Catching up with: The Kickaways

Formed in 2010, local rock ‘n’ roll group the Kickaways has already released one album, “America! America!,” won a Cincinnati Entertainment Award and currently are writing songs for a new album that they hope to record at the Keyclub studio in Michigan, the same studio the Kills recorded their albums.

We caught up with guitarist Devyn Glista and lead singer/guitarist Austin McMahan where they discussed navigating the waters of being in a Cincinnati band, what inspires them and how they desperately want people to come to their show this weekend.

Who are some of the band’s musical influences?

Devyn: The Kills, definitely. I think we’re definitely a lot more influenced by bands nowadays. I think everyone’s always like the Stones, or some old band. We like all of those bands, but I think we pay more attention to the Kills.

Austin: I think if you’re influenced by older bands, you’re just going to do something that’s already been done. Rip off the new bands and try to go from that, then you’ll more likely have the chance to do something that hasn’t been done before. It seems like we’re more influenced by not so much music, through, more of things we read, and artists we like.

Devyn: Time periods.

Austin: Especially for what we’re writing now, everything’s really influenced by American history, probably from 1940s to early ’70s. A lot of the Beat Generation, Studio 54, Warhol, Patti Smith and those kinds of people. Just the way they treated their art – not as far as where they got it to but how they appreciated it – influences us a lot.

What’s your opinion of the music scene in Cincinnati?

Devyn: I think it is better than what people think. The whole idea of free shows at MOTR and Northside Tavern, that’s a new idea. Most cities don’t do that. I think that really helps. Fans, or people are like, I can go to a show for free?

Austin: People in Cincinnati are really (tough) towards music because there’s so much good music they can hear. They can drop a band so fast because there’s just better bands coming along all the time. You get greedy.

Devyn: That’s the thing – I feel like the scene moves really fast. You just go from no one to everyone being into this thing and then like the next six months it’s totally something else where it’s like forgotten. We love Cincinnati but we’re definitely excited to venture outwards more.

How would you classify your music? Do you think you’re garage rock?

Austin: “America! America!,” there’s no way of getting around it, sounds like a garage rock Cincinnati/Detroit band. It really does, which was accidental. When we started the band, we wanted to be a country band but we just decided we played too fast and too loud. I think we’re trying to make a point of writing new songs. Garage rock is something that’s been beaten pretty hard in the past 10 years: the White Stripes, Greenhornes, Von Bondies. I’d definitely say it’s psychedelic.

What’s been inspiring your songs lately?

Austin: Lately, for me what I’ve written, I got Charles Bukowski’s collections of poems. A lot of that was inspired, a lot of the words, and even totally just taking stuff from it. The Beat Generation has always been really important to me and to him. We have a song that Devyn had the idea of putting a William S. Burroughs poem into a song, which is called Thanksgiving. We have a new song about Edie Sedgwick, the actress. Reading Factory Girl, her biography, when she died they’d ask Robert Mapplethorpe or Andy Warhol how’d they feel about Edie’s death they’d say, Edie who? They just disowned her when she died. Everyone’s been forgotten about by a friend here and there. So, things like that. Like we said before, the Beat Generation and the way people treated art as not something as they do, or as a hobby, but something that is them. That’s the romance we have with the silver ‘60s in New York City, the brashness and boldness those artists had to say anything they wanted to, whether good or bad. It’s always on our mind writing this new stuff.

What kind of expectations did you having once you started the band?

Devyn: We have high expectations of ourselves and we strive to be the best at whatever we’re doing. It’s a pretty subjective thing. We’re not making music to win awards. We’re not making music to make people happy; we’re just doing it for ourselves. It’s a pretty selfish endeavor.

So, what’s next for you guys?

Devyn: We definitely want to finish this album and we’d like to find some money to be able to put it out. We’re touring a lot this summer. We really want to tour a lot.

Where are you touring?

Devyn: East Coast I guess, mostly. From here to Chicago to Nashville.

Austin: No further south than Nashville. I don’t think the South would appreciate us very much. I don’t think they like skinny jeaned- and leopard print-wearing boys.