Interview with HKSPK (Part 1 of 2)
What does “homecoming” mean when either one’s home—or, perhaps even worse, oneself—has changed too much? HKSPK explore this question on their new, aptly titled album, *Heimkehr*. Singer Jim Kalubba took the release as an opportunity to sit down for an interview.
Who’s actually coming back?
Even though the three musicians from Brandenburg didn’t form HKSPK until 2023, they already have a lot to process ahead of their second full-length album. So they turned to what is probably one of the oldest and most personal themes—the “homecoming.” “At first glance, it actually sounds pretty positive. You think of arriving, home, and maybe even that everything is fine again after a long journey. For us, it’s more like the opposite,” the singer warns against an exclusively positive interpretation of the term. “To explain this, you have to look at the cover. The artwork by Steffen Schmolke shows a figure wrapped in bandages, leaning over a table and writing on her own bandages with a pen. She has returned home, but she is not healed.” For the band, this is a symbol meant to represent their own various setbacks and obstacles over the past few years, as well as life’s stories in general. “People return from wars, personal crises, or other blows of fate, but they’re no longer the same as they were before. Physically, you may be back home, while mentally you’re still somewhere else entirely.”
Michael Schille
Lineup:
Jim Kalubba – vocals & guitar
Leon Sabiers – guitar
Arne Ising – drums
Listen to “Rot in Despair”:
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