Interview: Jake Kilmer Of Smile Empty Soul

I met up with drummer Jake Kilmer from Smile Empty Soul at the Welcome To Rockville festival, we talked about their new album, upcoming tour plans and more. Be sure to check out any future tour dates, as well as the band’s new album entitled “Chemicals”, out now.
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Q – Your latest album “Chemicals” has been out for six and a half months now, how has the overall reception for it been so far?

Jake – It’s been very good. It’s been getting out more and more, people are learning the new tunes and come out and singing them at the shows.

Q – You released “Chemicals” less than 17 months after releasing your previous album “3’s”, which is pretty unusual for a band to do nowadays. Did you personally feel the need to put another album so quickly, or did it just sort of happen that way?

Jake – We felt that way. We had the opportunity to do our own thing, so we just said “let’s go, let’s do this.”. We put some stuff together in the studio, we already had some tracking — I mean, we wouldn’t be standing here if we didn’t get going with it. When in doubt, just go for it.

Q – What are the lyrical themes for “Chemicals” ?

Jake – I can’t really say because Sean writes all of the lyrics, but I’m sure he would say to just choose your own adventure and figure it out for yourself.

Q – I found out pretty interestingly enough, that you guys(Jake, Sean, Ryan) painted the artwork for “Chemicals”. What was the whole thought process and idea behind it?

Jake – Instead of trying to think of a concept, we were just brainstorm and thought, “Let’s just call it Chemicals.”, we have a song on the album called Chemicals, it’s sounded awesome, I mean we live in a chemical age. We just went wanted to paint something, have fun and be creative.We literally went out and bought canvas while we were on tour, went out in the trailer and just started painting without planning a thing. We didn’t go “Oh this sucks” the first try, we kept everything.

Q – What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended that you didn’t play?

Jake – Probably my first real rock/metal concert, it was Megadeth in 1994 with Corrosion Of Conformity. It was my friend’s thirteenth birthday, I think I was twelve at the time, but his mom took us. We could see them setting up the cabs that read “Megadeth”, while Corrosion Of Conformity was rocking it already. There were these meth-heads in the crowd, one of them was cooking stuff on a spoon, they actually shot up right there, and me being a twelve year old kid, I was just like “Whoa…..”. As soon as i saw the guy shoot up, the lights went out and out came Megadeth, a huge pit broke out instantly, it was nasty(laughs).

Q – What are some of your favorite music releases from the past year?

Jake – Our buddies we’ve toured with from California, they’re called Boy Hits Car, they’re putting out a new record May 2nd, go check out their website.

Q – Smile Empty Soul were announced as part of the “Civil Unrest” tour with Wayne Static, Otep, Dope and Thira. You guys are the obvious oddball band on the tour, how did that come about?

Jake – Seriously(laughs). I’m going to have to wear like a Dunce cap while I’m playing. We’re looking forward to playing for different people, I think we’ll be a good dynamic to the show. There are so many bands out there doing this(mimics screaming), not that that’s all these bands are doing, they’re very solid hardcore/metal bands. So we’re going to have to break out A-game, we’ll probably play some of our heavier stuff, maybe pull out the violin for a song.

Q – After the “Civil Unrest” tour, what’s next for Smile Empty Soul?

Jake – We’ll have a tour planned for in the fall, not sure who with yet. Something always comes about. We are supposed to be doing a cruise with Korn, Fuel, P.O.D, some others. We’ll be keeping everyone updated, you can check out our tour dates at smileemptysoul.com, or follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Q – Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Is there any last thing you’d like to say to any fans or supporters of Smile Empty Soul?

Jake – Thanks for listening.