Interview with KILLING KIND (2/2)

Killing Kind was founded in 2021 and their first self-titled album was released in 2023. In our first part of the interview, we spoke to mastermind Björn Norberg about the new album “Being Human” and the creative chaos involved in the creation process. Inspired by the sound of British post-punk bands, we also talked about the musical influence of the 1980s, and that’s exactly where we pick up again.

Against evil

Orkus: What is better today than back in the eighties?
Björn Norberg: It’s much easier to make and release music today. Instruments are affordable, home studios are often of better quality than many professional studios back then and much, much easier to use! And there’s so much good music being released all the time that you can find information for even very niche interests and easily connect with others who are passionate about the same underground culture. I’m not against technology or social media per se, it really helps connect people. It’s the dark side that worries me and how it helps evil to grow.

Breathing space

O: The instrumental piece “Warriors and Carpenters” is also very nice. How did it come about?
BN: We’ve talked about instrumentals. Bands like Ultravox and Depeche Mode always had one or two instrumental tracks on their albums. These tracks played an important role on an album to create a break and shift the focus from the lyrics and vocals to the instruments for a while. The song was called “Instrumental” the whole time until we were mastering the album and I renamed it “Warriors and Carpenters” because the hook line sounded a bit like the soundtrack from the movie “The Warriors”, which I really like, and because one of the synthesizer sounds reminded me of some of John Carpenter’s soundtracks. It has that “Escape from New York” vibe.

Horror for the brain

O: Are you interested in horror and science fiction films? At least that’s the thought that comes to mind when I listen to it.
BN: Yes, you’re exactly right. I watch a lot of horror movies and read a lot of science fiction. It helps me to digest and understand evil and cruelty, and the movies I like the most are the ones that work on a more psychological level, not just with scares or blood and violence. They say something about humanity, but I think it’s also about art. Art can be dirty, gruesome and violent and still appeal to both your brain and your soul. It’s not just something beautiful.

A distant world?

O: The album ends very harmoniously with “Distant World”. What was the inspiration?
BN : It could be one of the first songs written for the album. It was probably already in the demo phase when we recorded the first album. The lyrics are written from the perspective of someone who lives in a big city and never travels outside of it. I myself live in the countryside in a very small village, so I tried to see the landscape with the fields, forests and rivers from another person’s perspective. Life in a small village must be very strange and unfamiliar to most people who live in cities. I wanted it to feel cinematic and have a kind of sci-fi atmosphere, but at the same time I wanted it to be rooted in something very real.

Desperately holding on?

O: The video for “Desperately Holding On” is also very thought-provoking. How do you see the future of humanity?
BN: Someone told me that Monsanto once had an exhibit at Disneyworld in California. It was something called “House of the Future” and “House of Chemistry”. How crazy is that! I tried to find some free stock videos of it, but I couldn’t find anything. Instead, I found a lot of Monsanto commercials from the fifties and sixties and commercials from the oil industry that I used for the video. These companies had such great faith in their products, the future never looked so bright, but as we know, both the chemical and oil industries are destroying our planet. I hope we can find a way out of this situation, but time seems to be running out. If I were to make a movie about how I see the future of humanity, it would probably be a dystopian science fiction movie. If humanity survives, it will be a very different world, and I’m not sure it will be a pleasant world to live in.

View of the future

O: What are the future plans for Killing Kind?
BN: We’ve just started playing live, so far in smaller clubs, and it’s going really well. Hopefully we can play more gigs in 2026. We’ve added a bass player and we’ve been rehearsing like a band and rearranging all the songs. Killing Kind is no longer just a studio project. In February we will release a remix of “Humanity”, which was done by The Magic Wands, and I am very excited to see how it will be received by the audience. I hope that we can reach a wider audience with it. The demos for the third album with 17 songs are already finished and we are currently selecting ten of them to be further developed and recorded with Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight. Recording will start in January and should be finished by the summer. Hopefully the process will go more smoothly this time.

Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg

Line-up:
Björn Norberg – vocals, guitar, bass
Mats Wigerdal – synthesizer
Mats Molund – drums
Fredrik Carlqvist – bass (live)

Watch the video for “Desperately Holding On”: