RC: How was it in the Blitzkrieg?
AK: Well, at first it was wonderful. You can probably still see the early shows we did in 2007 in Eastern Europe when Mike came on board on youtube. Even though we literally had never played together before (usually rehearsal was in Marc's hotel room on pillows, acoustically before the gig - we'd run the whole set that way pretty much without fail before every show at Marc's insistence.), the chemistry was instant. It was exactly what you'd want in a rock band - focus, drive, ambition, dedication, us against the world, new songs, promises, hope, adrenalin, energy.
I'd been in the UK for about seven years at this point with AP working on its third LP (we did this with Sylvia Massy, by the way. Absolute genius!) when we were asked to start the Blitz with him and we were going to focus on building a buzz in the USA to finally get this amazing music the attention it deserves. So, Clare and I decided to not tour AP so much and relocate to the States. It was the right thing to do. I do think after a while when some other people came on board and started helping with decisions, a lot of crucial opportunities were regularly squashed and good news wasn't exploited enough. We were selling out US shows and destroying 20,000 crazed Japanese Ramoniacs and it was almost kinda frowned upon. From that point on, as far as the original intention, the big reason for moving back, was concerned, that unity of vision on creating something thriving and of real artistic as well as primal value was lost forever and a lot of energy was put into self-justifying p**sing contests.
RC: What's it like to work with Marky?
AK: Very honestly, it's great. It really is. There's a work ethic. When he's inspired he's inspiring and I don't say that lightly. In a very real way I looked up to him. Absolutely and unashamedly. Guy taught me how to shave with an electric razor in his toilet for f**k's sake. The only problem, and I very much viewed him as a friend as we were goofy retards together doing some dumb**s s**t on a regular basis, is that I think he's too easily led by people whose real focus is more self motivated than that which may be worth doing.
RC: I had always hoped for an album from the Blitzkrieg, either with new material or revisions of the material you were playing. Was that in the works?
AK: Oh dude, forget about it. Yea, there's a s**t ton of stuff. I wrote 20 songs (some of them don't actually suck) in a week in Doug's basement at night after practice smoking 20 joints at a time in the freezing cold - inadvertently setting off the alarm everytime I went outside at 4am like a douche. We got as far as jamming the stuff with me and Clare and Marc a few times. It was instant. He totally got it right away and was making some very cool decisions and contributions for sure. It would have been dazzling!
There were nefarious plots in play meant to subvert this process we figured out pretty quick. Nefarious, I say! Then we were rehearsing for a tour in New York and we got as far as jamming these tunes with the four of us and it sounded real damn good. Mike sounded so good and so instant on it, I knew there was something happening. For real, Michale Graves is a bada** on many levels! I think everyone felt that potential too as we all hung just bullsh**ting after this session.
Funny, Marc was picking us up for practice at the room we were in somewhere I can't remember and it was - 8 billion and there was a tsunami of snow everywhere and it was exactly like everybody's first band. I mean everybody. Yours, everyone. You know, "Hey, can you pick up Billy? His car ain't startin'." Jumping in his car with our guitars. Really exciting time. But we still got those tunes and everyone will for sure get to hear them.
RC: So now, coming to present day, what happened? Why are you and Clare no longer with the band?
AK: That's actually a good question. We've never been told. I've never been officially fired so for all I know, I'm blowin' off a s**t ton of gigs and leaving crap loads of kids hanging.
RC: Ultimately, who's decision was it?
AK: Another good question. I've heard both we quit and were fired so I don't know who to believe anymore.
RC: And this caused a bit of an uproar with a date in South America, due to the way the show was billed. What happened?
AK: Well, yea. OK, I'm a bit miffed at this. It was actually all the shows. So, OK, we aren't in the band, but then after something of a truce after the initial "um, REALLY? But no one even told me...", there were some really ignorant and inflammatory emails sent out saying some pretty petty insults about us for some reason in Marc's name. But it's NOT him! So anyway, "they suck," and "Clare's a woman and has been on the internet" etc., after all this (and of course there's more but who cares?) unnecessary evil we start seeing that literally every single show has been promoted on TV, magazines, wall posters... all of it every single thing has us and/or our names. So again we kinda get "REALLY?!" And that sucked!
