Spotlight On...

Kid Ego

July 15, 2006

Amie Dodd
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)

Photos By Lucky

SugarBuzz Magazine

Zakk (vocals), Rookie (bass) and Birdy (lead guitar) of England’s KID EGO dish the dirt on Metal, MySpace and Musical Mayhem at this year’s Cruefest.

They’ve only been together for less than 2 years, but KID EGO are already taking England by a storm, and looking to do the same here in the States. With their debut album “Ignite the Tide” out, and plenty of touring in the future, this is definitely a band you’ll be hearing more about. Yeah, they’re THAT good.

If you were at this year’s Cruefest at the Whisky in Los Angeles, you already know by now they blew everyone else off the stage - best band there this year, hands down! And I was lucky enough to score an interview with them before they took the stage. Meet KID EGO...

Amie: It’s your first time touring in America, so how are you finding the United States so far?

Zakk: It’s HOT!

Rookie: HOT!!!

Z: Good food, nice looking women...

R: We’re enjoying ourselves!

Z: We’re having a blast!

Amie: And how did you come to play Cruefest?

Z: Well, we’ve been a band a little over a year and a half now, and promoting a lot on MySpace. It’s a great way to put yourself out there without spending lots of money; it’s so funny because we’ve gotten quite big back home in England, and all of a sudden Motley Crue fans in America sort of latched onto us and adopted us really, our fan base has gotten bigger and bigger. And then the organizers of Cruefest wanted us out here, we sent a press kit and replied that it would be an honor to play the Whisky, and it happened. They asked us to play, and we’re absolutely over the moon.

Amie: What do you guys find are the differences in the crowds so far? I know you just got done playing some dates on the East Coast, and now you’re here...

Z: Especially in the New York area, they’ve held themselves back a bit more. We’ve gone down the East Coast and then down to Atlanta, where they jump around quite a bit more, you know...

Amie: Everybody from the South is crazy...

Z: And well, this is our first show in LA, so...We’re going to see tonight, you know. It’s been a great experience so far. Will be a challenge for when we go on.

Amie: LA can kind of be one of those places where if they don’t know you, they’re like “Impress Me!”

Z: We’re going to put the crowd to the test!

Amie: So, who has the “Ego” in Kid Ego?

(Lots of laughs and looking at one another all around)

Z: Ahhh, I guess that would be me. They call me “The Tear Away.” And then everyone asks me what that means...

Amie: Yeah, what does that mean?

Z: I keep them all on their toes. They all have to baby-sit me a lot. I tend to get very excited.

Birdy: He gets a bit carried away sometimes...

Z: Yeah, I get a bit carried away sometimes!

Amie: I know you’ll be performing “Shout at the Devil” tonight. Why did you select that Crue song to cover?

Z: When we first started, we’ve only been gigging a year – we’ve been a band for a year and a half but we’ve been playing shows for a year and uh, when we first started playing shows we did a Crue cover – we did “Wildside.” It was really good you know, but when we knew we needed to do a Crue cover, we all thought – well, everyone sort of said to me they wanted to do something really old school – really classical Crue, and I said “Well, this song is probably the song that made Motley Crue.”

R: It’s the album that sort of took it into the mainstream. It’s a great sing-a-long. Really gets the crowd going, and we love it as well.

Z: Motley Crue opened with it on their last tour, you know, it’s a really symbolic song. We are going to rock it out.

Amie: I know Motley Crue is one of your strong influences. Who else influences you and your sound?

R: You know who I’m going to say don’t you? SKID ROW!!! (shouted in unison by the band)

R: I love Skid Row! (laughter ensues)

Z: As far as the sound goes, when me and Rookie started the band, Rookie influenced me – with his 80s attitude and by way of his music – I’m very open-minded on music. I was a big Def Leppard fan. Our influences, yeah – Skid Row, Motley Crue, Guns n’ Roses...

B: I like a lot more 70s rock...

Z: Birdy’s into 70s classic rock – REAL classic rock...

B: Deep Purple...

Amie: Zeppelin?

B: Yeah, and Thin Lizzy...

Z: It’s a really great mix, because I listen to... (laughter) What do I listen to???

B: Ray Charles!!!

Z: Yeah, I’m a big Ray Charles fan; I love really old school blues. I listen to Simon and Garfunkel. But, that’s for me as a lyricist – to get my influences - but as far as the music comes from, it’s a lot from the 80s...

Amie: So, what are you listening to now that’s NOT from the 80s?

R: NOTHING!

B: HELLACOPTERS! HELLACOPTERS!!!

Amie: You guys like Backyard Babies? I love them!

R: Backyard Babies!

B: Yeah, I love the Backyard Babies!

Z: Apart from Backyard Babies, you’ll find it hard for Rookie to admit to listening to anything not from the 80s...

Amie: Unfortunately here we have this huge Emo scene...

(collective moans, groans and nooooos come from the band at the mention of Emo...)

Z: I bet you a $100 our Emo scene is worse than yours!

Amie: Well, it’s awful here!

Z: Terrible!

Amie: So, what kind of place do you think Metal and Rock have in music right now, today?

R: It’s coming back. It’s going to kick the world in the nuts!

Z: The Emo thing in England has gone really mainstream and commercial, and the underground Metal scene is just rising and rising, so Metal in England at the moment is becoming huge.

Amie: Sweden as well, that’s where a lot of metal bands are coming out of right now...

B: The beauty of rock n’ roll!

Z: The rock n’ roll in England is at a really cool underground point right now, and we’re there in the front of the train along with some other great bands in England...

Amie: Describe your album “Ignite the Tide” for me. For someone who has never heard it, what’s the first thing you’d want to tell them about it?

Z: It’s really good party, fun rock n’ roll music. It’s a CD where you can play it in your car, and you know, you’ll definitely want to go faster! Every different song has got a different beat to it...

B: It’s genuine – a lot of people get stuck in the cheese box, when they play this kind of music, but it’s from the heart – it’s not forced.

Z: When we write the lyrics, we don’t want to dwell too much on the same lyrics as everybody did in the 80s – about fast cars, too many girls...

Amie: I really think it’s all about taking a certain sound and then processing it your way – taking something that’s been done before but changing it up to make it your own.

Z: Exactly. You’ve got classic rock n’ roll sound, and then the lyrics are actually really our stories – they’re experiences that I and the rest of the band have been through, that I’ve then written about.

Amie: So you’re the primary lyricist?

Z: I write all the lyrics, and then the guys, as a team, write the music. When we all come together, it’s Kid Ego.

Amie: So what’s next for Kid Ego? More touring in the UK?

Z: Yeah, yeah. We’ve got a big festival over in Scotland.

R: Yeah, the Wicker Man Festival in Scotland.

(July 22, 2006 - www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk)

Amie: So, when do you think you’ll be back in the US again?

Z: Hopefully around March. We’re going to do a bigger tour. This was just kind of a pre-tour to get used to the States, meet some people, play some clubs. We didn’t promote it too much. We wanted to come out here since nobody knows us yet. We’re almost starting from scratch like we did back in England.

B: What’s been good though is to see people in the crowd who’ve never heard you before, to win them over. It’s real exciting.

Amie: Well, you know the way I first heard about Kid Ego was through one of you contacting me on MySpace, which we were talking about earlier. What effect do you think MySpace has had on your band?

Z: It’s absolutely brilliant. We wouldn’t be here – this is how the Crue fans and all the American rock fans – that’s how they know us.

Amie: Yeah, Sugarbuzz Magazine has a profile on there as well. (http://www.myspace.com/sugarbuzzmagazine) It’s become a real phenomenon...

Z: The only thing I will say is just be careful. A lot of kids who get so caught up in it, it can be a bit dangerous. Not only that, you gotta have a life. You can’t be stuck behind a computer all the time, man. Seriously. I got addicted to it, and thought to myself, “I haven’t been out in ages, I haven’t been with a girl in ages, I’ve been stuck in this fucking room...”

Amie: I think you have to look at it for what it is – a great marketing tool and way to keep in touch with your fans.

Z: I’m just waiting for them to start charging!

B: Yeah, you know they’re gonna start charging soon!

Amie: Yeah, I’m sure that will happen eventually...

B: Yeah, you know it’s too good to be true! Rupert Murdoch’s got it now!

Amie: Ahhh, nothing lasts forever ya know! (laughs) Well, it’s about time for you all to go on now, so thanks so much for your time. I’m really looking forward to seeing the show.

Z: Yeah, we want to see you watching from the front. The very front – we’re about to go start some shit down there!

Check out KID EGO here:

http://www.myspace.com/kidego

www.kidego.co.uk

To get your own copy of “Ignite the Tide”:

http://www.rockrevolutionltd.com

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