Interview: Getting to Know Kill the Silence

Leeds post-hardcorers Kill the Silence are back with their hugely captivating new EP, ‘Resolve’, set for release on Friday 17th April. The band have also just released their new single and video, ‘The Final Word’. In this interview, we get to know them a little better.

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

Hey, thanks for having us! We’re Kill The Silence, a Post-Hardcore band originally formed in Leeds all the way back in 2012, but our current lineup all met at Huddersfield University and solidified around 2019.

2. Someone comes up to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

We’d say we’re influenced by a bunch of different artists individually so our sound is a bit of a melting pot of our personal styles. We’ve always said we are for fans of Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, Fightstar and Bad Omens but over the course of releasing this ep, we’ve been likened to Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine too, which is definitely a compliment!

3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

All of the above! It’s gone from 0 to 100 since the release of our single ‘Hide & Seek’ last year and more recently ‘The Final Word’. The response to both has been really encouraging as we’ve been waiting to put them out for so long. There’s one more single on the way but we’re mostly preparing for our EP launch at The Key Club in Leeds on the 18th of April. Really looking forward to sharing the stage with Dacara and Memnor; they’re all lovely people and put on a hell of a show. It’s gonna be a blast.

4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?

Freedom to experiment with our sound. We’ve found our voice, our style, something we are happy with and we’re looking forward to seeing where that takes our music.

5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.

Many, many hours. We felt like we were spinning our wheels regularly putting out singles, so back in 2023 we made the decision to take some time away from the gig circuit and focus on our craft. Working on ‘Resolve’ was challenging at times, but it was all worth it. It’s been a labour of love. We put everything we had into these songs and can’t wait for folks to hear the rest come April.

6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?

We’re all working full time with very busy lives, so having a creative outlet is so important to us. In recent years we’ve all gone through a lot of big changes in our personal lives which has, at times, made carving time out for the band a struggle. But it’s great having each other in the studio or rehearsal space, green room or just hanging out to vent and talk things through. The thought of getting to make music together and share it with our fans is what gets us through the day.

7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?

We’ve always been fully independent and pooled our own resources to keep things going. It’s enough of a challenge finding the time and energy to work on new material and rehearse the existing stuff, but on top of that comes all the work on the business side of being in a band that’s just as important. Promotion, music videos, booking shows, managing merch, all that jazz.

The biggest challenge these days is standing out amongst the wealth of talent in the UK’s scene. People only have so much bandwidth and there’s a lot of great music to be found these days. Partnering with San PR has really helped with getting some attention from people who haven’t really noticed us before, like Kerrang! and BBC Introducing. We’re feeling really excited about the year to come.

8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?

It’s definitely been tough. We think most bands find it daunting. We try to split the work between us as it can be a lot for one person to manage – especially with the whole band working full time on different schedules – but many hands make light work and we do our best to support each other with the less glamorous parts of being in a band. We all want the band to succeed and the social media landscape is just the nature of the game these days, so remember to like and share, dear reader.

9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?

Content creation is a lot more involved than it seems and can be a bit of a drag at times, but in the end, the interactions we have online with people we wouldn’t otherwise have met make it all worth it. We have fans in The Netherlands who have flown over just to see us before, and we also have genuine fans in the US and Canada, who are just as supportive online as our fans over here (they know who they are). Really hope we will get to meet in person eventually!

10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?

Share us with your friends who you think might like us, come see us at a show, but honestly the biggest way you can support KTS is to buy yourself some merch. With the way streaming has changed the industry in the past decade, grabbing a t-shirt or a hoodie goes a long way to help us out.

11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?

Well Sam, Ian, and John are unrepentant warhammer nerds, so they like to meet up and push models around a dining table. Sam and Jay tend to hangout and watch horror movie marathons, but they also play pc games together with mutual friends outside of the band. Dan is really into archery and we occasionally all meet up at an archery range. So far none of us have managed to beat Dan’s scores, but one day!

12. Where can people find you?

Our music is on all major streaming platforms, we’re active on Instagram (@killthesilenceuk), TikTok (@killthesilenceuk), and Facebook (@KillTheSilence), so whatever your social media poison, come say hi!