KYLESA interview with Laura
Kylesa
Kylesa live @ House of Blues Sunset
Phillip Cope
Laura Pleasants
Corey Barhorst
Carl McGinley
Tyler Newberry
Season of Mist is known for giving us metal, metal, and more metal. Â Georgia’s Kylesa is no exception, except unlike most metal bands, they are fronted by a chick. Â FUCK YEAH. Â While Laura Pleasants, who sings and plays guitar for the band, was enjoying some time off the road, I got to speak with her about life on the road, what she does when not touring, and more. Â Check it out!
Philip has been called the Savannah’s ‘metal scene’s godfather.’ how in the hell did he get that name??
That was definitely the media that did that. He kinda is… but we def sit around and call him that and it’s still funny. He’s been around a long time before the rest of us, and has been in bands since he was pretty young and he was with and dan that started the whole thing.
Kylesa live @ HOB Sunset
Is it a different vibe being the only chick in the band?
Yeah I get sick of it. I’m sure they get sick of me too. After a certain amount of time, I’m like okay, I’m so sick of guys I need my girlfriends. I’m sick of guys. they are def like, brothers in a different way. They’re a family for sure but I mean, I don’t get sick of them just as much as when you’re touring heavily and most of the people around you in this scene are mostly men and so when i do see my girlfriends on the road, I’m happy to do so.
How do you guys keep up the energy after over ten years of doing this?
The only time I don’t feel like doing it is if I’m sick or dead tired. I love playing live and I always feel like doing it, I love the adrenaline. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t like it I would have quit years ago. There are plenty of other things I could be doing, i enjoy writing music and playing music. It’s very much a part of who i am. it doesn’t define me but its definitely a big part of my life. huge part.
Do you like doing interviews? Is it sort of annoying?
I think it just depends on the interviewer. And it depends on my frame of mind at the time, too. Generally, it’s fine and it’s flattering and that means that someone cares. if no one cared I don’t think wed be getting interviews.
Kylesa live @ HOB Sunset
You all signed with Season of Mist last year. How was your experience releasing an album on the label?
We’ve worked with several different labels over the years. They’ve treated us really well, we’ve worked hard on this record, they’ve worked hard.  It’s a lot easier than doing it on your own!
Do all of you still live in Savannah? What are some cool local places that you all frequent while you’re there?
To be honest, when I’m not on the road, the last place I wanna go to is a bar. I just wanna chill and hang with my girlfriends. If I do, Savannah is so small and if you aren’t super straight laced, there’s only a few places to go to and have a good time. Unless you wanna go out to a weird redneck bar, which can be fun. I’ll go to the Jinx or the Hangfire Bar. They’re two cool kind of rock n roll places that I enjoy going to downtown.
I heard a lot of the weird sounds on your albums are actually recorded by you all. Crickets and whatnot. What possesses you all to do that?
With the crickets, it was our friend Bobby’s idea. It was on our 2006 record. We wanted to do a psychedelic jam. He was our friend and we wanted to put him on the record. We were messing around with it and then they broke loose in the studio and we had to collect them all. The next record we had a rainstorm and Jay and Phil decided to record it. It was really happening, super bad thunder storm. We lost power and it continued to rain, we had church bells so we ended up recoridng it and using it. A lot of the sounds are spontaneous, and it’s certainly more fun that stealing it.
Do you think your newest album is your best work yet?
Overall, yeah. I do. It’s certain a combo of things. I think we’re lucky in that we’re one of those groups that keeps growing and refining our sound instead of losing our focus. We’ve become more focused and developed our own sound. It’s evolved and I don’t think we’ve written the ultimate record yet, but we’ve got more in us!
You all always have rad album art. I read that you have friends do your covers. Do you ask them to draw it or do you pick one of their existing drawings?
Everything is drawn for us. We generally have an idea as to what we want and we will do the art direction and then hire them to create it.
Kylesa live @ HOB Sunset
What’s in store for you all after this tour?
We’re taking this month off, the end of may we’ll two 2 weeks throughout the east coast and texas. Marilyn Death Fest in Houston, then Bonarroo and filling in the dots, playing in and around those areas. in june we’re going to Europe to play a festival circuit there. There are so many fests in the summer in Europe. They’re a lot of fun. In July, we’ll come back and play Pitchfork Fest in Chicago, which we’re looking forward to. Hit Europe in August for more fests and then in the fall we haven’t solidified it yet, but we want to do one more headlining US tour and then we’ll probably slow down in the winter and start to write again.
We have a lot of other projects going on. Â It’s our ten year anniversary so be on the lookout! itll take some time to compile everything and we eventually want to do a live record as well once we have time to release.
Kylesa live @ HOB Sunset
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Helmet headlined the Metalliance Tour
Helmet headlined the Metalliance Tour
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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