The Holy Kiss
Interview & Preface By: Seth Miller
Button Image: Stephanie Rigsby

 

The Holy Kiss are (or more likely by the time you read this, were) an unrelenting motherfucker of pure, maniacal blues exorcism, capable of ripping your head off with it’s shrill, tortured screams to god…. diverse enough to tackle Erik Satie and Nina Simone… and capable of breaking your heart.

Vocalist/songwriter Matty Rue is on one hand able to all too convincingly embody David Berkowitz in the genuinely terrifying ‘Papa Sam’, then turn around and pen one of the most heart wrenching songs ever written on the matter of living in the empty spaces left in the wake of a fallen love with ‘the Strangest of things’.

By summertime, Matty Rue, along with drummer Nick Ott, Multi instrumentalist Alli Pheteplace, and bassist Panther MacDonald are calling it a day. In its wake, the albums Shot Love on a Back Line, Under Noon of Night and an as yet unreleased final E.P. will undoubtedly become sought after by rabid indie collectors and their live shows the stuff of lore….

Q- After nearly a decade (and just as the band is really hitting its stride), The Holy Kiss are calling it a day... Can you shed a little insight as to the motivating factors behind this decision?

A- A decade is a long time, especially for an amazing band like The Holy Kiss to be underrated and unnoticed...

Rock N' Roll is a young man's game, and I am getting old and really need a break. Fucking your ID through the primitive power of the rock can really mess with a man.

After ten years of being the "wildman" on stage, I slowly noticed that I really had trouble turning that persona off after the encore, and my daily life was suffering as I had no idea how to appreciate the simple things in life like repetition, routine, work, and relationships.

I wanted instant gratification all the time, just like that three and a half minute rock song, and that has really taken a toll on my physical and mental health.

I have done some crazy dreadful things that I am not proud of throughout the years, you can attest to that can't you Seth? I should be dead right now, and watching all my friends in the same game die off one by one - while I am still here having cheated Lady Death many a times - has made me realize just how fucking lucky I really am to be alive.

I cannot take my life for granted anymore...

I am grateful that through all the bullshit and debauchery I have finally realized that it is time to move on and grow up, put the werewolf-crazyman aside and just be Matty Rue for a while.

Plus, Panther MacDonald, our amazing bass player who is also one of my best friends and whom I consider family, is moving away to New York in June to pursue a degree in History.

I really couldn't see the band existing without him.

Also, I've just been accepted to a Mortuary School near Portland, Oregon, and I plan to move there to attend in the Fall...

If you combine Panther leaving to New York and my acceptance to Mortuary School with our upcoming European tour, the release of our new album, "Under Noon of Night", and my exhaustion from trying to deal with the whole "Jekyll & Hyde-rock n' roll-wild man-werewolf-ape man-persona" thing, well: it's just about fucking time to throw in the towel for The Holy Kiss, or at least have one last toss off into it, and leave it all to rot on a high note...

Q. Yet I would imagine that your musical life will go on?

I've always felt that real musicians could never stop playing, it's too painful not too. At least, that's the way I personally feel: If I don't sing or pick up a guitar at least every other day then I start to get very depressed and/or irritable. A. Music has always been a type of solace for me, and lately my own personal songs, the ones that are a bit more blues influenced - where it's just me and my guitar - have proven to fulfill a more spiritual side of me.

So, after the obnoxious ear-piercing racket that The Holy Kiss provides is over, its just gonna be me and my golden gretsch playing down and out broken hearted blues under some willow tree somewhere...

There are several solo songs I am very proud of that I have recorded throughout the years, and I plan on working on a proper album showcasing those and others which I plan on recording fairly soon.

Who knows? Portland is full of musicians as well, and lately I've really wanted to play guitar and sing in a band reminiscent of Bo Diddley who is a huge influence on me, so maybe I'll find some cats into the same game up there...

Photo by: SFStation

Q. I've always felt as though you were born into a wrong time or a wrong skin- meaning that to me the 'whisper in your ear' blues that you create on your own rings true. I’ve always gotten the impression that this is where you are best able to communicate what appears to be your interior landscape, bullshit free. I cannot recall any of our musical conversations being centered around the Stooges or the Birthday Party, while there have been plenty involving Willie McTell & Nina Simone..

A. To me the music of The Stooges and The Birthday Party is just as important as Blind Willie McTell and Nina Simone - well maybe not Nina Simone, she is a goddess - but seriously the music they have all made is something everyone should hear and know about as each artist will change your life in different ways...

...I know that when I'm feeling nihilistic and surly, wanting to spit blood into any motherfuckers face that wants to look at me sideways, I'm not gonna throw on Blind Willie McTell or Nina Simone, I'm gonna throw on the Birthday Party or The Stooges and kick some ass!

On the other hand, there is a certain musical depth and emotion that I can only really get from listening to Blind Willie McTell or Nina Simone that I just can't find anywhere else.

All important in different ways.

I do understand where you are coming from though, I do tend to remove myself from this time quite a bit, as I find the current climate of popular culture in general tepid at best...

...actually it's fucking horrible, so I find myself lost in the 30's and the 60's quite a bit, decades that seem to have a certain quality to them that seem to be long gone in 2009.

Call me crazy but I'd rather listen to Al Bowlly, Geeshie Wiley, The Sonics, or Otis Rush rather than "Fall Out Boy", "Animal Collective", or "RATATAT", and I sure as hell prefer wearing a black three-piece suit and a stingy brim rather than "Crocs" and "cargo pants" or "American Apparel" V neck t-shirts and ironic big-framed glasses...

...I dunno, I guess I'm just weird.

Q. The implication there was that your love of the blues seems genuine, rather than a hipsters passing fascination. I largely agree with you, though I WILL throw on Nina Simone when I'm pissed. She was just so vicious and nasty. Especially toward the end. A. Thank you for that implication, that means a lot to me.

Yes my love for the blues is real, and I have been studying it for some years now. All the way up from the dreary country Delta to the dirty streets of Chicago.

It fascinates me and I see it as the perfect form of music: Though a lot of blues artists repeat the same musical structure in their songs and even verses are borrowed form one artist to the next, each artist is able to make each song their own, adding their own particular nuances - it has its own heartfelt and honest language that moves me like no other music has or ever will...

...and you're right about Nina, I guess I could kick some major ass if "Mississippi Goddam", or "Pirate Jenny" came up on my I-pod.

Q. Under Noon of Night is out this month on Hungry Eye, followed by a tour of Europe into April. How does the Holy Kiss say goodbye?

A. Well at the moment we have one last show scheduled for May 2nd at the El Rio bar in the Mission District of San Francisco, and also we are planning a posthumous release of one last five song EP sometime in the Summer of 2009. I feel the songs on that upcoming EP are some our best work, and also they show a bit of change in musical direction which I personally have enjoyed.

 

Holy Kiss Myspace
Matty Rue
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