Triple Kill are one of Melbourne’s hottest bands right now. These guys will make you rock out one minute then laugh hard the next. Awesome tunes and hilarious comedy is what these guys are all about. GC Live had a chat to guitarist Anthony Commane and Drummer Connor O’Keane recently about their music, what makes them laugh and all the important questions like who has the best hair in the band…
Triple Kill formed in 2016, is that right?
Connor: Yes, well technically 2015, I don’t know, Anth, do you want to explain this?
Anthony: Yes, well technically, we started in late 2015, practicing in a very small group. Then eventually when we caught wind of something that worked I invited more members in, to kind of get around the tunes, we shuffled the line up a little bit and prepared ourselves for 2016 for our release in September.
Connor: Yeah, once we had the current lineup and our name was done, about half way through 2016 we spent the next few months writing tunes and practicing. We made a real concerted effort to not make ourselves known until we had something to show people and kind of hit the ground running in that way. We had all been in bands before and we had all had that awkward phase of being in new bands and having just a Facebook page and maybe a photo and maybe a logo and saying like ‘Hey Guys come like our band page please’ so we thought we would skip that whole awkward stage and be like ‘Hey, we have a well produced single and here’s a music video, we’ve got an EP in the works and here is stuff people can connect with’ you know, offer some value up front.
How did the band first get together?
Anthony: The original two was Rodney and I. We formed in the ashes of our old band, Black Mayday.
Connor: I knew Anthony and Rodney through Black Mayday, I had played with them in my first band which was called Cyanide Teeth, So I knew of them and I thought they were cool dudes. Anthony posted a thing on Facebook saying hey me and Rodney are trying to start a new band, we need a drummer and a bassist. So I reached out and had a jam with them.
Where did the name Triple Kill come from? Is it a game reference?
Anthony: Yeah pretty much, essentially yes *laughs*
Connor: We were kind of spit balling ideas. You had a tentative name kind of prepared when I joined, which was Bear King. But it sounded too much like someone with a Jamaican accent saying Baking. So we couldn’t un-hear that so we ended up making a thread in the band’s discussion page on Facebook and Anthony pitched Triple Kill among some other shit, everyone was spamming random ideas and when Anthony pitched Triple Kill we all went F**k that’s got a really nice ring to it.
So you guys are well known for your highly amusing and clever film clips and promo videos, who comes up with the concept for those? Is it a group effort?
Connor: Coming up with the ideas is usually a group thing, they usually just come out of conversations and just dumb jokes and stuff at practice and then I go away and write them into a script. Or occasionally I’ll have an idea and I will pitch it like I will say guys I have got this idea and I will write a script and send it to them and if it gets the OK I will go ahead with it. Then I shoot and direct them and edit them and get them out on the interwebs. We are actually shooting our next video this weekend, so there will be new video this weekend.
Anthony: Can I just give a little shout out for that actually; I spent this weekend preparing a prop for that music video next weekend, with a quite well known and highly talented Astrokerrie Cosplay so we put a lot of effort into this one. .
Connor; Oh dude it is f**king unreal, I had the idea for this thing and I had no idea how we were going to pull it off and Anthony was like I know this Astrokerrie girl and I was like ok. And he was sending progress shots all Sunday and it was just like every single one was like oh my god, he is bringing this completely insane bullshit vision to life, like I can’t wait for people to see it and for people to just go wow someone actually put f**king effort into this ludicrous idea.
You guys have played gigs with a list of really great bands, who are some bands that you really enjoy gigging with?
Anthony: I reckon my favourite band that we have gigged with so far is probably Valhalore.
Connor: Yeah that has been good, so that has been three times we’ve played with them now?
Anthony: Yep, they have been really cool. And Beast Impaler from Canberra, those guys are solid.
Connor: Are they from Sydney? Oh f**k I think they are from Canberra. They are really cool. We’ve been lucky to play, pretty much every line up we’ve played we have been like f**k yeah this is local bucket list stuff like the fact that we got to play with Orpheus Omega in the first year of being in the band was like bucket list shit for me.
Anthony: Yeah they probably take the top of my list now that I think about it, like that’s a band I have listened to since I was 14.
Connor: And getting to share the stage with Trigger a couple of times has been great, we are really good mates with those guys and we have a good time with them. We’ve been really lucky to play with heaps of bands we really like.
Your EP, The First Kill was released in July 2017 and you guys are now currently working on your debut album? You must be excited about that?
Connor: Yeah that’s right yep.
Anthony: We couldn’t be more excited about anything. It is taking up all of our lives and has been since the start of the year.
Connor: Yeah since the start of the year really, we started writing stuff for it last year. And then kind of really had to kick it into overdrive to get it written and ready in time because we have set ourselves a pretty tight deadline. And it has just got more and more hectic but it has been amazing the whole time like it is just we are all so excited for it and the closer it gets to a release date, it is more exciting as we are going.
Anthony: Yeah it is also a really unspoken thing like people have all these goals in a lifetime that they want to to reach where people feel satisfied in their career and in their lives like getting married and stuff like that. I think that this has definitely been the biggest milestone for me since I was a wee little boy was just having an album; Putting out an album.
Connor: I think that would be the case for all of the boys in the band, I think I can safely speak for all of us. Like we have all been in bands before and had singles and EPs and stuff out but to have a full length album under our belt is really exciting.
So will it be released digitally, on CD and Vinyl or cassette?
Connor: CD yeah 100%. Vinyl if we have the budget for it, even just a small run for the diehards. At the moment only thing that is 100% is the CD’s.
Anthony: And digital for sure.
Connor: Oh yeah no, we are skipping digital, we think its passé.
So who are some of the bands biggest influences?
Anthony: So I will speak from a guitar point of view so I will speak for Mackie in a sense as well. It is pretty obvious that Mackie loves his Pantera. And that comes out in a lot of our groovier tunes. Personally I’m an Iron Maiden and Brendon Small kind of fan and you can really feel the difference between a Mackie solo and an Anthony solo where Mackie has got this really chromatic groovy vibe from listening to all that Dimebag and then I have got like the pentatonic love machine from Dave Murray *laughs*
Connor: In terms of all of us, I think I can speak for definitely Mackie as well when I say Lamb Of God; Being kind of the uber groove metal band. They are groovy as f**k. I love them to death. But yeah I don’t know, our individual influences are so varied, we bring a bit of everything into our sound. The EP was very in terms of its sound and what we tried to do with each song. The album is a whole other beast it is even more varied but at the same time somehow more cohesive so it is a wild one. It is going to be a wild ride for a lot of people I think.
I definitely hear a bit of a Thrash metal influences especially with some of the vocals on the EP…
Connor: I think that comes through without wanting to spoil anything, I think that Thrashy kind of vibe comes through even more on some of these new tracks for sure.
Anthony: Yeah definitely, with some of the songs on this album Thrash metal would be the only words that you would use to describe it. And the way the Rodney pulled it off vocally is it is just I don’t understand it, it is amazing and I didn’t know he had it inside of him.
Connor: Yeah.
Rodney is such a good boy though isn’t he? *laughing* (Check out Triple Kill’s promo videos to get this joke…)
Anthony: He is such a good boy.
Connor: He is the best boy.
Anthony: Can we just talk about him for the rest of the night?
Connor: Yeah *laughs*
Melbourne has some super talented local bands, who are some of your favourites that you’d like to give a plug to?
Connor: Aw man, first off, yeah Melbourne’s bands are f**king world class. Like we have already talked about Orpheus and Trigger and stuff. The Cryptic Abyss guys have been really good to us. I would like to shout out Primitive, those dudes are really lovely dudes, there tunes are really cool and they have a unique earthy sound and vibe. Like Gojira meets early Machine Head.
Anthony: I think in terms of Melbourne Metal bands there is a band going around called Child, they are a bit of a Zeppelin worship stoner kind of hard rock metal band, and I didn’t even know they were from Melbourne for the longest time, I was just listening to their music and they are pretty damn solid.
So you guys clearly have a great sense of humor and ability to make other laugh, what’s something that makes you laugh?
Connor: In terms of what we were talking about with our videos and stuff earlier, a big influence with how I go about editing and something that always makes me laugh is there’s a sketch show by Tim and Eric, called Awesome show, great job. It’s really bizarre, really f**king weird, not for everyone but I love it. I find it f**king hilarious. In terms of snappy dialog and stuff I can’t go past It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. That show is f**king gold.
Anthony: The things that get me are really dead pan Dad jokes, really bad, really rough puns as well. Jokes that are not funny, but because I deliver them and everybody hates me for it, it’s hilarious. And excuse my language but poo humor. I was born without an off switch to laugh about anything about poo, like I will giggle because I will sometime randomly remember a poo joke from like 4 years ago *laughs*
Connor: Few things are like as weirdly enchanting but at the same time menacing as when Anthony has just made really bad pun or Dad joke at you. Like he gets this sick thrill out of like watching you just go “Oh what the f**k Anthony!? “ It’s unreal, it is golden, if you are ever blessed with a Commane pun, consider yourself lucky.
Do you have any gigs coming up; I think I read something about a September gig?
Anthony: In September on the 22nd we are playing at Metal United World Wide in Wagga Wagga, of all places cos why not.
Connor: They asked us to headline. We got the email and said we’d like to shoot you a headlining offer and we all went like that’s a typo, no way would they want us to headline. And we were like we are really sorry that you had to come to us for a headline but yeah sure we will take it *laughs* Wagga Wagga is just north of Canberra.
Anthony: Fortunately here are some really nice people putting on some shows in the future, to make sure Canberra isn’t boring anymore.
Connor: Yeah shout out to Karl French he has been doing very good things in Canberra and trying to keep that whole place from being a dead zone.
So I’m going to fire some quick questions at you both now.
Out of all of you, who is the funniest?
Anthony: Rodney.
Connor: I think in terms of who is effortlessly funny, Rodney.
Anthony: I think in terms of putting in effort it is easily Connor.
Who has the best hair?
Connor: Anthony!
Anthony: Connor *laughs*
Connor: *laughing* ha ha ha yeah. No Anthony has the best hair in the band for sure. That is undisputed.
Who is the most serious?
Connor: At a glance you’d say Mackie. But I don’t know I think we are all on equal footing there in terms of how unserious we are; we’re a living joke *laughs*
Who is the biggest nerd?
Anthony: What is your definition of a nerd? *laughs*
Connor: I would say in terms of who has the most, cos we are all big f**king dorks, I would say either Efun or Rodney or no man maybe you! We are nerds on different levels, like Efun listens to weird J pop shit and heavy into some real deep nerdy shit. Anthony actually LARPs (Live Action Role Play)
Anthony: Yeah I go to Canada for LARPs.
Connor: He leaves the country for LARPs, he plays star wars D & D, we all play D & D pretty much, Rodney just loves his anime, like we are all a bunch of sweaty nerds really.
Anthony: Mackie is the secret nerd…
Connor: He doesn’t keep it a secret but looking at him you wouldn’t have him pegged for that.
Who parties the hardest?
Anthony: Probably Conner.
Connor: yeah I think it’s me! Every time I am out, I am usually out the latest.
Anthony: It is either Conner because he is always partying or Rodney because when he is partying there is some stupid story about how he forgets how to eat and people have to help feed him.
Connor: Yeah ok, I party the hardest, Rodney parties the funniest.
What does the future hold for Triple Kill?
Anthony: Yeah well first of all we are going to take over the world, and then we are going to repurpose all army equipment for recycling in the ocean, getting rid of all the plastic then when we have everybody on our side we are going to go full Elon Musk and just call out every world leader.
Connor: Realistically? All of that….No, we will have this album out definitely before they year is out end of the year. We definitely wanted to have it out within a year of the EP, or there about, we are well on track to achieve that. Next year were really looking at international tour, hopefully Japan. So that is on the cards.
Anthony: We are also looking to get some international support shows, we haven’t got anything lined p at the moment but that is one thing we are really eager on, and we are hungry enough to satisfy that.
Connor: We recently got to play Max Watts, a venue in Melbourne that is quite big, the biggest crowd we have played to and that was kind of like a oh man I hope we get to do that some day and the fact we got to do that within a year and a bit of being active was really cool. I think we are really on track, I wouldn’t be surprised if we manage to land an international tour support show, even if it was just Melbourne. I wouldn’t be surprised if we manage to swing one of those. I think we have managed to prove to the right people that we pull a crowd and we put on a good show and we really deliver and go out of our way to entertain and make sure the time spent with us is worth it for everyone involved.
Anthony: And if that fails then we will probably start a sitcom, a Triple Kill Sitcom…
I would totally watch that!
Triple Kill are not only extremely talented musicians, but they are some of the funniest guys I have ever had the pleasure of interviewing. If you haven’t already, you simply must check out their film clips and promo videos on YouTube and on their Facebook page. Make sure you follow them on Facebook for some really exciting announcements for album release dates and more upcoming gigs.