The Queen Killing Kings pushes the pop-rock convention. Replacing guitars with two keyboards and narrating their songs with demons, witches and condemned killers, you might expect to find black-glad self-cutters and death obsessors manning the controls. Fortunately for all of us, that's not the case at all.
The band's debut album Tidal Eyes, outlines Queen Killing Kings' ability to deliver a rock assault with unconventional abandon, aggressively eschewing the rock tradition by employing fierce piano riffs where the standard calls for a guitar lick. Digging through a broken heart to find the pop value in his own sorrow, singer Coley O'Toole made the best of the worst time in his life and found a direction to lead his band. We caught up with Coley to get into the minds of one of the most promising bands you've never heard of.
CraveOnline: Hi Coley! Please describe your immediate setting...
Coley O'Toole: Hey!! Right now I am sitting on the coach at Joe’s house watching the rain touch down on the river.
CraveOnline: What does a band in your position do to get heard in a sea of noise and unknowns?
Coley O'Toole: I think its important for us to keep playing live because that’s where we harbor the beast of this band. In the live atmosphere people are able to experience the passion and emotions within each song and that’s a sure way of winning new fans. Outside of the live show Its important that we continue writing new material because the creative wheel helps the band progress as musicians and strengthens our ties to each other as we struggle as hard as we can for what we believe in.
CraveOnline: First off, "Naked in the Rain" kicks almighty ass. The "witches who were the children of an Indian tribe".... who are they?
Coley O'Toole: Thank you! "Naked in the Rain" is one of our favorites to play because it controls the band to a point where its actually playing us. The “witches” are female friends of mine who were in students at a Connecticut University where the mascot was an Indian or “Native American”. During that time I was spending many nights partying in the wings of their college life we I was enthusiastically reckless. All of it was harmless fun until my depression over a torn love affair drove me to bad decisions. It was with them that my life made it’s first great change, a change for the worse but one that would birth “The Queen Killing Kings” and me as a much stronger person.
CraveOnline: Why aren't there beefs in rock n' roll like there are in rap? It seems like fake fights equal record sales. Wanna pick a fight with anyone? Axl Rose hasn't flared up in a while... ;)
Coley O'Toole: Rock bands have been known to stir up a beef but we just don’t sing about it. It’s a community and in theory we should treat as an art and not a sport but the truth is that all bands talk shit on other bands from time to time. We prefer not start a beef until we’re at the top of the food chain. Once we get there i’ll have that list for you. It’s pretty much ready to go.
Check out the video for the band's latest single, "Ivory":
CraveOnline: I'm told that the band name came out of a broken heart... care to explain?
Coley O'Toole: Thank god for broken hearts. I think a broken heart in the body of an artist is one of his greatest weapons. It was an amazing catalyst for songwriting and a brand new way of thinking that prompted me to write the songs that drove me to the name “The Queen Killing Kings.” The songs are about hope, surrender, and defeat all of which footnote the idea that my love and its loss took all that I was. All things must end but it’s important to rebuild somewhere, someway.
CraveOnline: Your sound is sold to publications as "similar to Death Cab For Cutie but with more of a kick." How do you feel about that?
Coley O'Toole: I think it’s great anytime you can be mixed in with band that are praised for their work and visions that have unique qualities about the songwriting, performance, and production whether sounds are similar or not. We don’t think we sound like Death Cab but can’t turn down comparisons to bands we appreciate and respect.
CraveOnline: What do you hope to get across with Tidal Eyes?
Coley O'Toole: What I hope to get across is that we’re not fucking around. We’ve come to raise hell from a seated position and Tidal Eyes is the listeners introduction to even greater things to come. The sound just is, and the songs just are, we don’t struggle to be daring, that’s just the way it is. We will continue to evolve but right now Tidal Eyes is a huge piece of what I always wanted to achieve as an artist. Now it’s on to the next plateau.
CraveOnline: Pulling from personal experience for the lyrics, do you detach when playing live, or are you a "method player" of sorts, working through the subject matter in front of the crowds each night?
Coley O'Toole: Playing live is an experience like none other. Even the heights i’ve reached during dreams are dwarfed by the spiritual explosions of playing live. I’ve been to places of pure ecstasy that live inside of these songs and every show they are revisited. There I find my other me, I don’t know where he hides but I look for him every time I have an instrument.
CraveOnline: Being that there's threads of truth running through what you've written, do you adhere to any particular songwriting philosophy in regards to personally living the song, to an extent? If [insert shitty suburban anger-rock band here] actually lived the misery they cry about in their songs, they'd all have undoubtedly eaten a bullet by now.
Coley O'Toole: Its always a blessing to live a moment that inspires and provokes the imagination and I wait for those instances everyday but they don’t always come. Thats where the ability to create emotion and passion from a story that you’ve never truly experienced is a gift. No matter if its fiction or non-fiction I write having lived every experience. I’m there with my characters because they are every bit of who I am.
CraveOnline: There are some unbelievable cross-generation collaborations happening these days, with Keith Richards and Jack White recording, not to mention Josh Homme, Dave Grohl & John Paul Jones doing their Crooked Vultures thing. Anyone you'd most like to work with?
Coley O'Toole: I would personally love to work with Ray Manzarek. Can we get this to him, spread the word, make a phone call? Haha..seriously. His organ work on the Doors records had a great influence on how I tackled the early writings for this band. I think Ray would be a great fit for TQKK.
CraveOnline: What's the best live show you've ever seen and why?
Coley O'Toole: Oh man, i’ve seen many amazing shows but one still stands out in my mind. When I was a kid playing around New Haven there was a local act by the name of Mighty Purple who were hailed as New Haven’s darlings. As kid I looked at them like rock stars and it was their christmas show at Toads Place that took my breath away. They were dressed in slick charcoal and gray suits and the stage was tastefully decorated with holiday lights that burst on at the first climax. Another show that was up there was CSNY. Neil Young has my heart.
CraveOnline: How do you prepare your voice before recording or a show?
Coley O'Toole: It helps that I live a strict and healthy lifestyle in order to keep up my performance Stamina. Of course I have my demons which are tended to every now and then but I never abuse myself, I treat my voice with care but I never baby it. I just sing and practicing singing the right way everyday and never really change my preparation for one particular occasion.
CraveOnline: What's the best advice you can give to a kid who has the passion to make music but doesn't know where to begin?
Coley O'Toole: Always fuel the passion by exploring art of all aspects. Listen to lots of music and digest the things that spark your interest. Play music because it is fun and not because you want to be famous. Go to a music store, walk around, look at everything. Get stoked on gear, save your money, buy good gear, attempt to write and play music everyday. Then you go and make your first demo (it will probably sound like shit but we’ve all been there), tell your friends about your demo, give it to them. Make yourself know on the internet then book a show, tell everyone you know to come. Keep doing that over and over. I’ve heard and believe that luck comes when opportunity meets preparation.
Get The Queen Killing Kings' debut album Tidal Eyes on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/lrsg8v
Check them out on Myspace
