been your greatest challenges to date as a band?
I’d have to say all the background “admin” work that goes into all the prep, marketing, merch, recording, production etc etc. Gordo & I do all of that, so I guess we just get sick of each other every now and then ha ha, but it works well for the band, and we work well together with similar ideas and making things happen.
From what you’ve learned so far what is the most valuable advice you’ve been given so far as a musician?
The best bit of advice I’ve ever been given would have to be, “write from the soul, have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously, there’s enough try hards out there to do that for you”
Who are some of your main influences?
As a band we all have different influences, for me personally, my biggest influences would be, Whitechapel, Slipknot, Soilwork, Scar Symmetry & Lamb of God.
Who or what inspired you to be in a band and play music?
My writing and love of music in general really. I’ve been writing since I was about 12 years old as a form of catharsis and creative outlet, so, I’ve always loved music, especially heavier music ever since I was a kid so one day it kind’ve clicked for me. I love music, I write all the time, and I’d love to try get it out there, so I did.
How do you feel about the current music scene right now?
I think we’re really lucky over here in WA, there’s so many incredible bands and so much talent that we’re spoilt for choice. The music scene here in WA is a lot better than anywhere else in Australia at the moment, so we’re really lucky to have so many shows on across so many musical genres, it’s great! It’s all really positive over here, I mean there’s always going to be the ”Elitist egos” and dick heads on the scene here, those morons are everywhere, not just WA, but no one takes them seriously, only themselves so it’s not even really a bother, so yeah, WA has some of the best talent out there and I’m proud to be here and share the stage with some of those people/bands!
Do you believe music can still change the world?
I believe music is always changing the world, it’s an ongoing process and has been as an almost ethereal movement ever since melody has existed. Music is the universal language of the planet and I think everyone should embrace music as an escape or adrenaline kick or catharsis or whatever emotive it draws out. Music is one of the best healers I’ve ever known. So yes, I think it can and it does.
If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any album in history, what album would it be?
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of The Moon or Led Zeppelin – IV. I remember listening to those as a kid and was blown away! Now that I have a basic understanding of recording, mixing etc, I would have loved to watch those records being done in the studio!!!
What is the meaning of life?
The meaning to mine is: Stay true to who you are, be kind to others unless they’re an asshole, don’t take shit from anyone, strive for happiness & remember, everyone is different so pain is relative.
‘CIRCLE THEY PREY’ will be released independently on October 21st. Pre-save the digital here and the CD here.
