Interview — kMw

Skratch Magazine

kMw is Katie McKenna (lead vocals/guitar/tambourine) and Willy McKenna (lead guitar/backing vocals/piano). Based in St. Louis, MO this indie pop duo has been making music for more than two years, although their musical education began when they were just toddlers. Here’s what else they had to say about their musical experience.

Skratch: Describe your sound:
Katie: I would describe our sound as eclectic. We definitely take elements from pop, indie, and rock music and combine them to make our own sound.
Willy: My favorite thing about our sound is that it’s unique and distinct from other bands you’ll hear on the radio.

Skratch: How did you become interested in music?
Willy: Music has always been a big part of our lives. We were in our church’s choir when we were 3 or 4 years old. In terms of the band, we had been taking guitar lessons for about a year and decided that we wanted to start writing our own music. Playing music in general is great, but we had something to say and wanted to express ourselves through our own music.

Skratch: What is your song writing process like?
Katie: Everyone one of our songs has started with lyrics. I keep a journal full of music lyrics that I’ve written and keep them organized by song. Willy & I meet twice a week with our bass player, Mike Levine, and work on putting the lyrics to music. Sometimes we’ll finish writing a song within two hours and other times it will takes us a few weeks to reach a place where we feel the song is complete.

Skratch: What artists or musicians inspire you?
Willy: Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Aerosmith, and Blink-182. I like artists whose music is lyrically driven and has a catchy beat.
Katie: I listen to a little bit of everything; Boys Like Girls, Joan Jett, and Michael Jackson have been really popular with me lately. I think Taylor Swift and Hayley Williams are really inspirational artists who write empowering lyrics.

Skratch: Where do you take musical inspiration from? Your environment? People? Explain.
Willy: For me, it’s about taking the emotion of the lyrics and translating that into music. I also try to channel the types of music and the sound that I enjoy listening to into something new and unique for kMw. Our main priority is to produce quality songs that we’re proud of and would enjoy listening to.
Katie: I think that to write lyrics, you have to open yourself to everything around you. Our songs are all routed in experiences that Willy or I have been through or seen our friends deal with.

Skratch: What is your musical background?
Willy: I was in a children’s choir for three years, took piano lessons for seven years, and three years of violin lessons. I started playing guitar when I was in 9th grade and this year started playing the bass guitar as well.
Katie: As far as musical training, I started taking piano in second grade and took lessons throughout grade school and middle school. Four years ago, I began taking guitar lessons and guitar is definitely my favorite instrument to play. In terms of singing, I was in my grade school’s chorus, sang in my church choir, and took voice lessons for a year when we decided to begin kMw.

Skratch: Tell us about how you got started as a band.
Katie: We had been taking guitar lessons for a while and I approached Willy and suggested that we start working on our own music. In the beginning, we were writing just for fun.
Willy: After we started writing our own music, we fell in love with the process and Katie proposed that we start our own band. We’ve been working on kMw ever since.

Skratch: What is the most rewarding part of playing in a band?
Katie: For me, it’s knowing that you’re affecting people with the music you write. At our first concert, someone came up to me and said that they loved “You Don’t Know” because they were going through the exact same emotions the song talks about and that they could really relate to what we were singing about.
Willy: The most rewarding part for me is getting to play for a live audience. We have a lot of fun rehearsing and in the studio, but it doesn’t compare to getting to actually perform your music for a crowd.

Skratch: What challenges have you faced as musicians?
Willy: Criticism is the hardest part for me. When you write your own music, its an incredibly personal process and when its first critiqued, that can be hard to handle. You definitely have to develop a thick skin to work in this industry.
Katie: Breaking into the music industry itself is the main challenge. Being a musician is beyond rewarding, but I don’t think a lot of people realize that its an incredible amount of work and dedication as well.

Skratch: What would you say is your best song to date? Why?
Willy: “So Long as We’re Together” is my favorite song we’ve written so far. I love the lyrics and the music has this great reggae-inspired beat that’s unique from the rest of our music. [“So Long as We’re Together” will be featured on our sophomore EP].
Katie: I think “Unbreakable” is definitely my favorite song. It was a turning point in the writing process for us and has a much more mature sound than a lot of our music.

Skratch: Do you remember the first album you ever bought? What was it?
Katie: NSYNC’s self-title debut album and it was a cassette.
Willy: My first album was Kenny Rogers “The Gambler.” I was obsessed with him when I was little!

Skratch: Where do you see your band in five years?
Willy: In five years, I see us having at least one successful album to our credit. I definitely want to see us being a success story in the music industry and see that happening within the next five years.
Katie: I would love to be in the middle of a headlining tour and still making quality music that our fans respond to.

Skratchl: Would you say your goals as a band are long term, or short term? What do you ultimately hope to achieve? Explain.
Katie: Short term, we would love to have musical representation. Right now, we are handling our careers on our own, which is difficult, so having an agent or record label behind us would be a godsend.
Willy: My main goal for us, long term, would be having a successful nationwide or worldwide headlining tour. I would love to have our own management firm, where we could handle our career and eventually develop new talent.
Katie: Ultimately, our goal is to inspire people with the music that we write. For both of us individually and as kMw, our goal has never been to be rich, famous celebrities. We want to inspire people with our music, just as we have been inspired by the artists we look up to.

Skratch: How has your band evolved since when you first formed?
Willy: Our musical style has definitely changed and matured over the past two and a half years. We’re continuously learning more about ourselves as musicians and tweaking what we want our sound as a band to be.
Katie: We finished recording our first EP in Spring 2009 and are currently working on how we want our sound to evolve on our next EP, which we will be recording this December. We want our sound to have more of an edge and be more upbeat with a stronger pop/punk/rock influence.

Skratch: How often do you practice? What is your rehearsal time like?
Katie: We meet with our bass player, Michael, and rehearse at least two times a week for two hours each meeting. Outside of our actual band rehearsals, I spend time working on lyrics and Willy spends a lot of time honing his guitar skills.
Willy: I’ve been trying to learn drums as well and spend time playing piano. Our band rehearsals themselves are my favorite part of the week. We have a lot of fun working on our music, but we all take this seriously so even though we will goof around and have fun with one another, we work hard during those two hours and make the most of our rehearsal time together.

Skratch: What would you say is your band’s motto? Explain.
Willy: “Dream it then Do it.” It’s cheesy, but I think it’s what we strive for. We have a specific vision for what goals we set for ourselves and want to accomplish as kMw and spend all of our time working on the band trying to achieve those goals.
Skratch: What shows/album releases/plans do you currently have set up? Tell us about them.
Katie: Our debut EP, “You Don’t Know,” is now available on iTunes and we would love for everyone to check it out [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/you-dont-know/id323546533]! We’re going to Los Angeles this December to work with producer Jeffery David on a brand new EP. We want our sound to have more of a pop/punk/rock edge. Our new EP will be available in early 2010 and we can’t wait for everyone to hear it!

Skratch: Where have your performed? Tell us about the experience.
Willy: We’ve played a lot of venues around our hometown of St. Louis, MO. A lot of open mic nights, talent showcases, and local events. Playing at Cicero’s in the Loop was a great experience for us.
Katie: Outside of St. Louis, our favorite venue would have to be Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA. We played two shows there in June 2009 and had a blast!

Skratch: What sets your stage show a part from all the other bands making the rounds at venues?
Willy: We’re both passionate about our music and have a lot of fun playing live and I think that really translates to the audience. When you come see kMw in concert, we want you to have a good time and hear great music!
Katie: Our goal is for people to leave our show wanting to see us again! We want our fans to have fun and enjoy their experience seeing us in concert, so we try to make sure that the audience is involved and having fun and I don’t think that happens at every concert.

Skratch: Anything else you think we should know about the band?
Willy: And we would love to play more venues and different cities and states, so please recommend kMw for a venue near you!
Katie: Thank you so much to everyone who has supported kMw and we would love for you to check out our music if you haven’t already!

For more on the dynamic duo go to www.kmwkatieandwilly.com or visit
www.myspace.com/kmwkatieandwilly.

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