I talked with vocalist Kin Etik from Twelve Foot Ninja shortly after their set at this year’s Welcome To Rockville Festival, we talked about upcoming music, the Golden Gods awards and more. Twelve Foot Ninja are currently on tour with Lacuna Coil, Kyng and Nothing More, be sure to check out any remaining and future tour dates from the band.
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Q – You guys opened up the Ernie Ball stage earlier, I personally enjoyed your set, but how did you guys feel about it?
Kin – Thanks very much. It was a great set I think, it felt really good and the crowd was fantastic, very welcoming. I think we did a reasonable job, sometimes it’s really hard to tell, it’s like flying a plane, when you’re in the cockpit you can’t see all that’s going on in the cabin. I hope we put on a good show(laughs).
Q – You guys are on the second date of your current tour, you did Fort Rock yesterday and now with Welcome To Rockville…what are your expectations for the rest of the tour?
Kin – I don’t have any expectations, none whatsoever. I’m openhearted and open minded for it. Whatever the moment presents me is where I find myself. It’s been really cool for us in America, we’ve found the audiences are a little more accommodating. The people we’ve met are lovely, we’re just having a great time.
Q – “Silent Machine” has been out for a little over seventeen months now, are there any current plans for a new album?
Kin – Yes. We’re actually working on our second album as we speak. We’ve brought some of our recording rigs over here, so we’ll be doing some of it on the road. We’ve officially started it, by all estimates we’re hoping it’ll be out around a year from now.
Q – You guys released a very interesting music video for your song “Ain’t That A Bitch” back in February. What was the idea behind the video, and how was it getting to shoot it?
Kin – It was pretty crazy experience shooting it. As much fun as film clips look from an observers point of view, it can be very long hours. Our crazy guitarist Steve “Stevic” Mackay came up with the concept, he’s been sort of intrigued by the whole concept of internet trolling, so he just wanted to put kind of a spotlight on it, it’s not a political statement or anything like that. He just wanted to have a little fun with it, cook up the troll and feed it to us.
Q – You guys won the award for “Best New Talent” at the Revolver Golden God Awards this past week, you were up again the likes of Deafheaven, Crosses and more. What does it mean to you guys for winning this award, especially since it was fan-voted?
Kin – I was shocked really, I wasn’t even expecting at all to win. You could vote multiple times, so a lot of them just sat and voted and voted. When you see that it just feels amazing that we have that support. I mainly just thought it was incredible that we actually won, from the point of view that we were up against such amazing bands. We weren’t expecting to win at all, so when we found out it was just before we went on and we were in shock, if you look back at the footage once it’s up, you can see that our guitarist Stevic is just lost for words. So we ended up bumbling our speech, but yeah, it was amazing.
Q – What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended that you didn’t play?
Kin – I’d have to say Euroblast last year in Germany. Meshuggah were headliners and the main support were Monuments, there were just so many incredible bands on the bill, including our Melbourne brothers in Circles. There were just so many good bands, and a good family vibe going on. Meshuggah were just incredible, and so were Monuments, they put on such a solid show, if anyone doesn’t know who they are you should definitely check them out.
Q – What are some of your favorite music releases from the past year?
Kin – I loved “Sunbather” by Deafheaven, it’s definitely my favorite album from last year. “Periphery II” and also “Clear” which was brilliant, and the concept is amazing, I really loved the fact that they had the freedom to do their own thing, each of their tracks is as good as the next.
Q – What’s the one band you’ve never played shows with that you wish you could tour with/open for?
Kin – Deftones. I’m pretty sure our whole band would love to tour with Deftones, everyone’s been a huge fan of theirs for years, and they put on such a killer show. Really any of the bands that Chino is involved in would be awesome, I love Crosses as well.
Q – After this current tour, what’s next for Twelve Foot Ninja?
Kin – We’re going to go back home and keep working on the album, we’ll be tracking and polishing things off, writing extra parts. we’re being put up for a few tours at the later half of this year, but we’ve yet to hear back.
Q – Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Is there any last thing you’d like to say to any fans and supporters of Twelve Foot Ninja?
Kin – Be kind to one another.
