Formed in St. Louis, MO, Gravity Kills exploded onto the national music scene in the late ninety’s with their own unique brand of Electronica inspired Rock n Roll.  Their song “Guilty” went all the way up to #17 on MTV’s active rotation list exposing them to fans nationwide.  Their music has also been featured in the movies Seven, Mortal Kombat, and Escape from LA, helping them sell upwards of 500,000 copies of their debut album.  The band was cool enough to sit down with The Shadow before their show at Nation supporting Pigface.

 

Doug Firley- keyboards

Matt Dudenhoeffer- guitar

 

 How would you describe your music?

 MD-  We’re a rock band who’s often characterized as an Industrial rock band.  We often incorporate electronic instrumentation into it.

 

Where do you guys get your inspiration from?

 DF-  Usually it’s what’s going on at the time.  Breaking up with a girl friend or other personal experiences.  The whole new record, Superstar, is about the journey of what it was like to leave our label and this time where everything was hopeless for a long, long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would you say your songs a darker more depressing vibe?

 

D-     The lyrics are written quite deliberately to take on multiple meanings and people might interpret them that way.  But I look at a lot of our lyrics and what I see is hope.  When people look at the old records they see a lot of isolation and despair and I say go back and look at the lyrics and work a little harder to come up with a different interpretation.

 

What do you like best about doing all this?

 M-    The best part is still that immediate response you get from the crowd. There’s actors and actresses who would say they wish they could get that same immediate feedback in person.  They make a movie and they’re not there to witness audience reaction. 

 D-     Also they do a film and it comes out a year later.

 

What do you guys think of the nation wide music scene?

 M-    I have a real hard time finding anything I like on the radio.

 D-     It seems like there’s not really a movement going on right now.  It seems like anything works like Industrial to dance music to Rock n Roll.

 

What’s the most memorable experience from being on tour?

 M-    The Sex Pistols tour was probably the most memorable experience.  Just to be around legends and drink beer with them and chat and talk and joke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Were they cool in person?

 D-     Well they were fine, it’s just that John Lydon can smell bullshit from a mile away.  So you couldn’t go up and kiss his ass because he just wasn’t going to take it.  If you treated him like a normal person then you were fine.  The second you got starry eyed it was over.

 

M-    He preferred to talk about the PIL records any day.

 

Did you guys get any inside scoop on them?  They got a lot of shit from the fans for doing that reunion tour without Sid and it looked they were just in it for the money.

 D-     They were always just about money and the line up that went out was the original line up.  Sid was in it for a minute and then he was dead. A reunion tour is usually the original members and Glen Matlock was one of the contributing writers.

 M-    The only reason they kicked Glen out was that he dressed kind of square.

 D-     They still gave him shit on tour.  Every day Johnny called him a wanker.

 M-    He [Glen] was probably the most approachable because he was just so happy to be there.  Steve was still a womanizer.

 D-     And them being the Sex Pistols they’ll never apologize for anything.  Their whole attitude is Fuck You.