All 80’s All The Time:
No More Kings is a band out of California with a brand new debut album, a crazy new single and an equally insane new video. Pete Mitchell is the lead singer and songwriter of the band and was nice enough to sit down and answer some of our questions. Mitchell grew up in the 1980’s and like everyone who did, has fond memories of the pop culture of that defined the decade, fond enough for him to use the decade as his muse for No More Kings’ debut. If you combine one part Karate Kid, one part Johnny 5 and one part Michael Jackson(the music) you might end up with No More Kings. The lead single is called “Sweep the Leg” and is written from the perspective of Johnny from the Karate Kid, or in other words, Ralph Macchio’s nemesis. Watch the video and you’ll understand what this band is all about.
Here’s the interview with Pete Mitchell. Keep an eye on these guys, they will be in a town or a television near you real soon.
First off, congrats on crafting a pretty unique album. How satisfying is it to have created this debut?
It was a great feeling to get the final mastered version of it in my grubby little hands. Also, from start to finish, the whole project took over a year, so it was quite a relief to finally close that chapter.
Listening to some of the songs, I had the feeling that you must have had a great time making this record. Was it an easy or difficult process in the studio?
A little of both. It was definitely a blast. Recording drums probably was the moment when it started to feel real to me. You know, Neil [Robins, of Dirt Poor Robins] and I have been writing together for years, but this was the moment where it grew beyond us. Then we brought in a brass trio, a violinist, and had some of the other artists on the label sing backups. So I was giddy as a schoolgirl.
I read in your bio that No More Kings existed as a band for a number of years in the 90’s, but then split up and you ended up as an animator in California for a number of years. During that time, did you ever think that you’d have another chance at making music as No More Kings?
Honestly I didn’t. I had pretty much given up on the idea of doing music for a living,
never mind as No More Kings. But my life has thrown me some interesting curve
balls, so I can’t say I was completely surprised.
Obviously 80’s culture has a huge influence on this record, what kind of musical influences do you draw from that decade?
Man, I used to wish I was Michael Jackson. I even bought a Be-dazzler to funk up my
socks. But for sure, musically, I was a child of the 80’s: Billy Joel, The Beastie Boys,
Boston. Pretty much anybody that started with ‘B’.
My all-time favorite movie is Back to the Future. Do any of the songs on the album reference it, and if not, will you consider writing about it in the future?
Aah!! That’s so funny that you asked that. Neil and Adam [DeGraide, the label CEO] both kept trying to get me to write a Back to the Future song! We toyed around with a 1.21 gig watts rap, or a ballad about Mr. Fusion, but nothing stuck. Maybe we’ll try again for album two.
The video for “Sweep the Leg” is absolutely awesome. It’s a pretty elaborate video for a band with only a debut album and a first single at that. How did you manage to swing such a big production?
Credit card debt. No, just kidding. I’ve been really lucky that Adam believes so strongly in what we’re doing. That’s one of the great things about being on a small but well-funded label. I never would’ve gotten a video like this right out of the gate on a major label.
Did you enjoy the filming of the video? It looks like it was a blast to make.
Oh man, it was absolutely the best two days of my life! I mean, who wouldn’t
want to square off against the greatest bad guy in movie history? One of the most
fun things was all the wire work: jumping up onto the bus, doing the Matrix-style crane-kick. I want to make sure all my future videos have kung fu in them.
I’m not sure how many shows you’ve already played, but are you guys excited to get out on the road and perform live?
We are. It’s always great to play for an audience, especially now that people are starting to see the video. We just played in Seattle and these guys came up to me
before the show and said, “Hey man, Sweep the Leg!” Somebody sent them the video at work, and so they wanted to check out the band. It’s fun to see that stuff starting to happen.
Can you name a few bands that you’re listening to these days?
I can’t go more than a week without putting some Radiohead on. And I just got the b-sides for Thom Yorke’s Eraser. Amazing stuff. And of course, there’s the Beatles. We owe everything to them. I’m also a huge Beck fan. I could go on,
But I’m sure this is already a longer answer than you were hoping for.
And finally, I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, but if you could be one character from the 80’s (excluding The Karate Kid), who would it be and why? I think I might be Johnny Five from Short Circuit. He got to have a sleepover at Ally Sheedy’s house. Plus he could shoot a laser from his head.
Thats it! Many thanks to Pete for answering our questions and best of luck to the band. Johnny 5 would be proud!
